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Friday, March 30, 2018
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This is how Cambridge Analytica’s Facebook targeting model really worked — according to the person who built itThe method was similar to the one Netflix uses to recommend movies — no crystal ball, but good enough to make an effective political tool. By Matthew Hindman. |
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After big Denver Post layoffs, the Fort Collins Coloradoan thinks beyond localA neighborhood watch Facebook group, reader chatbot, and a state-focused project: “We all serve the greater Coloradoan community and we each have parts to play in that.” By Christine Schmidt. |
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Has Facebook’s algorithm change hurt hyperpartisan sites? According to this data, nopeData that NewsWhip pulled together for Nieman Lab suggests that popular hyperpartisan publishers are actually doing pretty well post–algorithm change. By Laura Hazard Owen. |
What We’re Reading
The Verge / Casey Newton
Here are the internal Facebook posts of employees discussing today’s leaked memo →
“The publication of a June 2016 memo describing the consequences of Facebook's growth-at-all-costs triggered an emotional conversation at the company today. An internal post reacting to the memo found employees angry and heartbroken that their teammates were sharing internal company discussions with the media. Many called on the company to step up its war on leakers and hire employees with more ‘integrity.'”
BuzzFeed / Ryan Mac, Charlie Warzel, and Alex Kantrowitz
Facebook executive in 2016: “We connect people. Period. That's why all the work we do in growth is justified” →
"So we connect more people," Facebook VP Andrew "Boz" Bosworth wrote in a 2016 internal memo titled “The Ugly.” “That can be bad if they make it negative. Maybe it costs someone a life by exposing someone to bullies….Maybe someone dies in a terrorist attack coordinated on our tools." (Here’s Boz’s response after BuzzFeed published the memo: “It was intended to be provocative.”)
Medium / Alli Shultes
Can product-centric thinking stave off innovative thinking rather than encourage it? →
“For example, a good product that is designed to automatically generate transcripts for journalists is likely to only include features that help its users achieve that end goal. A feature that that might allow the generation of subtitles from the transcripts would be considered superfluous to the end product. However, generating subtitles or auto-exporting segments of audio may later form the basis of a new product. Because you've eliminated that capability from the scope of the initial product, you've set back future experiments.”
Quartz / Leah Fessler
Slack is developing tools to tell if someone’s mansplaining →
"’These are analytics that no one else has access to you except for you. And they don't present you with any real moral value either way, but [they answer questions like], do you talk to men differently than you talk to women? Do you speak to support groups differently than you speak to superiors? Do you speak in public differently than you speak in private?’ Slack’s New York staff are creating those analytics tools to identify those personal communication styles.”
Digiday / Aditi Sangal
Recode’s Kara Swisher: Facebook only pretends to care about the media →
"I don't think [Facebook] was ever going out with the media. The media thought so. AOL did the same thing. They were courting the media, and then they weren't because their business changed. In Facebook's case, they needed the media to make that news feed more interesting. Turns out, media is messy, and they can't figure out a monetization strategy."
The New York Times / Tejal Rao
A new generation of food magazines thinks small, and in print →
“Most of these magazines come together as a labor of love, in chunks of spare time carved out on nights and weekends. After crowdfunding an initial investment, or putting in personal savings, small teams with low overheads may be able to pay for the costs of printing and freelance contributors, usually with a mix of sales, brand partnerships and events: ‘Distribution sucks, printing's expensive and no one wants to advertise.’"