This is what it’s like to be a media company’s first-ever online safety editor
 |
Tuesday, January 18, 2022
 |
This is what it’s like to be a media company’s first-ever online safety editor“What’s really struck me is the variety of issues I’ve seen reported in recent weeks. Not one of them has been the same.” By Hanaa' Tameez. |
 |
Fact-checking may be important, but it won't help Americans learn to disagree better“The more that a study looked like the real world, the less fact-checking changed participants’ minds.” By Taylor Dotson. |
What We’re Reading
Defector / Laura Wagner
Quiz! Which new media company with an innovative solution for fixing the news industry said this? →
“Our credo is our praxis. We cover the intersection of power and people” or “Our credo is Power, People, Politics”?
The Kansas City Star
Kansas City Star editorial board: Banning reporters from Kansas Senate floor is the latest front in GOP’s war on the press →
“The public can observe legislative proceedings online, Kansas Senate President Ty Masterson said … Journalists do more than observe. They ask follow-up questions. They dig for more information. They fact-check. To do so requires more access to officials, not more attempts to hide.”
The Verge / Makena Kelly
The U.S. Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission announced they’ll overhaul and modernize antitrust enforcement — with a special focus on digital markets →
Tech giants like Apple, Meta (fka Facebook), and Google are sitting up. The announcement follows legislation proposed in the Senate to “stop Apple and Google from crushing competitors and undercutting consumers.”
Axios / Sara Fischer
Al Jazeera has quietly stopped creating new content for its conservative digital outlet “Rightly” →
“Sources close to the show say the effort was also meant to push back on Al Jazeera’s reputation as a liberal-leaning outlet … Rightly’s editor-in-chief Scott Norvell, a Fox News veteran, will remain with the network for a few more months but is expected to depart after that.”
The Guardian / Tristan Cross
You know modern life is hard when even ads don’t try to persuade you otherwise →
“At some point, a significant segment of advertising in the UK and the US started self-consciously aping the sardonic disaffection and dejection that many of us feel about grimly submitting to life under contemporary capitalism. A shoe company predicts a future without retirement and does not offer salvation, but instead footwear suited to perennial toil. An online estate agent mocks the idea of conceiving of a home as anything other than an investment opportunity. A tech company boasts of how its mobile phones facilitate the penetration of work into your every waking hour.”
CNBC / Alex Sherman
Sports reporters are duking it out for scoops on Twitter, and their value is soaring →
Here’s a sentence! “Sports journalists were previously better known for their personalities than their breaking news skills.”
CNN / Brian Stelter
A startup that rates the reliability of news sources says it’s making a profit →
“Almost 40% of the sites scrutinized by NewsGuard to date have received a red rating — the equivalent of a red traffic light for a driver. ‘That sounds like we’re pretty strict but, in fact, you have to be really, really bad to get a red.'”
the Guardian / Hannah Ellis-Petersen
The independent press club in Indian-administered Kashmir has been forcibly shut down →
“A small group of journalists supportive of the Indian government stormed the Kashmir Press Club with the assistance of armed police over the weekend, allegedly threatening its ruling body, and locked up the building, preventing journalists from entering. The club, which has irked the government by defending media freedoms and its critical reporting, had been about to hold new elections.”
New York Times / Andrew Higgins
Eastern Europe is testing new forms of media censorship →
“Serbia no longer jails or kills critical journalists, as happened under the rule of Slobodan Milosevic in the 1990s. It now seeks to destroy their credibility and ensure few people see their reports.”
Reuters
Twitter will expand its feature allowing users to flag misleading tweets to Brazil, Spain, and the Philippines →
“It was first tested in the United States, Australia and South Korea. Since it was first announced, Twitter said it has received around 3 million reports from users who have used it to flag tweets which they believe are in violation of its policies.”
Substack / Brian Morrissey
How Protocol applies the Politico model to tech →
“Protocol currently splits its revenue into thirds, with one third from sponsored content, one third from newsletter sponsorships and another third made up of advertising, events and other activities. The publication has also benefited from the regulatory pressure on Big Tech.”
CNN / Oliver Darcy and Brian Stelter
DirecTV is severing ties with OAN and will drop the right-wing conspiracy channel in April →
“The move will deal a significant blow to the fringe outlet. Not only will OAN be removed from the millions of households that use DirecTV as a television provider, it will also suffer a major hit to its revenue.” (In 2020, Reuters reported 90% of the channel’s revenue came from subscriber fees paid by AT&T-owned platforms, including DirecTV.)
The Washington Post / Emily Davies and Elahe Izadi
These mass shooting survivors were called journalism heroes. Then the buyouts came. →
“‘It felt like death all over again in a lot of ways when people would leave to take buyouts,’ said Selene San Felice, a former Capital Gazette reporter who had hidden under a desk during the attack. ‘We could feel each other being ripped apart when all we wanted to do was stay.'”
No comments