April 2-4: Maintaining quality journalism during COVID-19 pandemic

Despite past claims of COVID-19 being a hoax by the Democrats, many Fox reporters have changes their rhetoric as public concern continues to grow.

74 journalism professors accuse Fox News of spreading coronavirus misinformation

April 2: The Hill reported on Thursday that 74 journalism professors and working journalists accuse Fox News of spreading coronavirus misinformation.

Collectively, they signed an open letter to Fox News heads Rupert Murdoch and Lachlan Murdoch which bashed the network’s coverage of the coronavirus pandemic as a “danger to public health.”

“Viewers of Fox News, including the president of the United States, have been regularly subjected to misinformation relayed by the network—false statements downplaying the prevalence of COVID-19 and its harms; misleading recommendations of activities that people should undertake to protect themselves and others, including casual recommendations of untested drugs; false assessments of the value of measures urged upon the public by their elected political leadership and public health authorities," a statement from the letter read.

The main concern of these journalists is that the average age demographic of Fox News viewers is 65 and misinformation could negatively affect their lifestyle decisions making them more vulnerable during the coronavirus pandemic.

Fox News is known for spreading misinformation regarding the news, specifically during the 2016 presidential election.

Google to spend $6.5 million in fight against coronavirus misinformation

April 2: Google announced Thursday that it would spend $6.5 million toward fighting the spread of misinformation around the coronavirus pandemic, according to The Hill.

The funding will go towards fact-checkers, news organizations, news outlets, and nonprofits all around the world as they continue to expose coronavirus misinformation.

Alexios Mantzarlis, the head news and credibility at Google’s News Lab, announced the funding would help journalists as well as other professions to make sense of information about coronavirus.

Google Trends will be made more widely available for reporters, health care workers, and law enforcement, with funding to train journalists on how to spot health misinformation.

The Journalists Changing Roles During the Coronavirus Outbreak

April 3: A New York Times article provided an inside look in the changing roles of journalists at the New York Times.

Specifically, journalists are moving from the Sports and Culture beats to now working at the International desk because of the changes caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Melissa Hoppert, a senior editor for digital storytelling and training, explained an important part of journalists working on new beats is communicating and getting a workflow process that allows everyone to be on the same page.

One of the popular tools that The Times has been using to maintain updated reporting during the coronavirus pandemic is through live briefings that are organized by topic.