Sabtu, 29 September 2018

“Find a way to resist being manipulated.”: The latest from Nieman Lab

Nieman Lab: The Daily Digest

“Find a way to resist being manipulated.”

Plus: Twitter, Facebook, and Google sign on to the European Commission’s Code of Practice on Disinformation, and BBC Africa’s investigation into four murders. By Laura Hazard Owen.

Where local news has adapted to digital — and where it can still grow (hint: not geographically)

Because PDF versions are really what we all need. By Christine Schmidt.

How the media encourages — and sustains — political warfare

Oppositional framing in news stories encourages oppositional thinking in news audiences. By Kyle Jensen and Jack Selzer.
What We’re Reading
The New York Times / Mike Isaac and Sheera Frenkel
Facebook says an attack on its network exposed information from nearly 50 million users →
“The company discovered the breach earlier this week, finding that attackers had exploited a feature in Facebook's code that allowed them to take over user accounts. Facebook fixed the vulnerability and notified law enforcement officials. More than 90 million of Facebook's users were forced to log out of their accounts Friday morning, a common safety measure for compromised accounts.”
The Lenfest Institute for Journalism / Joseph Lichterman
A local French site is trying to reach new audiences through events →
“Local French site Rue89 Strasbourg wanted to find a way to better connect with the communities it covers while boosting its subscription program.”
Politico / Quint Forgey
New York Times opinion section yanks Twitter poll on Kavanaugh accuser →
“‘Christine Blasey Ford is testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee today,’ the Times wrote in the tweet. ‘Do you find her testimony credible?’ The account's followers were prompted to select ‘Yes,’ ‘No,’ or ‘Unsure.'”
Digiday / Lucinda Southern
Bloomberg is using text-to-audio to keep app users engaged →
“Audio is particularly interesting for our audience because of that multitasking utility, that is a real news use case.”
Medium / Ernst Pfauth
How being open about your financials can help grow your reader-funded publication →
“When members respond to our annual reports, they often laud our choice to invest more than 50 percent of our revenue in journalism itself, and that we have relatively low overheads. They mention this as a reason for their support.”
The Verge / Jacob Kastrenakes
WikiLeaks has a new editor-in-chief because Julian Assange has no internet access →
“Assange has appointed Kristinn Hrafnsson to replace him. Hrafnsson is an Icelandic journalist who served as WikiLeaks' spokesperson from 2010 to 2016.”
J-Source / H.G. Watson
Refinery29 to launch in Canada in October →
“Headquartered in Toronto, the new Canadian edition will include a mix of localized content and global stories across fashion, beauty, wellness, politics and culture.”
Digiday / Jessica Davies
The New York Times expands international newsletters →
“The New York Times is launching a limited-edition newsletter for the U.K. that's dedicated to demystifying U.S. politics ahead of November's midterm elections.”
The Guardian / Kate Lamb
Indonesia’s government will hold weekly “hoax news” briefings →
“A specialized ministerial content control team, comprised of 70 people, will be tasked with identifying fake news stories.”
Journalism.co.uk / Jacob Granger
“Covering the full breadth of the continent was really important to me”: Reuters' Africa Journal launches →
“The international news agency looks to publish 16 to 20 concise multimedia packages a week talking about the latest innovations and developments coming out of the continent.”
Recode / Peter Kafka
It may be “data journalism,” but Julia Angwin's new site the Markup is nothing like FiveThirtyEight →
“Outlets like FiveThirtyEight…which analyze existing data sets and make predictions about topics ranging from political elections to Major League Baseball. ‘That's totally legitimate and awesome work,’ Angwin said, but once the new site launches in early 2019 she and her team will be proactively building new data sets — something she and her co-founder Jeff Larson previously did at ProPublica — in the interest of investigative journalism.” (We wrote about The Markup here.)

Kamis, 27 September 2018

What will happen when newspapers kill print and go online-only? Most of that print audience will just…disappear: The latest from Nieman Lab

Nieman Lab: The Daily Digest

What will happen when newspapers kill print and go online-only? Most of that print audience will just…disappear

A new study of The Independent’s 2016 shift to online-only finds that its print readership didn’t move to digital when the newspaper did. It’s now “more glanced at, it seems, than gorged on.” By Joshua Benton.

