Ethics/Legal
It guarantees freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom to peaceably assemble, freedom to petition the government for redress of grievances and freedom of religion.
What is the 1st Amendment?
The style in which letters and numbers are presented. Also known as a typeface.
What is font?
An overused statement that lacks imagination.
What is a cliché?
This declares four principles as the foundation of ethical journalism and encourages their use in its practice by all people in all media.
What is the SPJ code of ethics?
A format of journalistic writing in which information is provided in descending order of importance. The higher a fact is in the copy, the more valuable the writer thinks it is.
What is the inverted pyramid?
A false published statement that damages a person’s reputation.
What is libel?
A secondary headline element that goes beneath the main head and elaborates or augments it.
What is a deck?
A form of sentence structure that places the subject in a position in which it is performing the action of the verb.
What is active voice?
A person used within a story whose identity is not known to the journalists publishing the content.
What is an anonymous source?
A place within a story where a writer raises an issue of interest, but doesn’t provide readers with enough information to satisfy that interest.
What is a hole?
The right of media professionals to use copyrighted material without the permission of the copyright holder for educational and information processes.
What is fair use?
A web coding process that determines how much information will appear at the top of the browser’s window bar.
What is a title tag?
A collection of words that could be replaced with a clearer, shorter set of words or single word. These are often vague or fail to make a direct point.
What is circumlocution?
A standard of publication that asks if people in the audience would be able to eat a meal while consuming the content presented to them.
What is the breakfast test?
A writing approach in which a journalist covers a broader issue from a local angle.
What is localization?
A legal standard that allows writers to publish commentary that uses humor and ridicule to draw attention to topics of public interest without fear of libel, as long as a reasonable person could not believe the content to be true.
A headline treatment that displays a few words in large bold type.
What is a hammer?
A word or phrase that softens language in an attempt to be less direct or harsh.
What is an euphemism?
An agreement between a source and a journalist to conduct an interview in which the source will not be identified within the story.
What is off the record?
A poor journalistic practice in which every piece of information a writer gathered is wedged into a piece of copy.
What is notebook emptying?
A four-part test used to differentiate fact from opinion in cases of libel. It is named after the 1984 court case Ollman v. Evans.
What is the Ollman Test?
The spacing between individual letters or characters
What is kerning?
The creation of a noun from an adjective.
What is nominalization?
An ethical standard that attempts to create the largest overall benefit through the minimization of harm or the maximization of gain, regardless of the impact on specific individuals involved in the dilemma.
What is utilitarianism?
The speed at which a reader can move through a story on the basis of how it is structured. This speed is also influenced by the use of punctuation and the length of sentences in the piece.
What is pace?