Columbia Journalism Review

In this week's Lower Case... Rutland (Vt.) Herald, 4/14/86 The Burlington (Vt.) Free Press 9/18/80 Want to see more regrettable headlines? Check out the Lower Case archives.

Executive Summary In the grim days following the mass shooting in Orlando, Florida, news commentator and retired Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Peters appeared on Fox News, saying: “Not all Muslims are terrorists, but virtually all terrorists are Muslim.” Peters’s statement represents the sort of venomous rhetoric that has emerged all too often this election. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has put an...

he use of fear as a weapon in political campaigning is long established, and often highly effective for candidates who deploy it. More often than not, spreading fear means the demonizing of a section of society: immigrants, unions, African Americans, bankers—and in this year’s US presidential election, American Muslims. The Tow Center for Digital Journalism, at the Columbia Graduate School...

n June 17, 2016, Dylann Roof entered a predominantly black church In Charleston, South Carolina, and opened fire. When he was done, nine people lay dead around him. For a few days after Roof’s grisly act, a debate raged in the media over whether the committed white supremacist and mass murderer should be considered a terrorist. Many, including The Washington...

A familiar harmony of fear and self-loathing crescendoed Wednesday after Gallup released a new survey estimating that only 32 percent of Americans trust the media, the lowest level recorded in the polling organization’s history. That number is down eight percentage points since last year, a drop Gallup blamed in part on this bad dream of a presidential campaign. The data...

Crime and corruption, troubled schools, drug epidemics, natural disasters—the news deals with some pretty discouraging subjects.  But it doesn’t have to be negative. In recent years, a movement for “solutions-oriented journalism” that highlights promising responses to social challenges has picked up steam. The Solutions Journalism Network, one of the leading advocates for the approach, has trained newsrooms around the country....

The United Nations General Assembly gets underway this week in New York, and beginning next Tuesday, 195 leaders from around the world will parade before the UN’s green marble rostrum and deliver speeches. While the General Assembly may not be the world’s most productive meeting, it cannot be denied that everyone gets to have their say. Indeed the entire UN...

Politico Magazine’s oral history of Air Force One’s nerve-racking flight after the Sept. 11 attacks is more than just a fascinating story. It’s a historical document of some of America’s darkest hours, told from the perspective of those with theoretical power to respond but no practical way to do so.  Air Force One took to the sky that day to...

Are you a female journalist who has been subject to online harassment and abuse? If so, this one’s for you. An organization dedicated to combating online harassment is seeking 100 women writers and journalists to participate in a social media monitoring program called the Pilot 100. The initiative follows on from a year-long study by the organization TrollBusters, which was...

The ranks of journalists are getting more diverse for the first time in nearly 14 years, and digital properties are outperforming legacy peers, according to a new survey by the American Society of News Editors. The survey found people of color now make up about 17 percent of newsroom staffs; the percentage hovered between 12 to 14 percent from 2002...

It started with a tip. In the fall of 2014, when Oregon officials and former Gov. John Kitzhaber were cheerleading the completion of a multimillion dollar effort to bring solar power to state university campuses, reporter Jeffrey Manning of The Oregonian learned details of the project could also use a little sunlight. During a coffeehouse meeting, a source in the...

We are thrilled to announce an expansion of the coverage of digital journalism at CJR. The Columbia Journalism Review this week kicks off a new vertical on the site focused on research from the Tow Center for Digital Journalism and other research centers.  The new section on the site, with a dedicated editor, reflects the shared commitments of CJR and...

We are thrilled to announce an expansion of the coverage of digital journalism at CJR. The Columbia Journalism Review this week kicks off a new vertical on the site focused on research from the Tow Center for Digital Journalism and other research centers.  The new section on the site, with a dedicated editor, reflects the shared commitments of CJR and...

Donald Trump has been called an “egoist,” an “egotist,” and a “narcissist,” among other things. Before you start spamming us, remember that this is a column about language, not politics. We intend to discuss the words, not the man. One publication said of Trump: “He is an egoist, unconcerned with public policy, risk-taking, verbally undisciplined.” Another columnist said that the...