E-book on plagiarism, fabrication released in advance of summit
By ACES Staff
The American Copy Editors Society, in conjunction with 10 other journalism organizations, has released its first e-book, “Telling the Truth and Nothing But,” in advance of the National Summit to Fight Plagiarism and Fabrication on April 5.
“Telling the Truth and Nothing But” is designed for media professionals who are responding to incidents of plagiarism and fabrication. The book offers tools to help identify and address those incidents.
“We’re very proud to be releasing this book to members of the media and larger communications industry,” said Bill Connolly, a former ACES board member, retired senior editor of The New York Times and contributing author of “Telling the Truth and Nothing But.” “The issue of plagiarism is very serious but by taking the proper steps and understanding how to address it, we can work together to overcome this challenge in our field.”
In September, ACES issued an invitation to several journalism organizations to develop resources for newsrooms to help combat plagiarism, obfuscation and fabrication. The issue was raised by Poynter Institute’s Craig Silverman in a Regret the Error blog. Silverman cited cases in which journalists and media groups with good reputations were guilty of plagiarizing, falsifying information, faking bylines and reporting inaccurate or unverified information.
Within a month of Silverman’s challenge, work was under way on “Telling the Truth and Nothing But” and the summit, which is being held in St. Louis during ACES national conference. In total, 23 volunteers donated their time to bring the book to the media.
Organizations represented are the Society of Professional Journalists, Canadian Association of Journalists, Online News Association, American Society of News Editors, Associated Press Media Editors, Local Independent Online News Publishers, Radio-Television Digital News Association, Investigative Reporters and Editors, National Association of Hispanic Journalists, Asian American Journalists Association, American Copy Editors Society.
The book will be a critical part of the discussion at the annual ACES conference. The National Summit on Plagiarism and Fabrication will feature a panel discussion on the common causes of plagiarism, steps to prevent it and how to handle incidents. The summit is free of charge and open to journalists, members of the media and others working in the communications industry.
“Our goal with the e-book is to put tools in the hands of working journalists to help fight the problem,” said Teresa Schmedding, president of ACES and deputy managing editor/digital operations of the Daily Herald Media Group in suburban Chicago. “Our goal with the summit is to make sure this is the beginning of the conversation, not the end.”
Following the summit, training sessions will be held on topics including aggregation versus plagiarism, social media plagiarism and plagiarism in the classroom. Registration for the afternoon sessions is $50.
