Writers and Editors

Guest post by William H. Reid

 

Small group presentations are sometimes best served by good mic/speaker combinations, not just a mic.

(1) SIMPLE, EFFECTIVE, CHEAP.

Consider a "teacher's microphone" (also used by tour guides) with a small speaker worn around the neck or clipped to a pocket. Check them out on Amazon & elsewhere for $25 to $75. The mic is usually a "head mic" with a light headset and a little microphone placed near the side of the mouth, connected (sometimes wirelessly) to a small speaker worn around your neck. Battery operated (usually rechargeable), hands-free, self-contained, easy to walk around. ZOWEETEK makes several and sells one with very good ratings on Amazon for $35.80. There are many others.

(2) LESS SIMPLE, NOT SELF-CONTAINED, MORE VOLUME, BETTER SOUND.

If you're planning to stand in one place, such as at a podium, you'll need a mic (and maybe a mic stand if you don't want to hold the mic), a simple speaker/amplifier, and a cable to connect them Read More 

Useful for journalists and the sources they need to find.

• Anewstip: Connect with global media influentials. A one-stop PR platform that helps entrepreneurs, PR professionals and marketers search for relevant media contacts (journalists, editors, etc.)
• Cision (formerly PR Newswire): Offers a media database and journalist query service.(formerly PR Newswire)
• ExpertClick (slightly different format) Connecting experts with the news media
• Expertise Finder Search engine to help journalists find university-based subject experts and sources for interviews and articles.
• Gorkana (Cision One) Provides media intelligence, including journalist queries and alerts.

• Media Kitty (disappeared on me)
• Muck Rack Combines journalist queries along with media monitoring and analytics. Optimize your media relations with easy-to-use PR software
• PitchRate Free PR leads. A free PR tool that connects journalists and the highest rated experts.
• Qwoted  Connects journalists with expert sources for media requests. "Suddenly, Connected."
• ResponseSource A media database and journalist request service that makes it easy to connect with the media in the UK and Ireland.
• SourceBottle Find a source. Be a source.
• Yearbook of Experts Experts, authorities, and spokespersons.

Any more to list (with links)?

 

Source: Jmcolbert at aol dot com (on ASJA discussion group)

A pre-election reform plan for the media

 

You can read the full Media & Democracy article here.

The following are just the headlines.

 

COVER ELECTIONS LIKE THEY MATTER MORE THAN SPORTS SCORES

Prioritize substantive coverage of the issues that matter to voters' lives.
Make headlines accurate and informative, not clickbait.
Stop making predictions and pushing polls at the expense of issues coverage.
Celebrate and uplift election workers, voters, and the election process.
Don't set aside moral judgment when covering obvious lies and bigotry.
Hold politicians to account for their positions, statements, and behavior, as well as those of their party's leader.
 

MAKE THREATS TO DEMOCRACY CLEAR

Inform voters of the freedoms they will lose if the MAGA movement wins.
Abandon false equivalence between traditional and fascistic candidates. 
Expose candidates who foment political violence.
Call out lies and bad behavior in every piece of reporting.
Prominently cover the Big Lie-fueled attack on election legitimacy and voting rights.
 

PROTECT AMERICANS FROM DISINFORMATION

Avoid euphemisms that conceal and normalize extremism.
Explain that disinformation by MAGA is a strategy. Read More 

Originally published 5-7-24

As you may recall, law enforcement officers in a rural Kansas county raided the offices and homes of the editors of a local newspaper, seizing electronic newsgathering equipment and reporting materials -- resulting in a nationwide uproar over the threats to our First Amendment principles of a free press. Following are some articles about the incident.

---A conversation with the newspaper owner raided by cops (Marisa Kabas, The Handbasket, 8-12-23) Eric Meyer says his paper had been investigating the police chief, Gideon Cody, prior to the raids on his office and home. They did so because of a complaint by a local restaurant owner named Kari Newell. [This is the piece that took the story viral.]

