Stinky Journalism is getting a new name and new website but the perennially popular media watchdog will not lose any of its bite or ability to sniff out bad journalism. The new name, iMediaEthics, and new website, iMediaEthics.org, were launched Dec. 5, 2011.  

iMediaEthics.org is an update of, and evolution from, its online predecessor, Stinky Journalism. Founded in 2004 by artist, historian and adjunct lecturer at the University of Iowa School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Rhonda Roland Shearer, Stinky Journalism's mission has been to call attention to errors in the press and to advocate for better practice in journalistic research and fact-checking.

Over the last year, Stinky Journalism has consistently ranked in Alexa.com's top 20 media watchdog sites, a list including well-known sites such as CJR.org and Adbusters, which has been credited with inspiring the Occupy Wall Street grassroots movement.

The new design is less a departure than a means of introducing new content to expand its mission and to make the website easier to navigate and use. The name change and re-design reflect StinkyJournalism's expanding coverage of media ethics news.

While StinkyJournalism's mission originally focused on investigative reports and features, since 2003, the site's focus has expanded to include daily media ethics news, case studies and more.  iMediaEthics' mission of reporting on media ethics standards and news advances StinkyJournalism's mission of calling out questionable, incorrect or unethical media practices.

iMediaEthics is now conducting its own polls, called PollCheck.

In his Poll Skeptic reports, noted polling expert and Senior Fellow with the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire David Moore examines the methodology of national media surveys and proposes more robust polling standards for news outlets.

iMediaEthics has also hired investigative journalist Malik Ayub Sumbal, whose reports will fact check U.S. media reports about Pakistan.

The Resources for Educators  section allows teachers and students easier searches to access the site's various case studies and reports. In response to new guidelines established for online news sites, iMediaEthics also offers a new corrections page and a "Report an Error" feature to allow readers to report factual errors in our stories.

iMediaEthics is part of the not-for-profit 501(c)(3), Art Science Research Laboratory, co-founded and directed by Shearer and her late husband, Harvard professor and scientist, Stephen Jay Gould. For more information, please visit Asrlab.org.