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Friday, December 8, 2017
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Newsonomics: These are the 3 fault lines redrawing the U.S. media businessThe duopoly, the FCC, and the hunger for scale — these three forces are roiling the news industry, from corporate conglomerates to your hometown daily. By Ken Doctor. |
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Facebook’s fact-checking network signs up its first conservative partner, the #NeverTrump-ing Weekly StandardPlus: How political information gets distorted as it spreads from person to perso, and new research on trust in social media vs. branded apps. By Laura Hazard Owen. |
What We’re Reading
American University
Can game design concepts increase journalism engagement? (Plus 10 steps for building your own news game) →
“The difference between other types of storytelling and games is that players act,” AU Game Lab director Lindsay Grace says in this culminating report after three years of research and development. “It posits you as responsible for what happens. It creates a more engaged relationship to the story. It doesn’t move without you. Nothing happens if you stop doing.” See our previous coverage about fake news games from American University and elsewhere here.
Bloomberg.com / Gerry Smith
Univision’s Fusion expands to Mexico with a 24-hour Spanish-language cable network →
“As part of the deal, Grupo Televisa SAB will also start Mexican editions of former Gawker Media websites like the sports-focused Deadspin, the technology outlet Gizmodo, and the women's website Jezebel.”
Poynter / Daniel Funke
In Ireland, lawmakers are trying to criminalize sharing fake news →
A bill Irish lawmakers proposed this week would make using a bot to influence political debate a criminal offense, punishable by five years in prison or fines of up to €10,000.
WNYC / The Takeaway
Farai Chideya: Newsrooms need to purge secrets in order to heal →
"What really did put a dagger through my heart was when I went to Laura,” says Chideya, who left WNYC’s The Takeaway podcast after reporting bullying and misconduct by former co-host John Hockenberry to the CEO of New York Public Radio, Laura Walker. “I went straight to the top. I said this is what happened and she said it was horrifying, but with a certain — I’m just going to be blunt here — theatrical finality that sort of implied that this is not to be discussed again."
Columbia Journalism Review / David Westphal
How the architect of San Diego’s inewsource, a $1 million-a-year investigative reporting nonprofit, recruits wealthy contributors →
“In our times when everything is so muddy, people relate when you start telling them how you do your fact-checking. We do a second version of our investigations that we call ‘transparify,’ where virtually every word of the story is hyperlinked to source material.”
CityLab / Ariel Bogle
Has Naver, South Korea’s biggest search engine, found a way to save struggling news outlets? →
“Naver has an unusual model for working with Korean news publishers: The company directly pays 124 outlets as "Naver News in-link partners." The outlets' stories are published on Naver's portal, making the site a one-stop source of articles and video and eliminating the need for readers to leave and visit the original news site.”
Medium / Dave Pell
The word of 2017 is “breaking” →
“This is not urgent. Don't look at it while you're at the family dinner table. Don't glance at it from behind the wheel during your drive home from work. Don't lean off your yoga mat and interrupt the few precious moments you've set aside for transcendental meditation. Seriously, even if you're just sitting there doing nothing, there's no rush. This can wait until later. Like most things on the internet, it can even wait until never.” (Part of Medium’s Words That Matter 2017 series)
MediaShift Podcast / Mark Glaser
Google News Lab’s Steve Grove on “getting this moment right” as frustration with tech companies boils over →
“The Google News Lab does pretty amazing work in the background for many news organizations around the world, from training 500,000 journalists to supporting entrepreneurs at the Matter accelerator to helping smaller players at Report for America. But it’s part of a larger tech giant that has been under scrutiny this year like no other – for its role in helping Russians spread misinformation, supporting extremist content on YouTube with ads, and racist ad targeting and auto-completes.” (Starting at 20:44)
Indy Star / Joe Tamborello
“No, Facebook, Indiana is not getting 12 inches of snow by Saturday” →
Misinformation is now spreading to local weather reports.
Digiday / Lucia Moses
To double circulation profits, The Economist has 16 people focused on retention →
"We know The Economist is a lot to read.”
BuzzFeed / Alex Kantrowitz
Twitter users seem to like longer tweets more than ones that are 140 characters or fewer →
“Early data shows tweets above 140 characters are being liked and retweeted at a rate approximately double that of their shorter counterparts. BuzzFeed News obtained the data from SocialFlow, a publishing tool used by approximately 300 major publishers including the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.”