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Monday, October 15, 2018
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Will Vox’s new section on effective altruism…well, do any good?“It came out of a sense that there were some really important topics with impacts on human beings that didn't get as much coverage in traditional journalism sections and pieces.” By Christine Schmidt. |
What We’re Reading
Columbia Journalism Review / Lyz Lenz
The unknown costs of rural broadband and the digital divide in the news cycle →
“What does this gap mean for journalists? It means me paying over $80 a month just for reliable internet to do my job in Cedar Rapids while my friend in Minneapolis only has to pay $39 for hers. It means rural Americans aren't reading your hot takes. They aren't paying attention to the minutiae of the Kavanaugh hearing that the internet class chatters over, nor do they know what Kanye said on Twitter. All that work that The New York Times does to uncover the reality of the president's finances in a 15,000-word online report goes into a void. Unless news makes it to TV, the majority of Americans won't see it or consider it.”
CNN Business / Hadas Gold
The New York Times shuts down its $11,995 guided Saudi Arabia tours →
“‘In light of the uncertainty surrounding the disappearance of the Washington Post’s Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Turkey, The New York Times has decided to cancel all upcoming Times Journeys departures to Saudi Arabia,’ a New York Times spokesperson said in an email… The journey to Saudi Arabia was advertised as ‘Saudi Arabia and the Emirates: The Past and Future of Oil.'”
The Atlantic / Taylor Lorenz
Instagram, with a goal “to be the safest platform online,” has a massive harassment problem →
“‘When you're hanging out on Instagram it's easy to feel part of a big friendly happy group,’ said Zoe Fraade-Blanar, author of the book Superfandom. ‘But being part of an angry mob with those same people is also a lot of fun, and that's why you get these huge uprisings.'”
Global Editors Network / Freia Nahser
How BuzzFeed is using automation →
“For example, if the team were trying to identify what kind of content to adapt from the English-speaking to the Portuguese market, the model would go through data, including performance split by country, all historical articles, and all articles that have been translated from English to Portuguese in the past, and a 'hotness score' would be generated based on the output of the logistic regression. The higher the hotness score, the more likely it is that the article will be a success.”
Brian Stelter and Dianne Gallagher
Florida newsrooms turn to Facebook Live and sister stations after Hurricane Michael pummels the newsrooms →
“The morning assignment meeting on Friday was held in a circle in the parking lot. The staff produced another newscast from the parking lot on Friday night. The backdrop was a giant chunk of roof that flew off a nearby building.”
Medium / Heather Bryant
“What would journalism be if we actually changed all the things we say we want to change?” →
“The future of journalism is and always will be people. The thing that will save journalism is people. The ones in our newsrooms and the ones outside our newsrooms. People from all kind of backgrounds and perspectives. People who seek to use their voice to empower others. People who work together. Our future depends on how we treat them, how we include or exclude them, how we represent and serve them and how we invest in them.”
Wired / Rossalyn Warren
Egypt is using the country’s “fake news” law to imprison women who share their sexual harassment experiences on social media →
“It's not uncommon for women to turn to Twitter and Facebook to speak out against harassment, particularly in the #MeToo era. But Mona faced a different problem. Her arrest came at a time when Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi approved new legislation aimed at targeting people guilty of spreading ‘false news’ about Egypt.”
CBS News / 60 Minutes
Trump vows “severe punishment” if Saudi Arabia killed Jamal Khashoggi →
“‘There’s a lot at stake,’ Mr. Trump continued. ‘And, maybe especially so because this man was a reporter. There’s something, you’ll be surprised to hear me say that, there’s something really terrible and disgusting about that if that were the case. We’re going to get to the bottom of it and there will be severe punishment.'”
New York Post / Josh Kosman and Keith J. Kelly
McClatchy is allegedly worried Patrick Soon-Shiong won’t come through in a Tribune Publishing deal →
“Now, however, McClatchy is approaching [billionaire Leon] Black's Apollo [Management, a buyout firm] for debt financing, rather than asking it to become a co-owner, according to sources. It's not yet clear whether Black — known to be friendly with former Tronc Chairman Michael Ferro — will do a deal, and if so on what terms, sources said.”