The Russian language news startup Helpdesk offers service journalism for times of war
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Monday, October 3, 2022
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The Russian language news startup Helpdesk offers service journalism for times of warFounder Ilya Krasilshchik doesn’t know the average age or gender or location of the people seeking help through Helpdesk’s chat — he just knows many are terrified. By Sarah Scire. |
What We’re Reading
Press Gazette / Bron Maher
Staff of left-wing U.K. news site The Canary say they’ve “overthrown” management and will now run it as a co-op →
“Canary staff given access to [previously] ‘restricted systems’ found evidence of ‘gross inequalities and gross mismanagement that was rampant in the company’…there had been failings in the management of the site's membership database and that overall there was a ‘culture of hierarchy and narcissism.'”
Drezner's World / Daniel W. Drezner
On the matter of Maggie Haberman-hating: Point… →
“While all White House press reporters attracted their trolls, with Haberman there was an order-of-magnitude difference. A sizable faction of very online folks clearly believe that Haberman was not covering Trump, but rather covering for Trump…First, in her Twitter feed, Haberman gave more weight to stories that offered a more favorable view of Trump's political machinations, which annoys folks who despise Trump. Second, never underestimate plain-old sexism: as a woman, Haberman gets far more vitriol than her male counterparts.”
emptywheel / Marcy Wheeler
…counterpoint… →
“In retrospect there were probably better ways to try to convey the danger posed by Trump than to serially mock him on Twitter, reinforcing the editorial decisions that treated his tantrums but not his actions as the news, even while exacerbating the polarization between those who identified with Trump's tantrums and those who with their fancy PhDs knew better….[Haberman’s] stories, individually and as a corpus, revealed Trump to be a skilled bully. But those stories of Trump's bullying commanded our attention, just like his reality TV show did, and reassured him that continued bullying would continue to dominate press coverage.”
Drezner's World / Daniel W. Drezner
…counter-counterpoint →
“I don't think [Americans focused more on scandalous White House anecdotes than Trump’s actions] because reporters like Haberman were engaging in a pattern of distraction. I think it happened because Americans prefer to read about easily digestible, scandalous stories like that than longform deep dives into policy. If Wheeler and others want to argue that Haberman et al's reporting does not have a lot of nutritional value, that is an utterly defensible position. But I don't think that this coverage crowded out better coverage. It was all available to read. It's just that most Americans, when they read about politics at all, will go for the quick sugar high.”
The Verge / Jasmine Hicks
Twitch begins testing a paid “Elevated Chat” feature →
“…the ‘experiment’ is meant to let users elevate their chat messages for a specific time using a one-time fee. The fees are presented in five different tiers ranging from 30 seconds to two and a half minutes, with fees ranging from $5 to $100.”
Wired / Morgan Meaker
How bots corrupted advertising →
“Botmasters have created a Kafkaesque system where companies are paying huge sums to show their ads to bots. And everyone is fine with this….'[A problem] that no one talks about, no one writes about, everyone thinks it's someone else's problem.'”
The New York Times / Tina Isaac-Goizé
Glitz Paris is a new $500/year tell-all newsletter about the luxury industry →
“As a title, Glitz may ring more gossip rag than hard-hitting media, but the teaser stories it already has posted online are detailed financial and business articles and, according to Indigo, its target audience ranges from luxury consultants to media outlets. On its website, Glitz calls itself ‘the first investigative publication dedicated to the global luxury sector,’ a market that, according to a recent report by Bain & Company, could surpass $300 billion this year.”
The Washington Post / Paul Farhi
TV reporters standing in hurricanes: An American tradition →
“Such participatory journalism has no equal in the news business. War reporters usually do not place themselves in the midst of combat, and police reporters typically do not do ‘standups’ in the middle of a shootout. A reporter covering a fire keeps a safe distance.”
