“An information dark age”: Russia’s new “fake news” law has outlawed most independent journalism there
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Monday, March 7, 2022
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“An information dark age”: Russia’s new “fake news” law has outlawed most independent journalism there“Military censorship in Russia has quickly moved into a new phase…the threat of criminal prosecution of both journalists and citizens who spread information about military hostilities that is different from the press releases of the Ministry of Defense.” By Joshua Benton. |
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“Sounds like a well-trained liar”: Journalists lose some credibility by calling themselves "storytellers"A survey in the U.S. found the public associates “storytellers” with liars and making things up. Probably not what you were going for with your Twitter bio. By Sarah Scire. |
What We’re Reading
The New York Times / Katie Robertson
Axios is spending $30 million on expansion this year →
“What to know: The company's executives think its short-format writing will build back trust in the media among busy audiences and can teach corporate America to quit its long-winded jargon.”
The Washington Post / Paul Farhi
The tiny radio station broadcasting Russian propaganda in D.C. →
“For a few seconds every hour, WZHF-AM interrupts its round-the-clock schedule of talk to air a curious disclaimer: ‘This radio programming is distributed by RM Broadcasting on behalf of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency, Moscow, Russia. Additional information is available at the Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.'”
Bustle / Eve Ettinger
What we keep getting wrong about burnout →
"I really think it’s a tool of oppression, to keep folks constantly busy, and we’re overworking and underpaying them," Hassel Aviles explains. "You’re not allowing people to rest and relax and rejuvenate and refresh their minds and their bodies, [and] oftentimes, you can’t make clear decisions if you’re in that state."
The New York Times / Katie Robertson
Axios wants us to read everything in bullet points →
“The news organization that prides itself on short-format writing has big plans to expand in local news, paid newsletters and even the emails sent by your bosses.”
Center for Public Integrity
The newsroom at the Center for Public Integrity is now majority people of color →
“Public Integrity's transformation is part of a deliberate culture shift designed to create journalism that connects with diverse communities…people of color make up more than half of both the organization's overall staff and newsroom and 37% of leadership…In 2016, Public Integrity's staff was 85% white.”
The Fine Print / Gabriel Snyder
The Fine Print will offer discounted subscriptions for underpaid media workers →
“In recognition of this income inequality in the media industry, The Fine Print is now offering a discounted subscription — $4.99 per month or $49 a year, or half the cost of our standard rate — for members of the media community who would not otherwise be able to afford a subscription. There are no specific eligibility requirements — if you think our regular price is too much for you, you qualify for this rate.”
The Washington Post / Karen Attiah
“A case study in everything that is wrong with access journalism and the immoral fixation on powerful, brutal men” →
“Washington media has a long history of cooking up overbaked puff pieces on murderous autocrats — especially when those autocrats are key U.S. allies. The Atlantic's April cover story, ‘Absolute Power,’ about MBS — which was written by Graeme Wood and included interviews conducted along with the magazine's editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg — is part of this tradition…”
Time / Lisa Abend
What it’s like for Ukrainian journalists covering the war in their country →
“The difficulty of balancing safety with the demands of the job is one that all war correspondents face, but for Ukrainian journalists — many of whom never intended to cover conflict but have found they have no choice — it is complicated by the fact that what they are reporting on is a violent assault on their own country…’We're not just telling the story, we're living the story.'”
The Washington Post / Margaret Sullivan
Putin’s full-scale information war got a key assist from Donald Trump and right-wing media →
“That Russian state TV has repeatedly played clips of [Tucker] Carlson's rants, complete with Russian subtitles, is a tribute to just how well-received his rhetoric has been by Putin and his allies.”
Nieman Reports / Ann Cooper
Russia isn’t the only post-Soviet state where a free press is under threat →
“Before the Russian invasion in February, Ukraine was part of a group of post-Soviet states — along with Moldova, Armenia, and Georgia — that have endured both authoritarian rule and periods when the press could be considered partly free, depending on who won the last national elections. These four countries have never achieved the broad freedoms and self-sustaining independence of media in former Soviet republics Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.”
Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism / Eduardo Suárez
“In a world of cultural warriors, playing it down the middle is a journalistic imperative but also a huge commercial opportunity” →
“Does that mean that we can’t have a point of view? It’s slightly more nuanced than that. Telling all sides does not mean giving equal attention to all sides. If you have the evidence that supports one story, you have to show the other side, but the reader or the viewer will understand where the facts are leading the story towards. Telling all sides doesn’t mean that all sides get equal attention.”
