Talk:Background (journalism)

This article didn't seem quite accurate, so I've rewritten it a little to reflect that there is confusion about these terms; they seem to be used differently at various levels in journalism (local, national, international), and may be used differently even within the same category. I deleted the airline source example, as it stuck closely to one definition, and I couldn't see how to rewrite it to reflect the confusion. Whoever wrote it, by all means feel free to put it back if you can think of a way round that. Hope that's okay. SlimVirgin 05:41, Feb 3, 2005 (UTC)

In my versions of this and related articles, the distinctly different definitions of "background", "deep background", and "off the record" were based on a handout that was drilled into me back in J-school. I have only Prof. Fountain (or was it Kirtz?) to blame. - Keith D. Tyler [flame] 07:09, Feb 3, 2005 (UTC)

Hi Keith, the problem is that the terms aren't used by all journalists in the same way, as the link to the article showed. No disrespect to Prof. Fountain. ;-) Did you want to change something about my edit? SlimVirgin 16:00, Feb 3, 2005 (UTC)

Suggesting a merge

I put a suggestion that we merge this to News source it seems a good heading underwhich all this article would fit and it would help this material to develop. In addtion, I placed the journalism template here as well. I hope none of this seems persumtive or anything. Cheers, Calicocat 08:18, 31 July 2005 (UTC)