Waxy / Andy Baio
AI data laundering: How academic and nonprofit researchers shield tech companies from accountability →
“Outsourcing the heavy lifting of data collection and model training to non-commercial entities allows corporations to avoid accountability and potential legal liability. It's currently unclear if training deep learning models on copyrighted material is a form of infringement, but it's a harder case to make if the data was collected and trained in a non-commercial setting.”
Slate Magazine / Samuel Breslow
Wikipedia editors have, after intense debate, downgraded Fox News to a “marginally reliable source” →
“This means that its use as a reference in Wikipedia articles will not be permitted for ‘exceptional claims’ that require heightened scrutiny, but that its reliability will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis for other claims.”
Los Angeles Times / Steve Appleford
Creem has risen: A once-extinct rock magazine is on a quest to make itself vital again →
“Now, after decades of false starts and two lawsuits, Creem is back in action as a subscription-only quarterly with an active online presence. It lands this month as a sophisticated, large-format publication that is both contemporary and true to Creem's original flavor, without slipping into nostalgia for the rock 'n' roll past.”
Press Gazette
Iranian journalist seized after reporting on Mahsa Amini funeral →
“[Reporter Elahe] Mohammadi covered Mahsa's funeral after the 22-year-old died in hospital after three days in a coma following her arrest by Iran's morality police. Mahsa was declared brain dead and died in hospital three days after apparently being beaten by Iran's morality police.”
The Washington Post / Paul Farhi
Tua Tagovailoa’s head injury renewed a debate over how sports broadcasts handle concussions →
“‘How do you say he shouldn't be playing if the Dolphins and the doctor green-light him,’ [Michael Weisman, a longtime sports executive and producer] asked. ‘It's hard for Al or [color analyst Kirk] Herbstreit or anyone on the broadcast to say that.'”
The New York Times / John Koblin
NBC’s Dateline was born on TV, but destined for podcast stardom →
“Of course, true crime and podcasts go hand in hand…It has been a learning curve for the staff. Each story for the podcast is told over six one-hour episodes, requiring far different pacing from the hour it gets on television.”
The New York Times / Kalley Huang
A new refrain from artists: We “almost gave up on Instagram” →
“Photographers and illustrators who once eagerly shared images of their work on Instagram are moving away from the site as it emphasizes video…Many of these artists are photographers, illustrators or graphic novelists whose work doesn't easily translate to video. More and more, they are finding that audiences on Instagram aren't seeing their posts, their growth on the platform is stagnating and their reach is shrinking.”
The Verge / Ariel Shapiro
It’s never been easier to be an artist — or harder to become a star →
“On paper, it should be a golden age for music. Anyone with a song in their heart and a subscription to TuneCore can distribute their music on Spotify and other music streamers right alongside Beyoncé…So why, as research firm Luminate reported earlier this year, are consumers listening to less new music than before?”
The Guardian / Jim Waterson
Critics say a BBC World Service plan to move its Vietnamese staff to Thailand puts them in danger →
“Several reporters at the World Service raised concerns that the Vietnamese state had a history of abducting journalists from Thailand…’Being a critic of the Vietnamese government, even when you're in Thailand, is not safe,’ said one World Service employee. Journalists in Thailand have to annually submit their articles to the government to have their visas renewed.”
Press Gazette / Bron Maher
Financial Times staff will all receive a £1,800 cost-of-living payment →
“The £1,800 is not the first top-up FT staff have received in the past year: in December, all editorial staff at the business were awarded a £5,600 bonus, along with a sushi and sake party.” With the exchange rate, £1,800 is about…$1,800.
Associated Press
Two former eBay executives were sentenced to prison for terrorizing a couple that reported on the ecommerce site →
David and Ina Steiner — the publisher and reporter of the newsletter eCommerceBytes — were sent live spiders, cockroaches, and funeral wreaths, among other items. James Baugh, eBay’s former senior director of safety, was sentenced to almost five years while David Harville, another former executive, got two years behind bars.
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