The first rule of Journalism, tell the truth - why the Courier got it wrong

Courier Friday 13 May 2011

In my view, you have to be very careful about making claims - especially if they're not entirely true. The Courier ran with this:

Elections 2011 How we broke the news first. All the local election results were first revealed on our twitter feed and on our website - make sure you follow us to get news before anyone else... @leamcourier @Warwick_Courier @Kenilworth_news

A WDC Tweet

To set the record straight, there were four groups tweeting about the WDC Election Results 2011: @Warwick_DC themselves, @Lesreidpolitics Coventry Telegraph, @leamcourier and @wiKenilworth. Warwick DC were excellent in they updated their website immediately. I then snipped their charts, put them in a folder and blogged them Election Results from Warwick District Council. 

There is no one more pleased than me to see all three Courier Newspapers using Twitter at a time when Social Media is everywhere. As I understand it, the Courier series is print first media, followed by a website when the paper sells. Their website does not allow in line links (text that links to something within a paragraph) and photos are hard to get right while there is no use of audio or video.

As we all know, the Courier and KWN newspapers are owned by Johnston Press who have been highlighted in the press last week with reports of 11% drop in advertising revenue. Note to the Courie, if you want to comment on this post - you are more than welcome.