In Canadian cities, the number of newspaper stories published each day has been cut in half in the last decade

“What we are seeing now is that revenues are plunging, acceleration of this downward spiral is getting faster and faster and news coverage more and more sparse. And that's a recipe for catastrophe.” By H.G. Watson.
What We’re Reading
Digiday / Max Willens
The New York Post plans a paid membership program →
“Rather than focus on a metered paywall like its crosstown rival, The New York Daily News, the New York Post is planning to pursue consumer revenue through memberships. The Post intends to orient them around extra services or experiences targeted at fans of its sports coverage, or its popular gossip news sub-brand Page Six.”
TechCrunch / Natasha Lomas
Tech and ad giants sign up with Europe's first weak bite at 'fake news' →
“Only slightly less vague and woolly is a commitment that signatories will ‘put in place clear policies regarding identity and the misuse of automated bots’ on the signatories' services, and ‘enforce these policies within the EU’. (So presumably not globally, despite disinformation being able to wreak havoc everywhere.)”
The New York Times / Jaclyn Peiser
New York Magazine teams up with a new nonprofit outlet (led by a New York Daily News alum) to cover local news →
“The City will be accessible through the magazine's website, and some of its articles will be posted there. The magazine will also provide technological infrastructure and office space, at least for the time being. But there will be no financial connection between the two organizations…. Ben Smith, the editor of BuzzFeed News, will be the chairman of The City's board of directors. Other members include Sarah Bartlett, the dean of the CUNY journalism school; Richard Ravitch, a former lieutenant governor of New York; and S. Mitra Kalita, the senior vice president for news, opinion and programming for CNN Digital.”
Forbes / Parmy Olson
Why WhatsApp’s cofounder left Facebook →
“It's also a story any idealistic entrepreneur can identify with: What happens when you build something incredible and then sell it to someone with far different plans for your baby? ‘At the end of the day, I sold my company,’ Acton says. ‘I sold my users' privacy to a larger benefit. I made a choice and a compromise. And I live with that every day.'”
Poynter / David Beard
A judge demanded a Mexican journalist provide proof of his work, so librarians and translators collaborated to unearth his old stories →
“In July, Emilio Gutiérrez Soto seemed to have had a happy ending. He was freed from an El Paso detention facility after his case was championed by the National Press Club, and he moved north to attend a prestigious mid-career journalism fellowship at the University of Michigan. But a hearing remains in October before a immigration judge in Texas, who has doubted Gutiérrez Soto’s work or his reason to fear persecution if deported.”
Slate / Will Oremus
Apple is wooing the media with a human touch and a huge audience. But where’s the money? →
“The problem, publishers say, is that Apple doesn't sell many ads within the app—not nearly as many as you'd find on most websites—and it doesn't make it particularly easy for publishers to sell their own. Apple News doesn't support some of the common ad formats or systems that dominate ad sales on the web, and not all media companies find it worthwhile to develop and sell custom ads just for Apple News. (Those that do can keep all the revenue or they can let Apple sell them, in which case Apple takes a 30 percent cut.) As Matt Karolian, the Boston Globe's director of new initiatives, told me, ‘The juice ain't worth the squeeze.'”
Motherboard / Jason Koebler and Joseph Cox
In a class-action lawsuit, a content moderator sues Facebook and says the job gave her PTSD →
“An outsider might not totally comprehend, we aren’t just exposed to the graphic videos—you’ll have to watch them closely, often repeatedly, for specific policy signifiers," one moderation source told Motherboard. "Someone could be being graphically beaten in a video, and you could have to watch it a dozen times, sometimes with others present, while you decide whether the victim’s actions would count as self-defense or not, or whether the aggressor is the same person who posted the video.” Facebook has roughly 7,500 content moderators worldwide.
The Guardian / Anne Davies
How the culture of News Corp might change under Lachlan Murdoch, who is said to be more conservative than his father →
“The downsized empire will be focused on News's traditional news business – newspapers, online real estate, book publishing and Foxtel – alongside a growing portfolio of sporting rights, to which it added cricket rights in Australia in April. The Murdochs also will hang on to the top-rating Fox News channel in the US and Fox sports cable channels after the Disney sale. The Murdochs had also hoped to keep the UK satellite TV service, Sky, and take full control but met resistance from UK regulators concerned about the extent of the Murdochs' media influence, and was ultimately outbid by Comcast. So what will News Corp be like under Lachlan?”
BuzzFeed News / Charlie Warzel
Safari's "Siri Suggested" search results highlighted conspiracy sites and fake news →
“The Siri Suggested problem seems to stem from what researchers call a "data void," which is what happens when a term doesn't have ‘natural informative results’ and manipulators seize upon it. Many of the sites surfaced by the Siri Suggested feature came from conspiracy or junk sites hastily assembled to fill that void.” Users can email results they feel are inappropriate to applebot@apple.com.

