Where does news start ?

There are two related debates underway in the world of online journalism. Ben Goldacre is increasingly irritated with BBC editors of science content failing to link to their original source material - the academic papers that often lie behind stories of "breakthroughs", etc. (I have a sneaking suspicion he also believes that the original source is rarely read by the subs, who may be taking their line from abstracts, summaries, press releases, news agencies - or, perish the thought, newspapers and magazines).

The second is a Twitter conversation between Felix Salmon, a blogger on finance for Reuters and Patrick LaForge, an editor at the New York Times, about giving credit to sources on news pages and blogs. It's a close relation to Ben Goldacre's issue - and seeks a transparency which is uncomfortable for many in the modern world of instant journalism. Try looking at Google News; at time of writing, 0930 Wednesday, "Gordon Brown hails 'courageous' deal on Northern Ireland" is one of the UK headlines - 617 articles are available. But that really doesn't mean 617 reporters or correspondents were involved in covering the story. Most will have taken their copy from the Press Association, Reuters, AP or AFP but few will declare it, because new sites, local, national and international feel they should "own" news. So Felix Salmon comes from a position.

When I joined the BBC radio newsroom as a trainee, we were asked to list sources at the bottom of any stories we wrote (though this didn't happen on news summaries). It still happens in the World Service newsroom. There's a reasonable debate to be had about acknowledging those sources on a regular basis on the web.

Sources: I first noticed the Ben Goldacre debate at the Online Journalism Bog and the Salmon/Laforge discussion at the Nieman Journalism Lab