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Monday, May 15, 2017
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Sharing skills, Vox and ProPublica are teaming up on video production“Just like all of our story partnerships are each their own delicate flower, we do things opportunistically when it makes sense. This thing very much makes sense.” By Joseph Lichterman. |
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Cambridge Analytica, Trump, and the new old fear of manipulating the masses“Fears of mass manipulation by new media are as old as mass media themselves. Almost every expansion of media or new media technology provoked paranoia about the contagious emotions of ‘the masses.'” By Heidi Tworek. |
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Australia’s kid-focused newspaper Crinkling News wants to teach media literacy to young readersCreating a newspaper for kids means “allaying fears while at the same time explaining in the most basic terms what’s going on.” By Ricardo Bilton. |
What We’re Reading
The Information / Shen Xinmei
In China, fake business news makes the truth hard to find →
“‘Hei gao,’ or black drafts in Chinese, are takedown pieces commissioned by companies to tarnish rivals. It's an especially big problem among internet companies. While politically sensitive stories on mainstream media sites are quickly quashed by China's tight censorship, black drafts published on social media accounts operate in a gray zone.”
Politico / Shane Goldmacher
How Trump gets his fake news →
“[K.T.] McFarland, who is expected to leave the NSC for the ambassadorship to Singapore, did not respond to requests for comment about bringing the president a fake news magazine cover. But another White House official familiar with the matter tried to defend it as an honest error that was ‘fake but accurate.'”
Data & Society / Alice Marwick and Rebecca Lewis
A new report: “Media Manipulation and Disinformation Online” →
“Far-right groups develop techniques of ‘attention hacking’ to increase the visibility of their ideas through the strategic use of social media, memes, and bots — as well as by targeting journalists, bloggers, and influencers to help spread content. The media's dependence on social media, analytics and metrics, sensationalism, novelty over newsworthiness, and clickbait makes them vulnerable to such media manipulation.”
Financial Times / David Bond
The Guardian relies on readers' support to stave off crisis →
“The Guardian says it has 230,000 members who pay a minimum of £5 a month, 185,000 digital and print subscribers and 190,000 one-off contributors.”
Digiday / Lucinda Southern
How travel is driving The Telegraph’s e-commerce business →
“The Telegraph has built out its e-commerce business for the last 18 months as a way of diversifying revenue streams. It predicts e-commerce will overtake advertising as a portion of its total revenue in three to five years. Travel is the most mature commerce sector for The Telegraph.”
Pressgazette
Independent digital chief: Apple News drives traffic not revenue but Facebook instant articles is ‘important source of ad sales’ →
"Apple News doesn't drive real revenue, but does drive traffic. From that vantage point we are keeping a watching brief on how useful it is for us. At the moment [our view on] it is neutral to positive because of the distribution and the marketing value of it for us."
BuzzFeed / Charlie Warzel
What happens when the pro-Trump media get actual scoops? →
“The implications of legitimized, proudly ideological former trolls breaking news and gaining trust could further blur the lines between fact and fiction and lend credence to their older, provably false stories, like Pizzagate. Still, dismissing this emerging pro-Trump media outright could prove perilous for newsrooms. Especially in traditional conservative media, Cernovich and company's national security sources are potentially worrisome for outlets that might have expected better access in a Republican White House. Alex Jones seemed to sense this when he snatched up Cernovich late last month for a regular hosting spot on Infowars.”
Digiday / Jessica Davies
How Axel Springer’s Bild plans to build a loyal Snapchat Discover audience →
“Bild has a 20-person social team dedicated to creating content that suits specific social platforms and the different audience expectations on each. Resources from that team will be pooled for Discover. Three weeks of tests have shown a strong appetite exists for both typical teen fare, like snaps on how to fall in love and be a good kisser, and political content like snaps about newly elected French president Emmanuel Macron.”
Harvard Business Review / Walter Frick
Can Snapchat survive if Facebook copies all its best features? →
“So, Spiegel needs to articulate a theory of why Facebook can't copy Snap's product innovations and then use them to capture even more value through its larger network. To date, his answer has been innovation. That puts him firmly on one side of the long-running strategy debate. Is it sufficient to develop capabilities that seem hard for competitors to imitate, like building camera-based social applications? Or does sustainable strategy require more?”
Washington Post / Erik Wemple
West Virginia’s Public News Service sees 26-fold spike in donations after its reporter was arrested in West Virginia →
“Don't get the notion, however, that PNS is preparing a hiring spree with the fresh money. As [managing editor Lark] Corbeil outlines to the Erik Wemple Blog, her organization hauls in between $20 and $30 over a normal two-day period from its donation module. Over the two days after Heyman's arrest at the West Virginia capital, that two-day number spiked to $775.”
Politico / Hadas Gold
New York Times publisher sends personal appeal to those who canceled over Bret Stephens →
“In the letter to former subscribers, Sulzberger says it's important to underscore that the newsroom functions separately from the opinion department, and that New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet ‘has sharply expanded the team of reporters and editors who cover climate change.'”
The New York Times / Sydney Ember
Sinclair requires TV stations to air segments that tilt to the right →
“Since November 2015, Sinclair has ordered its stations to run a daily segment from a ‘Terrorism Alert Desk’ with updates on terrorism-related news around the world. During the election campaign last year, it sent out a package that suggested in part that voters should not support Hillary Clinton because the Democratic Party was historically pro-slavery. More recently, Sinclair asked stations to run a short segment in which Scott Livingston, the company's vice president for news, accused the national news media of publishing ‘fake news stories.'”