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5 days ago | 
news-decoder.com | Marcy Burstiner
In only a handful of countries are journalists supported, protected and generally trusted. We need to change that. A clickable map of press freedom. Courtesy of Reporters Without Borders.
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1 week ago | 
news-decoder.com | Marcy Burstiner
When you ask questions about problems people have long accepted you come across as naive. Own that. Three teens wear badges that say “naive”.
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1 month ago | 
news-decoder.com | Marcy Burstiner
Can youth doing journalism help save local news media? Unfortunately, this isn’t a rhetorical question. The crisis around the world for local news outlets is so dire, people who understand the importance of unbiased news at the local level are looking for any and all solutions to save the industry. This is a worldwide phenomenon. Data collected by researcher Amy Watson in August 2023, for example, found that more news outlets in the UK closed than were launched.
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Feb 28, 2025 | 
news-decoder.com | Marcy Burstiner
The more complicated an issue is, the more you need to humanize it and make it comprehensible. That’s where the anecdote comes in. A guy tells a story about a porcupine to a friend.
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Feb 21, 2025 | 
news-decoder.com | Marcy Burstiner
An audience will connect to a news story that is about something that concerns them even if they stumble on it long after it is published. A person holds a newspaper with a pine tree branch in it, symbolising “evergreen” content.
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Feb 7, 2025 | 
news-decoder.com | Marcy Burstiner
News reporters are needed more now than ever before. If you’ve got a lot of curiosity and a little determination you have what it takes. Young woman talks on a phone.
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Feb 6, 2025 | 
news-decoder.com | Marcy Burstiner
Democracy as a form of government relies on an informed public. The founders of democracy in the United States, which became a model for much of the world, recognized the connection between democracy and the press when writing the U.S. Constitution. Freedom of the press became one of the five pillars in the very to the Constitution. Moreover, one of the first acts was to establish an inexpensive postal system, in part so that newspapers could be distributed cheaply.
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Jan 9, 2025 | 
news-decoder.com | Marcy Burstiner
Think you know no one of importance? Most important people were once nobodies. A high school classroom of future leaders.
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Jan 8, 2025 | 
news-decoder.com | Marcy Burstiner |Decoder Replay
The imprisonment in Iran of Italian journalist and podcaster Cecilia Sala reminds us of how dangerous it can be to inform the public. Celia Sala recording a podcast.
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Jan 2, 2025 | 
news-decoder.com | Marcy Burstiner
In Greek myths, Cassandra of Troy had this curse from the gods: She was able to see disasters before they occurred but no one would believe her warnings. Journalists can empathize. Often stories inform people about dangers but it seems no one listens. That’s why a story needs to not just inform but to convince. And to do that you need more than quotes from reputable people. You need documents. In journalism, documents serve as a type of proof, like fingerprints or DNA in police dramas.
