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Friday, April 20, 2018
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Can Facebook beat back the fake news in Ireland’s upcoming vote on abortion?Plus: What people who like fact-checking are like, a new “digital deception” newsletter, and Facebook expands its fact-checking partnerships beyond the West. By Laura Hazard Owen. |
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R Vision, a digital news outlet by and for Rohingya people, aims to shed light on crisisR Vision is run entirely by an ethnic Rohingya staff of about 25 and uses local citizen journalists to get news out from areas where media is denied access. By James Rose. |
What We’re Reading
European Journalism Centre / Biba Klomp
Here’s a sneak peek into the European Journalism Centre’s upcoming Data Journalism Handbook →
Hint: it’s about algorithmic accountability.
Digiday / Lucia Moses
Hearst is cutting back on aggregation and viral fluff in favor of original reporting →
Back in January 2017, only one of the company's top 50 stories included some research or reporting or both, said Kate Lewis, svp and editorial director of Hearst Magazines Digital Media. The vast majority of those stories were quick takes, like a compilation of Twitter responses to a news event…. But Lewis found that by December that year, 28 of Hearst's top 50 stories had research or original reporting. That held steady, with 24 of the top 50 in February having research or reporting, according to Hearst.”
The Next Web / Matt Navarra
Facebook trials “High School Networks” for Messenger – what could go wrong there? →
“Facebook is working on a new feature to hook in the one market that they've struggled to dominate: teenagers. 'High School Networks for Messenger' appears to be its latest attempt to drag post-millennials to its platform, according to sources who shared screenshots with TNW.”
Journalism.co.uk / Catalina Albeanu
The Telegraph rolls out a new “authored analysis” strategy for editorial newsletters →
“A key priority of The Daily Telegraph’s digital strategy is to grow the number of registered users accessing the site, and one of the pillars supporting this initiative is a new and improved approach to email newsletters. The publisher launched six editorial newsletters over a period of six weeks, in a drive to refresh its newsletter strategy.”
Buzzfeed / Megha Rajagopalan and William Yang
China’s Weibo just walked back a ban on LGBT content after users protested →
“It represents a rare case in which a Chinese social media company has agreed to scale back censorship of a topic in response to user protests. The climbdown from Weibo comes amid a broad crackdown in China on online content. President Xi Jinping has tightened restrictions on online speech as well as the press, which is heavily censored.”
Voice of America / Iftikhar Hussain and Mubashir Zaidi
Dozens of journalists in Pakistan are speaking out against the government’s curbs on the media →
“The transmission of Pakistan's most widely watched news channel, Geo, has been blocked in many parts of the country for almost a month. Government officials and the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority, PEMRA, insist they have not blocked the news channel. Instead, PEMRA issued instructions to cable operators earlier this week to restore Geo to normal distribution or face suspension of their licenses.”
Variety / Brian Steinberg
Good Morning America will launch a newsletter as the morning TV battle goes digital →
“‘Good Morning America’ is revamping the digital extensions of the flagship ABC morning program, said Michael Corn, the show's senior executive producer, in an interview. While ‘GMA's’ digital presence has long been a part of a larger alliance between ABC News and Yahoo, this new effort represents an attempt to give fans of the program a more closely aligned site. ‘We had a very basic approach to digital before this, a meat-and-potatoes approach,’ says Corn.”
Buzzfeed / Mark Di Stefano
The former director of BBC News’ media startup is aiming for a “UK-based Axios,” and just hired a major Obama fundraiser →
“The company, Tortoise, got off the ground earlier this year after [James] Harding, who is also a former editor of the Times, left his post as director of BBC News – one of the most prominent jobs in British journalism – to build a new media outlet…. ‘The general sense has been that it's a UK-based Axios,’ said an industry source. ‘A small group of smart hacks focusing on the biggest stories of the day and breaking a bit of news. But also some slower, higher-impact stuff — hence, well, the name.'”
Financial Times / Tobias Buck
Axel Springer lost a landmark legal case over ad-blocking →
“Springer had accused Eyeo, the maker of a popular product called Adblock Plus, of violating German laws against unfair competition and aggressive business practices, arguing that the software threatened to destroy the online business model of advertising-financed media companies.”