Appendix A

This is ASNEs Statement of Principles laying out ethical principles in journalism.

Source: http://asne.org

Appendix B

This is the SPJs Code of Ethics, developed shortly after ASNEs, laying out similar ethical
principles.
Source: http://www.spj.org/

Appendix C

This chart shows the worlds capacity to store digital information from 1986-2007. It can be used
to follow the rise of the Digital Age.
Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/

Appendix D

and 2011 shows a clear

Figure 1: The chart above tracking print and

online advertising revenue changes between 2004
and massive drop in ad revenue for

print
newspapers
around 2009.
Source:

www.stateofthemedia.org

Figure 2: This chart documents the newspaper closures by type from 1990 to 2008.
Source: www.stateofthemedia.org
Appendix E

This graph from a 2012 Pew Research report shows where Americans get their news.
Source: www.washingtonpost.com
Appendix F

This is an info-graphic from the Newspaper Association of America documenting how

newspapers have taken advantage of the Digital Age.
Source: www.naa.org
Appendix G

Figure 1: This bar graph shows the percentage of news reporting that is considered
commentary/opinion versus the percentage of news reporting that is considered factual across
CNN, Fox and MSNBC
Source: www.pewresearch.org

Figure 2: This chart displays the percentage of total positive or negative tone used in the
election coverage to describe both Obama and Romney broken down by news network.
Source: www.pewresearch.org
Appendix H

Pelli and Bigelows 2009 study shows the charting of a path to nearly universal authorship.
Source: www.pbs.org

Appendix I

This graph from a Pew Research report shows the different online site that Americans use and
the percentage of those users that actually get news from each site.
Source: www.pewresearch.org
Appendix J
SENIOR INDEPDENENT PROJECT INTERVIEW
Interviewee: Debbie Cenziper
(Pullitzer Prize winning investigative journalist for the Washington Post)

Interview Type: Over the phone

Length of Interview: Approximately 25 minutes
Date: January 11, 2015
1. What was the Digital Ages immediate impact on newspapers?
Newspaper got caught behind because we didnt get online quickly enough and
because of that a lot of the advertisers went online. As a result of that, newspapers
had to cut staff, cut positions and cut back on what they were covering.
2. When researching for a news or investigative story, do you trust blogs or journalists not
affiliated with major broadcast stations or respected print publications as a source of
news? If so, how do you determine which ones are trustworthy and which ones are not?
I never rely on other journalists for my information. I always go to official sources.
Every newspaper reporter in the country will tell you that. As for trusting blogs,
there are plenty of bloggers out there who will cite peoples work and give them
credit. There are a lot of blogs that I know and trust as a reader outside of my job at
The Post. There are very good bloggers out there, but there are also plenty of bad
bloggers out there who arent fact checking or citing. I dont think news sources are
all or nothing. You can always combine sources and use many different ways to get
your news.

3. Does every paper have its own code of ethics or is there a nationwide code that papers
follow? In my research I came across two major codes: one from the Society of
Professional Journalists and one from the American Society of Newspaper Editors. Are
these both credible codes to follow?
The Post has a code of ethics and the code of ethics for every newspaper is going
look exactly the same with just a little bit of variation. Dont plagiarize, fact check,
objective, accurate, be fair and honest, etc, etc. What has changed that when youre
online and theres a 24-hour news cycle you have to adjust to make sure everything
is correct before putting it out there. The medium of news itself has changed with
the Internet and it has created intense challenges for journalists.

4. In your professional opinion, to what extent do you think the digital age has influenced a
devaluation of journalistic standards specifically in online news?
I dont believe that journalism has been devalued at all. Yes, things have changed.
Yes some papers have lost entire investigative staffs and copy editors. Yes it has all
been a challenge and hopefully its leveling off as we adjust to a new business model.

But I will say that online media outlets are provocative and interesting. I think
newspapers and television sources can definitely be one sided or bias toward a
specific political view, but it would have been like that before the Internet anyways.
News has always been like that. Readers have also always had favorite papers.

5. How has the Internet changed the way you get news to readers?
The challenge now is to deliver that information in fair, truthful ways. Our strategy
at the post is that you might come in the door [i.e. go to the newspapers online site]
by reading your favorite op-ed piece but we are hoping youll stay there and read
everything and that after youre done with the first article youll just keep clicking.
When I publish a big story I hope to get it out there so they hear about it on
Facebook or Twitter and once they click theyll click on more than that story.

6. In my paper, I talk about how now newspapers arent so much purveyors of news, but
instead are correctors of news. When an article comes out a day or two after the social
media frenzies, people can trust that there will be updated facts and that the articles will
clear confusion. Do you believe that the roles of newspapers have changed in this way?
Why or why not?
Because of 24-hour news cycle and all of the different entirely online news sites
creating competition, newspapers have sometimes loosened up standards. All
newspapers are now online. We have am entire team at The Post that updates our
website every few minutes. A lot of papers are very very careful about what goes
online. We want to be first and want to be right. I think there have been issues and
problems with a lot of online sites wanting to be first and not working hard enough
to be right. They dont always have the resources of copy editors or fact checkers or
deadlines. The role has changed in that weve had to move online, but we will
continue what weve always done and that is try to bring news to people.

7. Lastly, do you believe that print newspapers will eventually disappear entirely?
News and journalism will always always always be important. When people tell me
that Im working in a dying field I just dont believe them. People care about their
communities and they care about whats going on and they care about holding
people responsible if there is abuse of power or other issues like that. With stories
like that, people tend to put aside their political biases and differences and read
whatever story is out there. For example if a paper publishes a really good
investigation (I published story last year at Washington Post of peoples whose homes
were taken out from under them) people are going to want to read that stuff and
people need to read that stuff and will take that in any form they can get. A great

personal example is my parents. My parents are not journalists and are definitely
not objective. They tend to lean toward conservative sources. My dad gets news
from Fox news so he is a perfect example of people choosing sources that reinforce
their biases. But if a big story comes out his politics dont matter because he still
wants to know whats happening in his community and state and world. Thats why
I think journalism is going to survive.