---How a small-town feud in Kansas sent a shock through American journalism  Read More 

Notes from an interactive New York Times Opinion piece

See it for specific dates, photos, and fuller copy

 

"For Americans who may have forgotten that time, or pushed it from memory, we offer this timeline of his presidency. Mr. Trump's first term was a warning about what he will do with the power of his office — unless American voters reject him."

 

Check out the article, click on headlines there for full copy, and see abundant photos here: Donald Trump's First Term (NY Times, 7-18-24). As you read, picture what was happening when he says or does the following (lines from the Times article, my bolds added):

 

(2017) What Trump does or says...
Jan.     "This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration — period."

           Tries to defund sanctuary cities in an effort to ramp up deportations.

           The Muslim ban. In an executive order, Mr. Trump, without warning, closes the Read More 

Updated 1-17-25

"Democracy is a team sport, we are all in the starting lineup, & every day is game day."~ Indivisible

 

• Justices rule Trump has some immunity from prosecution (Amy Howe, SCOTUS blog, 7-1-24) "In a historic decision, a divided Supreme Court on Monday ruled that former presidents can never be prosecuted for actions relating to the core powers of their office, and that there is at least a presumption that they have immunity for their official acts more broadly.
     "The decision left open the possibility that the charges brought against former President Donald Trump by Special Counsel Jack Smith – alleging that Trump conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 election – can still go forward to the extent that the charges are based on his private conduct, rather than his official acts.
     "The case now returns to the lower courts for them to determine whether the conduct at the center of the charges against Trump was official or unofficial – an inquiry that, even if it leads to the conclusion that the charges can proceed, will almost certainly further delay any trial in the case, which had originally been scheduled to begin on March 4, 2024 but is currently on hold."

 Read More 

For those catching up on this story:

 

• The WikiLeaks saga (Video report,The Guardian, 6-24-24) Julian Assange returns to Australia a free man after US espionage charge in Saipan court.

Links to many related stories on this website page!

• Julian Assange returns to Australia a free man after US espionage charge – video report  (The Guardian, 6-26-24)

      The WikiLeaks founder has walked free from a court in the US Pacific island territory of Saipan after pleading guilty to violating US espionage law, in a deal that left him free to return home to Australia and brought an end to an extraordinary 14-year legal saga.

      Stella Assange, addressing reporters after her husband's arrival in Canberra, said: 'It took millions of people, people working behind the scenes, people protesting on the streets for days and weeks and months and years ... and we achieved it.' How freedom for Julian Assange is a quiet triumph for Anthony Albanese

     ‘He needs time’: wife pleads for privacy as Julian Assange reunited with family after landing in Australia.

 
• What to Know About Julian Assange and His Plea Deal (gift link, Glenn Thrush, NY Times, 6-25-24) The deal ends a period of confinement that lasted about a dozen years, first in the self-exile of the Ecuadorean embassy in London, then in prison.

 

• A Timeline of Julian Assange’s Legal Saga (gift link, Charlie Savage, NY Times, 6-24-24) A plea deal brought an abrupt end to an extraordinary legal saga that has raised novel issues of national security, press freedoms, politics and diplomacy.

 

• What Does Julian Assange's Indictment Under the Espionage Act Mean for Journalism? (Ofer Raban, Pacific Standard, 5-28-19) Originally published in The Conversation (5-25-19) as Assange’s new indictment: Espionage and the First Amendment What goes for Assange may also go for any person who obtains or discloses classified information—even journalists.

• The Constitutional Rubicon of an Assange Prosecution (Elizabeth Goitein, Just Security, 5-9-17) 'In general, an employee who signs a non-disclosure agreement in order to gain access to classified government information may be prosecuted for leaking that information. Drawing the line between those who leak classified information and those who publish it thus makes constitutional sense in a way that drawing the line between “good” publishers and “bad” publishers does not....Allowing the FBI to determine who is allowed to publish leaked information based on the bureau’s assessment of their patriotism would cross a constitutional Rubicon. If that giant step were to become a precedent, it could very well spell the end of independent, objective national security reporting.'

