Entertainment Journalists Scour Fan Theories for Truth
Coverage of fan theories is often one of the lowest forms of the online content grind, as entertainment journalists aggregate obviously false or misleading speculation and frame it as news. In this article for CJR, I interviewed some prominent journalists who write about Game of Thrones and other much-theorized shows to determine what makes for a good theory, and what responsibility journalists have when writing about fictional speculation.
Is It a Bird? Is It a Plane? No, It’s a Journalism Ethics Quandry!
The DC comic mini-series Heroes in Crisis featured a plot point where somebody was leaking top-secret mental health information about superheroes to Lois Lane. I interviewed the series’ writer along with some experts in journalism ethics to see how The Daily Planet‘s star reporter did when covering this trick situation.