Most people on Twitter don’t live in political echo chambers — but mostly because they don’t care enough to bother building one
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Wednesday, October 5, 2022
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Most people on Twitter don’t live in political echo chambers — but mostly because they don’t care enough to bother building one“The elite discussion on the platform is important, but it is not necessarily observed directly by the masses.” By Joshua Benton. |
What We’re Reading
CNN / Jessica Schneider
The Onion filed a brief in support of satire with the Supreme Court →
“It is wading into legal advocacy by asking the high court to hear a case about an Ohio man who was arrested and later acquitted for creating a fake Facebook page that looked nearly identical to a local police department's site.”
WSJ / Allison Prang
Facebook will allow users to customize their news feeds with “show less” or “show more” buttons →
“This is the latest change to come to Facebook, which over the summer said it would offer a [separate] friends-and-family feed, marking a pivot to an earlier iteration of the social-media platform.”
Washington Post / Tom Sietsema
The Washington Post’s food critic is saying goodbye to star ratings in restaurant reviews →
“Stars put restaurants in an unfortunate box. A place that's memorable for, say, just a few dishes or great hospitality would be unlikely to get more than a couple of stars. But don't a lot of us know places like that, where just a few dishes or extra attention are precisely the reasons we choose to return to a restaurant again and again? That kind of admiration — affection even — is hard to capture in points.”
Nieman Reports / Ha Minh Ta
How to support journalists experiencing online harassment →
“Not all of the [steps in the guide] require an HR department or an IT person. Some steps are as simple as getting everybody on your staff a paid subscription to a software program called DeleteMe, which removes the individual's personal information from online public access.”
The Daily Dot / David Covucci
Someone is spamming InfoWars with a supercut video of Alex Jones allegedly day-drinking at work →
“InfoWars did not respond to a request for comment from the Daily Dot.”
Axios / Sara Fischer
The New York Daily News will start prioritizing local content, according to a memo sent to staff →
The Daily News is trying to reemerge from decades of financial trouble under the ownership of Alden Global Capital, a hedge fund known for cutting journalists at local papers to maximize profits.
Council on Foreign Relations / Ben Sando
Taiwan's local elections, not the national ones, are where China's disinformation strategies begin →
“With Taiwanese voters set to elect candidates to fill over 10,000 offices, the information space is fragmented, which gives China greater scope to spread rumors and conspiracy theories through local communities.”
Raleigh News & Observer / DAWN BAUMGARTNER VAUGHAN, KYLE INGRAM, AND LAURA BRACHE
The News & Observer will make candidate questionnaires available to all North Carolina news outlets for free →
“As part of our 2022 election coverage, we sent out hundreds of candidate questionnaires for all 170 races for the North Carolina General Assembly … All of the questionnaires will be available to local publications across the state for free, in an effort to help inform North Carolina voters this election season.”
INN / Michele McLellan, Jesse Holcomb, and Emily Roseman
The local expansion of nonprofit news is predominantly urban →
Only one in six outlets targets a rural audience, according to a fact sheet released by the Institute for Nonprofit News.
New York Times / Kevin Roose
What will Twitter be like under Elon Musk’s control? →
Six predictions ranging from “new subscription products” to “Donald Trump will be back.”
The Desk / Matthew Keys
A Minnesota sued Google over a state law that requires companies to destroy video rental records →
“The lawsuit, filed earlier this month in a California federal court, says Google unlawfully preserves the purchasing and viewing history of streaming videos rented through the Google Play Store, YouTube and other Google-owned services.”
Poynter / Kristen Hare
These Florida morning show hosts stayed on the air for 12 hours after Hurricane Ian →
“We still have almost 100,000 people in the two counties that still don't have power. The only way they're getting information is through a radio."
Public Books / Melanie Walsh
Where is all the book data? →
“To what extent might BookScan data—with all of these holes and inaccuracies—be shutting out imaginative and experimental literature? To what extent might BookScan data be shutting out writers of color—or anyone, for that matter, who doesn't resemble the financially successful authors who came before them?”
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