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Friday, January 25, 2019
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Do people fall for fake news because they’re partisan or because they’re lazy? Researchers are dividedPlus: Real-life consequences after you get harassed online, watching your boyfriend become radicalized, and what is Fox News, exactly? By Laura Hazard Owen. |
What We’re Reading
Recode / Peter Kafka
BuzzFeed is hoping to save itself by merging with another media company →
“BuzzFeed began laying off 15 percent of its staff — about 200 employees — on Friday. Its next move could be a merger with Group Nine, another big digital publisher.”
The Washington Post / Nick Anderson and Peggy McGlone
Johns Hopkins to buy Newseum building in D.C. as journalism museum plans to relocate →
“The Newseum has operated since 2008 at the Penn Quarter location, near the Mall and a few blocks northwest of the Capitol, drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors a year but enduring financial challenges as it charged an admission fee while neighboring Smithsonian museums were free. The Freedom Forum announced in August 2017 that it was studying options for the building, including a sale, to escape what had become an untenable run of perennial budget deficits at the Newseum.”
BuzzFeed News / Trish Bendix
The past, present, and precarious future of LGBT media →
“At this point, do we really need to keep prostrating ourselves — proving that LGBT stories are not only valuable, but ‘safe’ — to straight and cis-led corporations and advertisers who want to appear inclusive but not too inclusive? Do we want to be another business's cool new vanity project until they get tired of us and pull the plug? And perhaps most importantly, are we getting too far away from the reason LGBT media was created in the first place?”
Washington Post / Elizabeth Dwoskin
YouTube says it is changing its algorithms to stop recommending conspiracies →
“In a blog post that YouTube plans to publish Friday, the company said that it was taking a ‘closer look’ at how it can reduce the spread of content that ‘comes close to — but doesn't quite cross the line’ of violating its rules. YouTube has been criticized for directing users to conspiracies and false content when they begin watching legitimate news.” On Thursday, BuzzFeed published an investigation into how YouTube’s recommendation algorithm sends people down conspiracy theory rabbit holes.
Vanity Fair / Peter Hamby
A media manifesto to prevent 2020 from becoming 2016 →
“If we think about policy journalism as simply the impact of governance on the American condition, the real human consequences of decisions made in Washington, D.C., and in state capitals, then policy journalism isn't actually ‘really tough.’ It's just journalism. And in the Trump era, the best of it has grabbed us. So as we search for clues on how journalists can repair the forever broken state of campaign reporting, it's useful to sort through the moments when meaty policy fights have overtaken the national political conversation, to understand how attention works in today's media.”
New York Times / Mike Isaac
Zuckerberg plans to integrate WhatsApp, Instagram messaging, and Facebook Messenger →
“Mr. Zuckerberg has also ordered all of the apps to incorporate end-to-end encryption, the people said, a significant step that protects messages from being viewed by anyone except the participants in the conversation. After the changes take effect, a Facebook user could send an encrypted message to someone who has only a WhatsApp account, for example. Currently, that isn't possible because the apps are separate.”
Medium / Lizzy Raben
Q&A: Sam Felix, director of audience and platforms at The New York Times →
“Obviously Reddit is not new, it's actually been around for a very long time, but they are sort of emerging for us, in a way. When we look at how we engage with Reddit and what sort of investment we put into it, one of the things that was most attractive to us was leveraging AMAs as a way to expose this very engaged Times audience to our journalists and answer questions about how the report is made, pulling back the curtain on The New York Times.”
The Verge / Andrew Liptak
How a Vermont social network became a model for online communities →
“The site looks like a relic from another era; its website is clean and minimal, without the pictures, reaction buttons or comment fields that most social platforms have implemented today. Users register using their real name and address, and gain access to the forum for their town or neighborhood. This network of 185 forums covers each town in Vermont, as well as a handful in neighboring New York and New Hampshire. “
Twitter / Maxwell Tani
“You cannot pitch or write a story that is simply something someone said on Twitter” →
Business Insider is “banning” Twitter for its reporters and editor for a week. It’s definitely a “ban”: “We will have a few editors monitoring Twitter at all times in case news does break there.”
Reuters / Stephanie Nebehay
U.N. names members of international inquiry on Khashoggi murder →
“The U.N. rights office said in a statement that the independent panel would seek to establish ‘the nature and extent of States' and individuals' responsibilities for the killing.'”
Digiday / Sahil Patel
WarnerMedia shuts investment arm that backed Mic, Mashable, and other digital media startups →
“WarnerMedia Investments, formerly known as Time Warner Investments, is no longer its own corporate entity as of the end of 2018, according to six sources familiar with the matter. Allison Goldberg, the executive in charge of the investment group, has also left the company.”
BuzzFeed News / Caroline O'Donovan and Charlie Warzel
From BBC News to QANon: We went down YouTube’s recommendation rabbit hole →
“Despite year-old promises to fix its "Up Next" content recommendation system, YouTube is still suggesting conspiracy videos, hyperpartisan and misogynist videos, pirated videos, and content from hate groups following common news-related searches.”