Jefferson Public Radio / Erik Neumann
The newspaper in Klamath Falls, Oregon is losing all its reporters →
“That leaves a newspaper in one of Oregon's most complicated rural areas, plagued by drought and facing a series of massive dam removal projects, without a reporting staff.”
GMG Union
The GMG Union has tentatively agreed to a contract with G/O Media after striking →
“After four days of picketing in the first open-ended strike by a digital media shop, G/O Media management has acknowledged the strength and demands of our members…Our members were out on the picket line every day, and their tireless efforts secured better working conditions for all unit members.”
Medium / Elizabeth Spiers
Do journalists need to be brands? →
“…I'm just going to unapologetically lean into media navel-gazing here. And I'm going to take a side: I believe [Taylor] Lorenz is correct, and [Maggie] Haberman's repulsion by this idea is partly a function of the fact that despite having a high-profile book deal and a constant stream of TV appearances, she believes that she is not branding herself, and that her work is just doing all of this on its own.”
Twitter / Paul Farhi
In response to Putin’s threats, The Washington Post will remove bylines and datelines from its stories in Russia →
“Been around a while. Never seen anything like this.”
Sky News / Stuart Ramsay
A Sky News reporting team was ambushed and shot in Ukraine →
“And then I was hit in the lower back. ‘I’ve been hit!’ I shouted. But what amazed me was that it didn’t hurt that bad. It was more like being punched, really.”
Reason / Robby Soave
YouTube won’t distinguish between misinformation and reporting, so it suspended my channel →
“YouTube suspended my show…for violating the election misinformation policy, despite the fact that neither my co-hosts nor I had said anything to indicate that we believe the election was rigged…YouTube has taken the position that merely acknowledging an utterance of the false claim is the same thing as making the claim yourself unless you correct and disavow it elsewhere in the video.”
The Guardian / Carole Cadwalladr
Social media has turned on Putin, the past master →
“…the Kremlin's invincible mastery of the information space has been exposed as a sham, a fiction, another lie. Putin has put on the equivalent of a pair of bell-bottoms and is dad-dancing across the internet. Meanwhile Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy isn't just commanding his armed forces: he's commanding TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, Telegram.”
The New York Times / Kellen Browning
Twitch says it will bar chronic spreaders of misinformation →
“Twitch will take down only channels that meet a handful of criteria. To fall afoul of the new policy, users must be persistently sharing harmful misinformation that has been widely debunked, the company said, adding that it had ‘selected these criteria because taken together they create the highest risk of harm, including inciting real-world harm.'”
BBC News / Maria Korenyuk and Jack Goodman
“My city is being shelled, but my mum in Russia won’t believe me”: Lies on Russian state TV are coming between families →
“My parents understand that some military action is happening here. But they say: ‘Russians came to liberate you. They won’t ruin anything, they won’t touch you. They’re only targeting military bases.'”
Poynter / Angela Fu
After more than 10 months of public organizing, New York Times tech workers voted 404-88 to unionize →
“The road to unionization has been contentious. Workers publicized their organizing efforts last April and asked The New York Times to voluntarily recognize their union, as it had done when employees at Wirecutter unionized in 2019. The company refused, and in the months since, the union has held a work stoppage and filed multiple unfair labor practice charges with the NLRB.”
The Kansas City Star
Why is pro-Putin “Radio Sputnik” propaganda airing on local airwaves in Kansas City? →
“Outside of Moscow, the Russian invasion has been almost universally condemned. Except for right here in the Kansas City area, where listeners of KCXL were bombarded with pro-Putin talk.”
Rest of World / Meaghan Tobin
Sci-Hub, the site for pirated academic papers, is on trial in India →
“Created and operated by the Kazakhstani computer scientist Alexandra Elbakyan, Sci-Hub is a free repository for academic papers — more than 87 million of them at the time of publication. The overwhelming majority of these papers have already been published in copyrighted journals elsewhere. The site was explicitly created as a way to circumvent the journals' paywalls, bringing millions of researchers access to published articles they couldn't otherwise afford. Now, a court case in India threatens to block access.”
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