What makes an election rumor go viral? Look at these 10 factors
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Tuesday, October 25, 2022
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What makes an election rumor go viral? Look at these 10 factorsA guide for journalists and news organizations assessing voting- and election-related rumors in the weeks leading up to the 2022 midterms. By Kate Starbird, Mike Caulfield, Renée DiResta, Emma Spiro, Madeline Jalbert Michael Grass. |
What We’re Reading
CNN
CNN just introduced a new “Guns in America” beat →
“The unit will be led by CNN guns and security correspondent Josh Campbell and feature reporting and analysis from Reload founder Stephen Gutowski, The Trace's Jennifer Mascia and Abené Clayton, reporter on the The Guardian's ‘Guns and Lies in America’ project. Together the team will explore who buys and sells guns; who makes and regulates them; and dive into the communities most impacted to help illuminate possible solutions to America's epidemic of gun violence.”
The New York Times / Quoctrung Bui
Frustrated with polling? Pollsters are, too →
“Some [pollsters] are experimenting with new approaches. Others are concerned that the problems are deeper than what their current toolkit can fix. Spend several hours talking to them, and there's only one conclusion you can reach: the same cross-currents of mistrust, misinformation and polarization that divide our nation are also weakening our ability to see it for what it is. The stronger those forces grow, the worse our polling gets.”
The Verge / Nilay Patel
The people who make your apps go to Stack Overflow for answers. Here’s how it works. →
Stack Overflow is a highly specialized kind of social network with a really unique business model…The platform has a long reputation of elitism; [CEO Prashanth Chandrasekar] himself is a developer, and he told me his own first experience on Stack Overflow was a negative one. In fact, he took over as CEO about three years ago after a pretty serious moderation controversy that saw several longtime Stack Overflow moderators quit.”
The Oregonian / Rob Davis
The Oregonian’s racist legacy →
“The newspaper helped create the Oregon of today: A majority white state, with the West Coast's smallest proportion of Black residents, anchored by Portland, America's whitest big city.”
Digiday / Seb Joseph
Why some of the largest publishers are breaking up with ad tech middlemen →
“The rationale is straightforward enough: win and retain more subscribers by shielding audiences from the low quality ads companies like Taboola run on their site. Or rather, this is straightforward to certain publishers — the kind that aren't so reliant on advertising that they have to partner with ad tech vendors against their better judgment. They are a rare breed, of course, but they are growing in number.”
Hot Pod / Ariel Shapiro
Hot Pod: The days of cheap music streaming may be numbered →
“…The audio streamers have to work harder to differentiate themselves. Apple Music and Amazon Music offer high-quality audio, whereas Spotify is exploring HiFi only for Platinum Plan subscribers, who could reportedly be charged $19.99 per month. Both Spotify and Amazon offer exclusive podcasting content, too, while Apple Music is completely separate from Apple Podcasts.”
TikTok / The Associated Press
This is the AP’s first TikTok →
“The AP started 176 years ago and used to deliver news via telegraph. Forgive us if it took us a while to join TikTok.”
Rest of World / Antonia Timmerman
Forget Netflix and Disney: A local streaming service is king in Indonesia →
“For now, Vidio has accessibility on its side, with a freemium model that sees subscriptions start from 29,000 rupiah (less than $2) — giving users access to most of its original series — all the way up to 569,000 rupiah ($36.5) for those who want to watch exclusive sports events like the FIFA World Cup or the English Premier League.”
Media Matters for America / Sophie Lawton
CBS’ Dr. Phil has become a safe space for right-wing media personalities to spread hate and misinformation →
“This trend appears to be a distinct turn for the show in contrast to the previous season. Dr. Phil now tackles conservative culture war issues like critical race theory, transgender athletes, ‘cancel culture,’ cultural appropriation, and abortion.”
Axios / Sara Fischer
Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai convicted of fraud →
“The guilty verdict marks a huge loss for press freedoms in Hong Kong, where the government has pushed to stamp out pro-democracy voices after passing a draconian national security law in 2019.”
Washington Post / Elahe Izadi
What “The Trump Tapes” reveal about Bob Woodward →
“It's unusual for a journalist to make raw reporting so public. And while research materials and interview transcripts often find welcoming homes in library archives, ‘The Trump Tapes’ also aims to be a commercial product.”
Moundsville / John Miller
Americans need more daily news stories about their actual neighbors →
“Stories about their neighbors that aren’t puff or hit pieces, but not investigative stories that take six months to report, either. The writeup of the high school quarterback's workout routine. The five-phone call story about the new hotel outside of town. The profile of the new centenarian on her 100th birthday. Solid six-hundred word stories about their communities they can read on their phone or computer every day. These stories aren't winning any Pulitzers but they're also impossible for amateur citizen-journalists to generate. They require professionals, and they build an audience, and they build trust. Call it mac n' cheese journalism.”
The Associated Press / Cara Anna and Munir Ahmed
Police in Kenya killed a Pakistani journalist in hiding, calling it a case of "mistaken identity" →
“Arshad Sharif, 50, left Pakistan in July to avoid arrest over criticizing the South Asian country’s powerful military…Nairobi police said Sharif was shot in the head and killed on Sunday night after the car he was in with his brother, Khurram Ahmed, drove through a roadblock set up on the Nairobi-Magadi highway to check vehicles along the key route. The two ignored police orders to stop and sped up. ‘They did not stop and proceeded with the journey,’ the police said. Police opened fire and laid chase, during which the car flipped over.”
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