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Thursday, February 21, 2019
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Flipboard wants tighter abs, Pinterest wants good wine, and Linkedin wants to read about…shopping? Here are the kinds of content platform users seek (or avoid)Also: Drudge Report readers are some of longform’s biggest fans, Instagram users are worried about their credit limit, and Facebook users would love more stories about pregnancy, please. By Kelsey Arendt. |
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How News 12 is working with ProPublica’s Documenting Hate database to track local hate crimes“Getting things on air will reach the audience you’re looking to reach. Getting things online is important so people can find the work later.” By Christine Schmidt. |
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The state of women in U.S. media in 2019: Still f’ing abysmal — especially at Reuters and the AP“The media is in a state of great disruption, but despite all the change, one thing remains the same: fewer women report the news than men.” By Laura Hazard Owen. |
What We’re Reading
The Guardian / Julia Carrie Wong
Pinterest is blocking even searches for anti-vaxx propaganda →
“Pinterest, the visual social network, faced scrutiny in 2016 after a scientific study found that 75% of posts related to vaccines were negative. The next year, Pinterest updated its ‘community guidelines’ to explicitly ban ‘promotion of false cures for terminal or chronic illnesses and anti-vaccination advice’ under a broader policy against misinformation that ‘has immediate and detrimental effects on a pinner's health or on public safety.'”
KBS World Radio / Kim Bum-soo
South Korea is now blocking access to certain HTTPS websites →
HTTPS has grown in popularity (for news sites and others) in part because, by encrypting communication between a web browser and a web server, it limited governments’ ability to eavesdrop on or censor web activity. But South Korean censors are now using Server Name Indication filtering to grab web addresses just before they’re encrypted. More detail here.
Nieman Foundation
Here’s a (free) conference on journalism about the 2020 election, in Chicago in April →
“The conference will focus on key elements of the upcoming presidential race, while examining how a more forward-looking, responsive type of coverage can better serve voters and adapt to fast-changing narratives. Above all else, the conference strives to be as user-friendly for reporters as possible, equipping them with practical tools and tips to cover the campaign ahead.” Panelists include Margaret Sullivan, Lydia Polgreen, Chuck Todd, and Ben Smith.
GQ / Kieran Dahl
Why everyone on Tinder is an “Oxford comma enthusiast” →
“The blue-blood punctuation mark, named after the Oxford University Press, acts as a social signifier, a sieve for the bookish and studious (and, perhaps, pretentious). It suggests personality traits that extend far beyond punctuation preferences.”
MIT Technology Review / Mike Orcutt
Once hailed as unhackable, blockchains are now getting hacked →
“Hackers have stolen nearly $2 billion worth of cryptocurrency since the beginning of 2017, mostly from exchanges, and that's just what has been revealed publicly. These are not just opportunistic lone attackers, either. Sophisticated cybercrime organizations are now doing it too.”
Digiday / Lucinda Southern
“Retention is a key strategic element for all publishers”: European publishers focus on churn →
“Over half of respondents said that subscriber revenue will be their most important revenue line in 2019, ahead of native and display advertising.”
Recode / Kurt Wagner
Digital advertising in the U.S. is finally bigger than print and television →
“New estimates from eMarketer show that US advertisers will spend more than $129 billion on digital advertising in 2019 — more than the $109 billion they plan to spend on ‘traditional’ advertising.”
Poynter / Kristen Hare
The Dallas Morning News found a loyal audience when it started covering — wait for it — the weather →
“Jimenez isn't trying to replace the weather news you can get from your phone or local meteorologists but add context and utility. He localized a California wildfire story when a man and his daughter lost their home and stuck with their plans to come to Dallas to see the Cowboys. He looked into which Texas cities have the coolest summers and why Texas pecans will cost so much this year.”
RJI / Peter Georgiev
A robot commits libel. Who is responsible? →
“How should courts treat cases in which a robot generates a defamatory statement? Legal and tech experts believe now is the time to decide.”
BuzzFeed News / Caroline O'Donovan and Logan McDonald
YouTube continues to promote anti-vax videos as Facebook prepares to fight medical misinformation →
“YouTube's promotion of misleading testimonials like Cartmell's is concerning precisely because people do turn to YouTube for health information — and Google knows that.”
Digiday / Max Willens
Medium is hiring more editors →
“Qualified candidates will be expected to have deep networks of possible contributors and staff writers, plus comfort with the idea of being ‘the face of a brand,’ the listings read.”
The Guardian / Jim Waterson
Mark Zuckerberg will meet with the U.K. official who wants to regulate Facebook →
Parliament released a report this week saying Facebook behaved like “digital gangsters” and intentionally send uninformed staff to answer its questions. “It is unclear whether Nick Clegg, the former deputy prime minister turned Facebook policy chief, will be in the meeting.”