How many people really watch or read RT, anyway? It’s hard to tell, but some of their social numbers are eye-popping
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Wednesday, March 2, 2022
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How many people really watch or read RT, anyway? It’s hard to tell, but some of their social numbers are eye-poppingBut the numbers that suggest a huge international reach are also some of the easiest to manipulate. By Joshua Benton. |
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Sharing top-secret intelligence with the public is unprecedented. Here’s why the U.S. decided to do it for UkraineThe U.S. is “making this information public in a way that is unprecedented.” By Naomi Schalit. |
What We’re Reading
Business Insider / Steven Perlberg
New York Times editors are focusing on staff retention as policies about outside projects spark frustrations and exits →
“Since last March, Times reporters have to go through a new bureaucratic approval process, filling out a Google form that goes to a committee..The new committee rules on whether Times reporters can take book deals or conduct outside work like consulting on TV shows and films.”
Axios / Dan Primack
Trump hasn’t posted to his Truth Social social media app since it launched →
“He’s not using the app.”
Slate Magazine / Stephen Harrison
How the Russian invasion of Ukraine is playing out on English, Ukrainian, and Russian Wikipedia →
“It's important to note that there is not a singular Wikipedia, but rather at least 323 language editions—and that these language editions can vary considerably.”
NPR
NPR launches “State of Ukraine” daily podcast →
“With several new episodes per day, State of Ukraine will feature reporting from NPR journalists on the ground, as well as conversations with officials, experts, and other newsmakers.”
The Data-Driven Reporting Project
Local journalists can now apply to receive funds to support their document-based investigations from the Data-Driven Reporting Project →
Local news journalists and freelancers working on data projects that serve local and/or underrepresented communities in the US and Canada. The work can be in any storytelling medium (text, visual, or audio) and be a singular long-form piece or a series of pieces. Deadline is April 8.
Columbia Journalism Review / Paroma Soni
A new tool to help journalists sort through FOIA data dumps →
"You don't really need something to help you analyze 10,000 emails until the moment you do—and then you need it right away," Derek Kravitz, data and investigations editor at MuckRock, says. "Not many newsrooms can support that infrastructure in an ongoing way, to keep it on hand in case they get a massive leak—like the Facebook Files, for instance. So having this accessible when it's needed might be the difference between some really important stories getting told and some stories never even being looked at."
Wired UK / Chris Stokel-Walker
TikTok was designed for war →
“As Russia's invasion of Ukraine plays out online, the platform's design and algorithm prove ideal for the messiness of war—but a nightmare for the truth.”
The Verge / Makena Kelly
Biden demands Congress protect kids online in State of the Union address →
“Specifically, Biden requested that Congress institute stronger children's privacy rules, ban targeted advertising to children, and pressure social media companies to design their products from the ground up with child safety in mind.”
Nieman Reports / Anne Garrels
Ukrainian journalists risk everything to stand up to Putin →
“In this war, journalists along with others Moscow has trained its sites on are likely to be silenced. They will either be rounded up and executed or censored by the pro-Russian government Putin plans to install.”
Time / Billy Perrigo
Facebook content moderators in Kenya are going to get a pay bump following a Time investigation →
“Facebook content moderators based in Kenya will receive a salary increase of between 30% and 50%, in a move announced two weeks after a Time investigation drew attention to low pay, poor working conditions and alleged union-busting by Sama, the outsourcing company that is their direct employer.”
Lenfest Institute for Journalism / Hayley Slusser
How the Lexington Herald-Leader and CivicLex partnered to elevate community voices →
“The two organizations now operate a joint civic journalism fund to support future projects. They hope to eventually extend the project from the opinion section to the news section by training locals as reporters.”
Poynter / Doris Truong
For Ukraine – and all news coverage – journalists need to pay attention to word choices →
“As journalists, we owe it to the people whose stories we are telling to treat them with the humanity they deserve.”
The Washington Post / Will Oremus and Jeremy B. Merrill
As Ukraine misinformation rages, Twitter’s fact-checking tool is a no-show →
“A Washington Post analysis of data that Twitter publishes on Birdwatch found that contributors were flagging about 43 tweets per day in 2022 before Russia's invasion of Ukraine, a microscopic fraction of the total number of tweets on the service and probably a tiny sliver of the potentially misleading ones.”
The New York Times / Jeremy W. Peters
Judge says Sarah Palin “failed to prove her case” against the Times →
“In a written opinion explaining his decision to dismiss Ms. Palin's defamation case, Judge Jed S. Rakoff also stated his faith in the integrity of the jury.”
The New Yorker / David Remnick
How Russia’s Nobel-winning newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, is covering Ukraine →
“We all agreed, in the editorial office, that the main thing is not to screw up — that we don't betray our readers, who need continuous and verified information. We will not become propagandists. We respect the sovereignty of Ukraine — and the sovereignty of Novaya Gazeta.”
CNN / Oliver Darcy
DirecTV expels RT from its lineup, dealing a major blow to the Russia-backed outlet in the U.S. →
“DISH is the other major television company that carries RT in the US. A DISH spokesperson declined to say on Monday whether the carrier would take any action against the channel, but voiced support for the people of Ukraine and said DISH is ‘closely monitoring the situation.'”
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