• Inchoate Liability and the Espionage Act: The Statutory Framework and the Freedom of the Press (Stephen Vladeck, Harvard Law and Policy Review, 2007, via Digital Commons) Parsing of the statutory text, and why it raises a First Amendment issue in cases like Julian Assange and Wikileaks.

• Julian Assange (Wikipedia)

• Assange's arrest was designed to make sure he didn't press a mysterious panic button he said would bring dire consequences for Ecuador ( Alexandra Ma, Business Insider, 4-12-19) WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange was dramatically arrested and carried out of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London on Thursday. British and Ecuadorian authorities engineered the timing and nature of the raid to stop Assange from accessing a panic button he mentioned in the past, Ecuador's foreign minister said. Specifics on the button — or what it might do — are sparse, but the foreign minister said Assange had said it could bring dire consequences for Ecuador. Ecuadorian officials have accused Assange of accessing the government's security files, playing music loudly, and having no regard for personal hygiene during his stay at the embassy.

• Julian Assange: the teen hacker who became insurgent in information war (David Leigh and Luke Harding, The Guardian, 1-30-11) The colourful lives and experiences that shaped underground rebel Julian Assange on the road to WikiLeaks luminary. This story is old (from 2011).

---

• Sixteen Things Writers Should Know About Quoting From Letters (Mark Fowler, Rights of Writers, 2-2011, which discusses various scenarios)
       "Are you the sender of the letter or the recipient? 'If I send you a letter, unless I have an agreement with you to the contrary, I continue to own the copyright. As the recipient of the letter, you own the letter itself -- the paper and ink.'

      "As the recipient of the letter, you cannot publish the entirety of the letter without my consent, with limited exceptions, which he spells out).
      "If the author of a letter dies, an estate or descendant of the letter writer can grant permission to reprint a letter only if it also inherited copyright and not just the physical letter.
      "On the other hand, the philosophy of fair use in the quotation of letters and other source materials is neatly summed up in this quotation from The Chicago Manual of Style:

    "Fair use is use that is fair--simply that....The right of fair use is a valuable one to scholarship, and it should not be allowed to decay through the failure of scholars to employ it boldly."
     "Ultimately in the Wright case, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals clarified that some amount of quotation from unpublished works, such as letters and diaries, can qualify as fair use. Congress then codified this finding by amending Section 107 of the Copyright Act to add this sentence: 'The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors.' "

• Don’t Burn Your Family Letters When You Declutter (Amy Johnson Crow)

• To read or not to read? How to handle a deceased family member’s personal letters (Dawn Roode, Modern Heirloom Books, 5-27-24) Discovering a stack of handwritten letters can feel like winning the family history lottery—but is it always the right thing to read (or share) them?

• Are you weighed down by the stuff of your family’s memories? (Dawn Roode, Modern Heirloom Books,5-27-24) Do you have sentimental boxes of family mementos you don’t know what to do with?

• What Is the Federal Law for Opening Mail Not Addressed to You? (The Law Dictionary) Most people know that it’s illegal to open mail that is addressed to someone else. In fact, there is a federal law that makes it a crime to do so. However, the law only applies under very specific circumstances. To help determine if it’s lawful, take a look at the reasons listed for opening mail not addressed to you.

 

• Ethics, Etiquette and Old Family Letters (Denise May Levenick, The Family Curator, 4-6-18) When it comes to genealogy and reading other people’s mail, ethics and etiquette are two sides of the same coin. Is it morally correct (ethical) to read other people’s mail? Is it socially acceptable (proper etiquette) to do so?