Rabu, 26 September 2018

Newsonomics: The Washington Post’s ambitions for Arc have grown — to a Bezosian scale: The latest from Nieman Lab

Nieman Lab: The Daily Digest

Newsonomics: The Washington Post’s ambitions for Arc have grown — to a Bezosian scale

It is increasingly the tech stack of choice for major news publishers. But now Arc wants to be the backbone of your digital advertising and subscriptions, too. By Ken Doctor.

Nope, there isn’t a podcast bubble

Plus: Serial’s audience grows, Gannett builds a local audio franchise, and what a Pandora–SiriusXM marriage could mean for podcasting. By Nicholas Quah.
What We’re Reading
The Information / Sarah Kuranda
Adam Mosseri is likely the next head of Instagram →
"Mr. Mosseri previously oversaw the news feed at Facebook, where he tackled some of the company's biggest challenges, including the spread of disinformation on the social network and repairing its fraught relationship with news publishers."
Pew Research Center / Jeffrey Gottfried, Galen Stocking, and Elizabeth Grieco
Partisans remain sharply divided about the news media →
82% of Democrats say “media criticism of political leaders keeps them from doing things they shouldn’t,” vs. 38% of Republicans.
Recode / Kurt Wagner
Instagram’s co-founders are leaving amid frustrations with parent company Facebook →
“…amid frustration and agitation with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's increased meddling and control over Instagram…The departures are a major blow to Facebook. Instagram, which has grown rapidly and is popular with the younger generation of users who are less interested in Facebook, has been a consistent beacon of good news for a company that has had more than a year of bad news.”
The Guardian / Jim Waterson
U.K. newspapers are demanding a tax on Facebook and Google to pay for news →
“It also called on the government to introduce a tax credit system, similar to that used to encourage investment in the British film industry, which would allow newspapers to claim a cash rebate for investment in areas such as investigative journalism.”
BuzzFeed News / Ryan Broderick
Reddit’s /r/The_Donald appears to have been targeted by Russian propaganda for years →
“/r/The_Donald currently has over 600,000 subscribers and still acts as the pro-Trump world's central hub for memes, talking points, and conspiracy theories…brutalist.press appears to have been created in St. Petersburg in 2016. And usareally.com is owned by a member of a civil society institution called the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation.”
Twitter / Cara Buckley
Over 100 New York Review of Books contributors are protesting its editor’s dismissal →
“We find it very troubling that the public reaction to a single article, ‘Reflections from a Hashtag’ — repellent though some of us may have found this article — should have been the occasion for Ian Buruma’s forced resignation.”
TechCrunch / Josh Constine
Snapchat and many of its publishers are pushing its users to register to vote →
“Today, all 18+ US users will see a TurboVote link to register in the profile portion of their Snapchat app…Meanwhile, publishers including Washington Post, NowThis, Mic, Vice, Refinery29, Mitu, Cheddar, and Good Luck America will put swipe-up-to-register options in their relevant election coverage.”
Columbia Journalism Review / Mathew Ingram
How BBC Africa verified a gruesome video →
“After weeks of denying that the video showed members of the Cameroonian army, the government changed its tune in August and announced that seven members of the military had been arrested and were under investigation for the killings.”
PressGazette / Dorothy Musariri
Local and national newspapers in Ireland call on the Irish Government to slash the levy on newspapers →
“Currently consumers pay a reduced 9 per cent VAT rate for newspapers in Ireland, but the campaign is pressing the government to use part of its 2019 budget to reduce the rate down to 5 per cent. It has also asked for Ireland's draconian defamation laws to be reformed ‘to ensure that the stories that need to be told, are told’, according to a spokesperson.”
Live Mint / Komal Gupta
WhatsApp appoints a grievance officer, who will be based in the US, to curb fake news in India →
“According to the social media giant's website, a user can contact the grievance officer on email, signed with an electronic signature, or send queries through postal services. ‘If you're contacting us about a specific account, please include your phone number in full international format, including the country code.'”
Quartz / Aisha Hassan
Spotify and Ancestry can use your real DNA to tell your “musical DNA” →
“In Spotify and Ancestry's custom playlist generator, you can input the different ethnicities and regions that make up your heritage based on your AncestryDNA test results. The generator will then select a range of tracks that reflect the cultures your ancestors came from.”
Jezebel / Julianne Escobedo Shepherd
#MeToo allegations are still coming out, but how do we handle the gray areas? →
“As we near the one-year mark of the public accusations against Harvey Weinstein—that he serially assaulted women; that he used his power to avoid any consequences for doing so—and the subsequent spread of the nationwide #MeToo movement, we are also facing its backlash.”
The Verge / Dieter Bohn
Google search is adding a news feed to its homepage on mobile →
“Google is rebranding its news feed — that list of items that appears below the default search bar in the Google mobile app and when you swipe left from the home screen on Android — as ‘Discover.’ It will now be on the Google homepage on all mobile browsers, which is a huge shift for the company as it works to better organize information and help users understand context.”
Recode / Kurt Wagner
Google is following Instagram and Snapchat with a big push into Stories →
“‘We're doubling down on Stories in search," said Cathy Edwards, Google's head of engineering for image search, at a press event in San Francisco on Monday. She added that Google will be ‘announcing more’ about Stories in the next few months.”

