Quiz for Citizen Journalists
Answer Key Below
Below you can find the answers to "Quiz for Citizen Journalists" -- just scroll down and find which ones you got wrong. Then you can explore the rest of the site.
- A "fact" is:
- Something I know to be true.
- Dependent on the circumstances.
- Established through research.
- Completely subjective.
- What is the purpose of a citizen journalism story?
- To gain attention for the writer.
- To further an agenda, political or otherwise.
- To create a well-informed community.
- To rival professional journalism.
- What's the difference between advocacy and reporting?
- Reporting is always objective.
- There is none; everything is advocacy.
- Reporting contains no analysis.
- Advocacy leads the reader, reporting does not.
- It is acceptable (and legal) to:
- Quote an entire story from elsewhere, as long as you give credit.
- To use someone else's work without credit, as long as you have changed it a little.
- To quote a public speech in its entirety.
- To copy a photo from the web for use elsewhere.
- It is acceptable to:
- Deceive someone in the interest of the story.
- Use photos taken in public without getting authorization.
- Take pictures through someone's window, as long as you are on the street.
- Hide your sources, so someone else can't get the story.
- For the purposes of dramatizing a story, one may:
- Leave out the boring parts.
- Alter a photograph, as long as it doesn't distort the story.
- Focus on salacious details.
- Take a personal approach.
- How much should you trust a first-person account of an incident?
- Completely. They were there, weren't they?
- Only if you trust the teller.
- Not at all. Everything is subjective.
- Only when it dovetails with other information.
- Should you let subjects of stories see them before publication?
- Never. They might demand changes, biasing the story.
- Whenever possible.
- Only if there is a "he said/she said" aspect.
- Always. A story should never go out without permission from the subject.
- Statistics...
- Should be taken at face value. They are numbers, after all.
- come after lies, and damned lies.
- need to be approached with caution: they can fool you.
- Are no concern to the citizen journalist.
- What special rights does a citizen journalist have?
- All of those granted to any journalist.
- None. Journalism itself is a right of the people.
- Special entry to government buildings and access to officials.
- Protection of sources, guaranteed by the federal government.