• How to Preserve Old Letters (Amy Johnson Crow, video, 19 minutes) Denise Levenick, the Family Curator, provides tips on preservation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Collections_of_letters

 

Miscellaneous resources about letters and postcards:
• Letters of Note
• Grandpa's Postcards (Jana Last's Family History and Genealogy blog)

Many writers mistakenly lower-case short words in titles, even verbs (which are often tiny)

General rules (which vary somewhat according to style guides):

---In titles, do capitalize nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, the first and last words in a title and (per most style guides) words with four or more letters.

---In titles, don't capitalize (do lowercase) articles, conjunctions, short prepositions, and many words with three or fewer words.

---Major style guides: MLA Style and Chicago Manual of Style (for books), AP Style (for newspapers, etc.), and various other specialty style guides

Mind you, some publications use mostly lower-case in their titles (e.g.,

 

• How I Found Out I had Pancreatic Cancer   [problem words are highlighted in red--they should be capitalized]

     Good video, but "had," a verb, should be capitalized.

 

• The Basic Problem for Authors who write More than One Book
• There are Three Ways To Create Evergreen Links 

      "Are" (a verb, the plural of "is") should be capitalized; "to" is one of the short prepositions not capitalized in the middle of a title.

• This is Why Book Marketing Doesn't Work
• What is Memory Care and How Much Should it Cost? (Assisted Living Today)   

• California's Collusion with a Texas Timber Company Let Ancient Redwoods be Clearcut

• What is AI and How Can Writers Use It?

      "Is," a verb, should be capitalized. All forms of "to be" should be capitalized when a title is capitalized.

 

• Top 10 Chronic Conditions in Adults 65+ and What You Can do to Prevent or Manage Them

• What do Anti-Freelancer Laws Mean for Independent Journalists?
     "Do" is as important as "Prevent" or "Manage" -- and it's a verb, so it should be capitalized.

• Is Plagiarism Illegal? What are the Legal Consequences? (Plagiarism.com)

---Is it Plagiarism to Pay Someone to Write for Me? (Plagiarism.com)  "It" is small but it's important.

• Your Story is More Important Than You Think You'd be surprised how many organizations get this one wrong.

•  An Air Force Career Held up Because of Debt Owed for Medical Bills

•  Who Calls and Where they are Referred

•  What is the Market Rate?

•  The Secret Donald Trump is No Secret

•  Words and Phrases that Make it Obvious You Used ChatGPT ("it" is a pronoun)
•  Telling the Stories of Life through Guided Autobiography Groups, a book by James E. Birren and Kathryn N. Cochran.

     Capitalization of ‘through’ in a title follows certain style rules. In Chicago, MLA, and APA styles, ‘through’ should be capitalized as it’s more than four letters. But according to AP style, ‘through’ is considered a preposition and isn’t typically capitalized unless it’s the first or last word. AP style is for journalists, and this is a book, and "through" is more than four letters, so most book publishers would capitalize it in a title. [This is why, when you hire an editor, you should hire one who is familiar with the style for whatever product you want edited--newspaper-style or book-style.]  See Is “through” Capitalized in a Title?

• What is Typesetting and Why Does it Matter? (Michele DeFilippo, Ingram Spark) See Ingram Spark's useful online guide How to Design a Book.

    They should add a paragraph on capitalizing small important words.
• Who Calls and Where they are Referred

   

 

Find explanations here: Capitalization

Including whether to capitalize "black" for Negro.

The rule is NOT "Capitalize all the big words."

Many authors wrongly lower-case "be" and "is" and "are" and "am" and "up" and "do" in titles, but if you are fully capitalizing titles, all verbs, including all forms of the verb "to be"  and "to do" should be capitalized. "Is" and "it" should both be capitalized. Why?

