|
Welcome to iMediaEthics, also known as StinkyJournalism.org.
History & Background:
Art Science Research Laboratory is a 501 (c)(3) not-for-profit organization that publishes iMediaEthics, along with several others sites, including art site ToutFait.Com and NASA's Astrobiology Magazine. ASRL is co-founded and directed by Rhonda Roland Shearer, an artist, art historian and adjunct journalism lecturer at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Iowa, and her late husband, Harvard professor and scientist, Stephen Jay Gould.
StinkyJournalism.org, which launched in 2004, has consistently been ranked in Alexa's top 20 most visited news media watchdogs for the past year based on statistics from Alexa. In 2004, the Webby Awards named StinkyJournalism.org to its list of Webby Honorees.
In October 2011, StinkyJournalism.org underwent a website redesign and a name change. The name change reflects StinkyJournalism’s growing coverage of media standards and all aspects of media ethics. We’ll call out the media for getting it wrong, but we also want to highlight when the media gets it right.
iMediaEthics was awarded Syracuse University's Newhouse School of Public Communications' prestigious 2012 Mirror Award for Best Single Article, Digital Media for its report on a double standard in photojournalism. Read the winning article here and see below a photo of iMediaEthics' publisher and editor-in-chief Rhonda Roland Shearer accepting the award June 13, 2012.
.JPG)
iMediaEthics' publisher and editor-in-chief Rhonda Roland Shearer accepting the 2012 Mirror Award.
iMediaEthics was also named as a finalist in Editor & Publisher's 2012 EPPY Awards, Best Investigative/Enterprise Feature on a Website with under 1 million unique monthly visitors.
What’s New?
We have streamlined our Corrections, Clarifications and Editor’s Note sections. Now, every time we post a correction, clarification or editor’s note on a story, the note will also appear on a page hosting all.
Our Resources for Educators page makes it simple for readers to filter through our stories and focus on stories about a certain media outlet, journalist, or country. We also will be collecting links to news media outlets’ ethics codes. Readers may send suggestions for our blogroll and list of international news outlets’ ethics codes.
We are increasing our emphasis on media polling. Veteran pollster David Moore will continue to write bi-monthly “PollSkeptic Report” columns, in which he analyzes media polls and advocates for rigorous polling methods. In August 2011, we commissioned our first poll (to test what New Yorkers really think about bike lane expansion : see here) and we plan to continue expanding the polling branch of our site.
We have removed our “Stink-O-Gram” option because the feature was being abused.
After nearly 1000 days passed since the BBC staff selectively rearranged President Barack Obama’s quotes, we have also decided to remove our “Journalism & Ethics Breakthrough Timer.” Fred Noble, our animated news reader, has also been removed.
About our Publisher, Art Science Research Laboratory, and our Funding
Art Science Research Laboratory (ASRL) is a not-for-profit, 501 (c) (3), founded by Stephen Jay Gould, and Rhonda Roland Shearer in 1996. Initially funded with a grant from Paul Mellon, ASRL interns from various disciplines and local institutions including NYU and Columbia University work together on interdisciplinary investigative research with methods used in various fields including technology, science, law and history. The research outcomes are then applied to the creation of jointly authored publications, educational curriculum, software, web sites, physical collections and archives. The overall institutional goal for every ASRL research project is the promotion of critical thinking and ethical practice. Our research projects also emphasize personal and group achievement and the breaking of boundaries between disciplines and concepts, such as junior and senior, private and public and, especially, art and science.
Funding
Art Science Research Laboratory founding donor Paul Mellon provided the start up funds of more than 1.2 million dollars. The single donor in recent years is the co-founder, Rhonda Roland Shearer, who pays the organization’s expenses and does not receive a salary or benefits. See ASRL's accountant's letter outlining our 2010 financials. Our general policy is to post donor names when amounts given exceed $1,000.
StinkyJournalism received a $1,000 Freedom of Information grant in November 2009 from the Society of Professional Journalists.
|
