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Tuesday, May 2, 2017
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Newsonomics: Can a master blacklist choke off fake news’ money supply?The Open Brand Safety framework is an attempt to create a master list of fake news sites so advertisers can learn to avoid them. By Ken Doctor. |
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Three things to watch around the launch of Mogul, Spotify’s latest exclusive podcastPlus: A new crop of studios, the growing prospects for podcasts for kids, and Nashville throws a “podcast party.” By Nicholas Quah. |
What We’re Reading
Univision / Alejandro Fernández Sanabria, Andrés Fernández, and Daniel Salazar
How Univision and seven other Latin American partners investigated public defender records in the region →
“The investigation of Costa Rica's public defense system was born from a single question: Is there a link between the type of lawyer that defends a criminal case and the probability that a defendant will be convicted? For the analysis, Univision Data used a statistical method common in social sciences but practically unexplored in newsrooms, called logistic regression.”
The Information / Cory Weinberg
Media executives are wary of Facebook’s video ad plans →
“Among the concerns is the question of whether ad rates will be high enough and frustration that Facebook insists on selling the ad space itself rather than letting media firms sell their own ad space. Executives also worry that viewers will tune out once the ad break hits — something for which there is evidence.”
Digiday / Ross Benes
Confessions of a fed-up ad fraud researcher: ‘Prevention is always behind’ →
“Agencies have perverse incentives when it comes to picking verification firms and a poor understanding of statistical sampling,” according one ad fraud researcher.
First Monday / Philip M. Napoli and Robyn Caplan
Why media companies insist they’re not media companies, why they’re wrong, and why it matters →
“There are fundamental legal and policy implications associated with how [Google, Facebook, and Twitter] define themselves and are defined by policy-makers and the public.”
The Atlantic / Derek Thompson
ESPN is not doomed →
“But the network's recent layoffs are a preview of major shifts to come in the television industry, American sports, and all of digital media.”
Boston Magazine / Chris Sweeney
Boston Herald reporters are boycotting Twitter after a reporter was suspended for tweeting a scoop →
“It was a legitimate scoop in the highly competitive national news cycle that followed [Aaron] Hernandez's suicide, and it got noticed: Villani's message was retweeted 219 times and liked 246 times. Other outlets later reported the same news. But because Villani didn't seek approval from editorial brass to tweet out the news, which was attributed to an unnamed source, he's now out three days pay.”
Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy
Combating fake news: an agenda for research and action →
“As a research community, we identified three courses of action that can be taken in the immediate future: involving more conservatives in the discussion of misinformation in politics, collaborating more closely with journalists in order to make the truth "louder," and developing multidisciplinary community-wide shared resources for conducting academic research on the presence and dissemination of misinformation on social media platforms.”
The New York Times / Katrin Bennhold
London tabloids, champions of ‘Brexit,’ loom large →
“In Britain after the so-called Brexit vote, the power of the tabloids is evident. Their circulations may be falling and their reputations tarnished by a series of phone-hacking scandals. But as the country prepares to cut ties with the European Union after a noisy and sometimes nasty campaign, top politicians court the tabloids and fear their wrath. Broadcasters follow where they lead, if not in tone then in topic.”
The New York Times / Malachy Browne
How The New York Times used forensic mapping to verify a Syrian chemical attack →
“In combination with graphics and on-the-ground reporting, our video forensic work also showed conclusively that the attack on the Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun took place hours before Syria — and its Russian allies — say that it occurred and cast doubt on the official account of the attack that Russia provided.”
Digiday / Lucia Moses
‘The audience there is huge’: A guide to the most popular publisher Facebook video hacks →
The growth hacks include using GIFs, running prerecorded videos as “live,” and using other people’s content.
Slate Magazine / Will Oremus
Should you really cancel your New York Times subscription over one bad column? Maybe →
“The fact that canceling strikes some people as an extreme response to a column about climate change is just the point: It speaks to just how seriously activists take the media's portrayal of climate science.”
Digiday / Max Willens
After 18 years, About.com is rebranding as Dotdash →
“The new name is supposed to work on multiple levels. About CEO Neil Vogel said the dot is a nod to the period that was core to the publisher's old logo, while a dash is a typographic symbol used to move things toward what's next.”