Selasa, 25 September 2018

Watch out, algorithms: Julia Angwin and Jeff Larson unveil The Markup, their plan for investigating tech’s societal impacts: The latest from Nieman

Nieman Lab: The Daily Digest

Watch out, algorithms: Julia Angwin and Jeff Larson unveil The Markup, their plan for investigating tech’s societal impacts

“Journalists in every field need to have more skills to investigate those types of decision-making that are embedded in technology.” By Christine Schmidt.

Aiming to attract buyers who aren’t cryptocurrency nerds, Civil is offering a way to buy its tokens with regular old cash

And it’ll need a new wave of buyers in order to reach its goals. By Joshua Benton.
What We’re Reading
The Daily Beast / Robert Silverman
Inside Barstool Sports’ culture of online hate: “They treat sexual harassment and cyberbullying as a game” →
“Barstool Sports isn't like any other sports-media company. The online harassment by Portnoy and in turn by Barstool's most devoted fans—largely young, white men or ‘Stoolies,’ as they're known — is a feature of the site, not a bug.”
TechCrunch / Romain Dillet
SiriusXM to acquire Pandora for $3.5 billion →
“The announcement says that SiriusXM plans to leverage both services to cross-promote the other service. For instance, you could see references to SiriusXM shows while listening to Pandora. And SiriusXM hosts could suggest downloading the Pandora mobile app.”
Twitter / BBC Africa
How BBC Africa used Google Street View, Facebook profiles, and sundials to dispel the Cameroon military’s “fake news” →
“In August, there was a sudden change in the govt's position. After weeks of denying that these killings took place in Cameroon, the Minister of Communication announced that 7 members of the military had been arrested and were under investigation.”
Digiday / Lucia Moses
Bloomberg Media is trying to turn its Twitter network TicToc into a full-fledged media brand →
“Publishers are trying to make social video that gets people to watch for longer periods of time, but they've had limited success so far. Three-fourths of videos published in 2017 were less than 2 minutes long, according to Vidyard. TicToc videos tend to run under 70 seconds. TicToc is also honing its format mix to match what people are looking for, but like other publishers, it's a work in progress.”
Wall Street Journal / Benjamin Mullin and Amol Sharma
Vox Media is expected to miss its revenue goal for this year by more than 15 percent →
“One concern for Vox Media, much like other digital media firms, is that revenue from sponsored content isn't growing as fast as it once did, the people familiar with the matter said.”
Business Insider / Isobel Asher Hamilton
Instagram’s new TV service recommended videos of potential child abuse →
“Business Insider spent nearly three weeks monitoring IGTV, the Facebook-owned video service that launched in June as part of Instagram’s attempts to muscle in on rivals like YouTube and Snapchat. IGTV’s algorithm recommended questionable content during that time, including sexually suggestive footage of young girls and an explicit video of a mutilated penis.”
Marketplace / Jennifer Pak
Where are podcasts rolling in money? China’s “pay-for-knowledge” economy →
“Podcasts with subscription fees, interactive Q&A's online with experts or celebrities and live-streaming lecture-sessions where the audience can participate and pay as they wish are what people in China refer to as the ‘pay-for-knowledge’ economy. It was estimated to be worth $7.3 billion last year, with the bulk of the revenues from paid podcasts, according to a research institute run by China’s State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television. The figure is focused only on consumers paying directly for content online and does not include ad-driven podcasts.”
Agence France-Presse / Allison Jackson
13 journalists have been killed in Afghanistan in 2018 — the highest number in a single year since the start of the war →
“The risk now of going to a bomb site, of getting hit by a second bomb… outweighs the journalistic value in doing that.”
Bloomberg BNA / Jon Reid
The New York Times is suing the FCC for records that might reveal Russian government interference →
“The FCC has ‘thrown up a series of roadblocks’ to prevent the Times from obtaining records, which were first requested by Confessore and Dance in June 2017, the plaintiffs said. About half a million comments on the FCC's proposal were submitted from Russian email accounts, including some sent by automation, the Times alleged, citing data from a Washington Post op-ed by Democratic FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel.”