The New York Times would really like its reporters to stop scrolling and get off Twitter (at least once in a while)
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Thursday, April 7, 2022
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The New York Times would really like its reporters to stop scrolling and get off Twitter (at least once in a while)“Tweet less, tweet more thoughtfully, and devote more time to reporting,” says executive editor Dean Baquet. Is that a wise redirection of attention or a mistaken view of reporting circa 2022? (Both, a little.) By Joshua Benton. |
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Alongside a subscriber-only investigation on eviction, USA Today publishes a free graphic novel“I report on people that are in underserved communities all the time, and I sometimes feel like my journalism and my reporting is inaccessible to the people that I write about.” By Sarah Scire. |
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Algorithms, lies, and social mediaAchieving a more transparent and less manipulative online media may well be the defining political battle of the 21st century. By Stephan Lewandowsky Anastasia Kozyreva. |
What We’re Reading
Vogue / Emma Specter
Who is the literary “privilege disclaimer” for? →
“If your acknowledgement of your privilege isn't already baked into what you're saying, then I don't know that tacking it on in order to head off Twitter criticism or what have you is beneficial to the reader."
AARP / Jon Marcus
More adults over 50 are pursuing journalism careers →
“Many older people and retirees are particularly conscious of the slide of local newspapers and often have time to invest in helping fill the vacuum left when papers fade away. ‘They're the ones who are showing up.'” (Report for America this year launched an “Experienced Corps.”)
Poynter / Neema Roshania Patel
Five questions reporters and editors should ask to diversify their sources →
“We owe this work to our readers, the people who trust us to share the news with them every day. And the readers who we haven't reached yet, because they don't trust us, or don't see themselves reflected in the news — we owe it to them most of all.”
RJI Online / William Lager
A 13-year-old Girl Scout built a patch program to help people learn about journalism and women journalists →
“Even if you are not a Girl Scout, you can benefit from learning about the history of women in journalism, sports journalism, and more.”
Washington Post
The Washington Post will “significantly expand” its Visual Forensics team, the group that verifies and analyzes on-the-ground footage from major news events →
The team has distinguished itself with duPont Award-winning coverage of the police crackdown in Lafayette Square, video investigations of January 6, and verification of video from Ukraine.
Chicago Sun-Times / Tina Sfondeles
Barack Obama laments the loss of local journalism and warns about social media profiting off conflict →
In Chicago, the former president also said “there is a demand for crazy on the internet that we have to grapple with” and that he “underestimated” disinformation’s thread to democracies.
CNN / Simone McCarthy and Yong Xiong
As the world reacts in horror to Bucha, China’s state-run media is striking a different tone →
“In one report, a caption citing Russia with the words ‘Ukrainians directed a good show,’ flashes over heavily blurred footage from the Ukrainian town.”
Washington Post / Elahe Izadi
Media critic Eric Boehlert has died after a bicycle collision in his New Jersey hometown →
“Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch told The Post he knew Boehlert for more than a decade, and called him ‘one of the great human beings in journalism — just a good-natured dad, sports lover and outdoorsman who also happened to be a relentless pit bull in the public arena in calling out misinformation or shoddy work in the media, whether it was his bête noire, Fox News, or often at mainstream outlets like the New York Times.'”
Astra Magazine
Astra Magazine, a new “international magazine of literature,” now has a website →
Editor-in-chief Nadja Spiegelman says the magazine will publish new essays and criticism daily.
AP News
Three Connecticut newspapers have been acquired by the Rhode Island Suburban Newspapers group →
“The New Britain Herald, Bristol Press and the Chronicle of Willimantic were sold by Central Connecticut Communications to Rhode Island Suburban Newspapers, the papers announced. Rhode Island Suburban Newspapers acquired the weekly Block Island Times from the same ownership group in February.”
Axios / Sara Fischer
First Look Media, the parent company of The Intercept, laid off 20 people →
The Intercept’s union said seven colleagues lost their jobs, including four members, one Intercept editor, and two employees who work closely with the newsroom.
El Faro
El Faro shut down its website today in protest of changes to El Salvador’s Penal Code that aim to censor journalism about gangs →
"In a democracy, those in power do not decide what is published or not. But this new law, passed by the legislature at the command of President Nayib Bukele, comes when democratic order has already been dismantled in El Salvador and the regime goes to every length to hide its corruption and its negotiations with criminal groups. That is why today, in objection to this gag order, we will keep closed our home page. This country paid too high a price for its freedoms. We cannot allow them to be snatched away by a regime bent on leaving its citizens in darkness. Tomorrow you'll once more find in our pages what we have done for years and will continue to do: journalism. Today, we protest."
Bloomberg / Benoit Berthelot
Le Monde, the leading French daily, is launching an English version →
The newspaper has 425,000 digital subscribers and plans to reach 1 million paying readers in the next two to three years, with a quarter of them reading the English version.
The Pulse / Joe Killian
UNC-Chapel Hill read journalism faculty emails and searched backup systems on their computers looking for leaks →
"As a reminder, all of this was ostensibly in pursuit of an inquiry into a leaked donor agreement that the University later admitted was a public record.”
Chartbeat Blog / Jack Neary
Engagement isn’t keeping pace with pageviews. That’s bad news for publishers trying to turn visitors into loyal readers. →
“When almost half of the readers who load an article will leave in the first 15 seconds, looking deeper than pageviews is necessary to understand how engaging your content actually is … Traffic alone does not lead to engagement. Outside of Q2 2020, engagement levels have not kept pace with traffic increases.”
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