• Capitalize brand names. For example, whiskey and cola but Seagram's and Coca-Cola

 

• What is phishing? How to recognize and avoid phishing scams | (NortonLifeLock) Phishing is a con game. Phishers are tech-savvy con artists and identity thieves who use spam, fake websites, emails, phone calls and instant messages to trick people into divulging sensitive information like passwords or account numbers. How to avoid them and what to do if you've been the victim of a phishing scam.
---Three common types of phishing scams (Government of Canada) The “free vacation” scam, the “fake government message” scam, and the “gift card” scam, plus The 7 red flags of phishing and How to keep yourself safe

---20 types of phishing attacks + examples and prevention tips (Clare Stouffer, Norton)
---Phishing email examples to help you identify phishing scams ( Dan Rafter, Norton)
---Spear phishing: Definition + protection tips (Ellie Farrier, CNBC)

• How to Recognize and Avoid Phishing Scams (Federal Trade Commission) Scammers use email or text messages to trick you into giving them your personal and financial information. But there are several ways to protect yourself. How to recognize phishing, how to protect yourself from phishing attacks, what to do if you suspect a phishing attack, how to do if you responded to a phishing email, and how to report phishing. 

• Beware the “your domain has exceeded its disk quota“ Phishing Email (Nate Hoffelder, 6-5-24) One common feature shared by many hosting companies is that they will send automated emails if there is a problem with your account. Scammers know this, which is why they started sending out fake emails with warnings like “WARNING: the domain BLANK has exceeded its disk quota”. The scam email in fact looks almost exactly like the real email, so much so that I even thought it was real, and tried to solve the problem it reported. What the scammers want you to do is click a link in the email and enter your username and password.

• Phishing prevention and email hygiene (especially 2FA) (Harlo Holmes, Director of Digital Security, Freedom of the Press Foundation, 8-4-21) Most people are hacked via phishing attacks. Phishing is a social-engineering attack where an adversary crafts an email (or text, app message) in such a way to trick you into divulging information that could be used against you or your network; gain access to, and ultimately commandeer your account; or introduce malware and/or viruses to your machine. One of the most important advances in credential security is two-factor authentication.

      Two-factor authentication (or “2FA”) relies on the idea that services are more secure if you access them with something you know (i.e., your passphrase), and something you have (i.e. physical access to your phone). Turn on two-factor authentication for any and all services that you can, starting with your Gmail account. Better yet, get a security key, a small device that you either plug into your computer, or connect to your phone wirelessly, if it supports NFC, to enable this securely.

• What Is Two-Factor Authentication? (Brain Station) Links to subtopics along left side.

• What Is a Security Key? (HYPR) A security key, also known as a security token, is a physical device used for two-factor authentication (2FA) or multi-factor authentication (MFA) to enhance the security of online accounts and systems. Security keys are secondary hardware devices that rely on a primary device, such as a workstation, application or laptop. 80% of data breaches are the result of compromised login credentials. Security keys can help prevent data breaches by adding an extra layer of authentication while reducing the risk of unauthorized access to sensitive accounts and systems.  

• The Most Common Types of Cyber Security Attacks (Bill Jefferson, Top VPN Canada) How they work and steps you can take to protect yourself against: Socially engineered trojans, malware, phishing, mining cryptocurrencies viruses, AI-powered attacks, denial-of-service attacks (DDoS), man-in-the-middle attacks (aka session hijacking). "One way to protect yourself would be to use a premium VPN service to mask your IP and hide your location, in conjunction with a good firewall and antivirus."

    I recall receiving an "email from PayPal, which looked legit and stated that my account had been frozen and that I needed to click on the link and log in to report the problem. The only issue is that the link directs you to a phishing website, where your information is stolen. The only way to avoid this is never to open emails or click on links without verifying the sender. For example, if you get an email from PayPal, don't click on the link in the email but visit the website by typing in the address manually."

• Defending Against Ransomware A Resource Guide from the PCI Security Standards Council.  30%of users open phishing emails, and more than 12 percent click on their attachments. Phishing emails are a common delivery vehicle for ransomware. These emails look legitimate, such as an invoice or electronic fax, but they include malicious links and/or attachments that can infect your computer and system. Criminals are attacking businesses with a type of malware that holds business-critical systems and data hostage until a sum of money is received. See additional resources in PCI's Document Library.