Researchers ask: Does enforcing civility stifle online debate?
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Monday, September 26, 2022
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Researchers ask: Does enforcing civility stifle online debate?Some social scientists argue that civility is a poor metric by which to judge the quality of an online debate. By Teresa Carr. |
What We’re Reading
Vanity Fair / Caleb Ecarma
“There’s no way to brush it to the side”: CNN insists its January 6 coverage won’t be sidelined under new regime →
“As for CNN, [anchor Jake] Tapper said he wants the outlet to be ‘a place where Democrats, Republicans, independents, and others can come and get fair, accurate information,’ beginning with January 6 coverage.”
Online Journalism Awards
These are the winners of the 2022 Online Journalism Awards →
The four winners of General Excellence in Online Journalism: Mission Local, The Trace, LAist, and The Boston Globe.
The New York Times / Adam Goldman
A federal jury has ruled against Project Veritas in lawsuit →
“During the trial, lawyers for Project Veritas portrayed the operation as news gathering and its employees as journalists following the facts.”
The Washington Post / Paul Farhi
NPR’s news chief Nancy Barnes is leaving unexpectedly after four years →
“Her decision came hours after NPR's chief executive, John Lansing, announced the creation of a new position that will oversee all of NPR's programming…The new chief content officer position would have effectively created another tier of management over Barnes, who previously reported directly to Lansing.”
The New York Times / Adam Satariano and Christopher F. Schuetze
Germany: Where online hate speech can bring the police to your door →
“Most Western democracies like the United States have avoided policing the internet because of free speech rights, leaving a sea of slurs, targeted harassment and tweets telling public figures they'd be better off dead. At most, Facebook, YouTube or Twitter remove a post or suspend their account. But over the past several years, Germany has forged another path, criminally prosecuting people for online hate speech.”
Steady / Dan Rather and Elliot Kirschner
“To my fellow journalists, I know this is difficult. We are in uncharted waters. The old rules for covering politics no longer apply.” →
“Take a long-held truth in newsrooms that journalists should cover political stories from a position of equivalence between the two major parties. But what if the truth of our current time strikes at the very bedrock notion of apolitical fairness?”
The Washington Post / Michael Cavna
Is this the beginning of the end for the comics page in American daily newspapers? →
“This is sad. Cutting two pages of comics down to a measly half page bad enough, but then you go and waste that tiny bit of real estate with comics that are reprints…Just kill the section entirely if this is the best you can do.”
Snopes Media Group
Snopes has new controlling owners and has settled longstanding legal disputes →
The new owners also own Salon and TV Tropes; Snopes cofounder David Mikkelson is out as CEO.
Politico / Michael Schaffer
Nina Totenberg had a beautiful friendship with RBG. Her book about it is an embarrassment. →
“With its odd, priestly culture, the court is particularly susceptible to this sort of veneration. Could you imagine a congressional reporter doing a book called Dinners With Harry Reid, tracing shopping excursions and intimate family moments with the late majority leader, who died the year after Ginsburg? I'm not saying Totenberg has to treat the justices as if they were venal, low-wattage members of the Palookaville ward-politics machine. But it'd be nice if she held open the possibility — a hard thing to do when you're pals.”
The Guardian / Dani Anguiano
Warning people about the danger of cooking chicken in NyQuil…got a lot of people interested in cooking chicken in NyQuil →
“According to data TikTok provided to BuzzFeed News, searches for NyQuil chicken rose significantly following the FDA's announcement and its subsequent media coverage, from five on 14 September to around 7,000 by 21 September.”
Defector / Laura Wagner
Axios employees can buy up to six copies of Axios’ new book — with Axios’ money →
“Sweaty attempts to juice book sales and get on bestseller lists are nothing new in publishing. As The Guardian wrote in 2020, there have been numerous recent instances of authors or their proxies ordering copies of books in order to boost their numbers.”
The Guardian / Edward Helmore
Gawker makes a comeback six years after it was sued into closure →
“A lot of the Gawker-type sites that came about as a result of the blogging boom has old roots in the function that some radical or experimental magazines have served. There's always been a need for journalism that challenges, pushes and to some extent holds the mainstream accountable.”
The Guardian / Jim Waterson
U.K. broadcasters are battling the monarchy over control of Queen Elizabeth’s memorial footage →
“The BBC, ITV and Sky News have been given until Monday to produce a 60-minute compilation of clips they would like to keep from ceremonial events held across the 10 days of mourning for the Queen. The royal household will then consider whether to veto any proposed inclusions. Once the process is complete, the vast majority of other footage from ceremonial events will then be taken out of circulation.”
CNN / Gerardo Lemos and Caitlin Hu
Nicaragua’s press crackdown knocks CNN en Español off the air →
“Nicaragua’s government under fifth-term President Daniel Ortega has sharply cracked down on both the press and on critics over the past two years…’CNN en Español was the only remaining outlet critical of President Daniel Ortega available to Nicaraguans,’ Reuters reported on Thursday.”
Vanity Fair / Anthony Breznican
Darth Vader’s voice will now come from an AI built in war-torn Ukraine →
Perhaps this is how Ira Glass will host This American Life’s 100th-anniversary special in 2095? “What Respeecher could do better than anyone was re-create the unforgettably menacing way that Jones, now 91, sounded half a lifetime ago.”
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