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Thursday, April 23, 2020
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Report for America — remotely? Despite coronavirus, RFA will put 225 journalists “in” newsrooms across the country“We used to say trustworthy information is important to democracy. And now we should say trustworthy local information is a matter of life and death.” By Hanaa' Tameez. |
What We’re Reading
Nieman Reports / Eryn Carlson
Speculative journalism can help us prepare for what’s to come. Can it also promote misinformation? →
“This narrative technique can help audiences think about the future in more concrete terms. But critics question if integrating science fiction into journalism is responsible.”
The Verge / Adi Robertson
Researchers want social media companies to preserve coronavirus misinformation data →
“The letter urges companies to preserve content that is removed from the service, including accounts, posts, and videos. It also encourages them to keep records of the removal process itself, like whether a takedown was automated or received human oversight, whether users tried to appeal the takedown, and whether content was reported but left online.”
Poynter / Kristi Eaton
It’s a good time to run a hobbyist magazine →
“Health, food, and home and garden titles, among others, have seen an abundance of readers and social media engagement since stay-at-home and shelter-in-place orders swept across the country during the past month.”
The Information / Alex Heath
Inside WhatsApp’s retreat on in-app advertising →
“Last fall, employees prepared to share details of the planned 2020 rollout at an internal sales gathering in Singapore. But after meeting with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg ahead of the event, Will Cathcart, the new head of WhatsApp, relayed to staffers that the plan to implement ads had been shelved.”
Poynter / Kristen Hare
This project is paying out-of-work journalists to keep covering Oklahoma →
“The Coronavirus Storytelling Project launched last week with a story from Berry Tramel. Each week, the project chooses pitches from five journalists in Oklahoma, supports them with editing, publishing and makes their work available to other newsrooms. It also pays them $500 each.”
Pew Research Center / Mark Jurkowitz and Amy Mitchell
Older Americans are following COVID-19 news more closely than younger adults →
“More than two-thirds of adults ages 65 or older (69%) said they were following news of the pandemic very closely. At the other end of the spectrum, about four-in-ten Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 (42%) said they were paying as much attention to COVID-19 news. Those adults ages 30 to 49 and ages 50 to 64 fall in between.”
LION Publishers
The 2020 LION Summit won’t happen in 2020 →
“We're pivoting as an association. We're providing more immediate and ongoing programming for our members, and those we don't yet call members, all of which are seeking to build sustainable local digital publishing businesses.”
The Lead / Taylor Blatchford
Here’s how you can help support student newsrooms →
“Under normal circumstances, you publish stories online and/or in print with a barebones staff and limited resources, fueled by passion and caffeine. Now, you're covering campuses and universities that students have been told to leave and where administrations are figuring out how to run a campus completely online, and you’re figuring out how to keep publishing.”
The Daily Beast / Maxwell Tani
CNN won’t send staffers back into its offices until September, at least →
“Our expectation is that the rest of you will not return before early September, with a few exceptions in July for newsgathering and some in August, depending on the political conventions,” [Jeff] Zucker said…’production of our programs will continue from home, as is it is now, until the end of summer.'”
The Markup / Aaron Sankin
Facebook let advertisers target users interested in “pseudoscience” →
Until The Markup pointed it out: “An ad for a hat that would supposedly protect my head from cellphone radiation appeared on my Facebook feed on Thursday, April 16.”
CNBC / Megan Graham
Google will require all advertisers to go through an identity verification process →
“The company said consumers will start seeing disclosures that list this information on the advertiser when they click ‘Why this ad?’ on placements beginning this summer. Google will begin by verifying advertisers in the U.S. and will expand globally, expecting that the process will take a few years to complete.”
Knight Foundation
“Vision” is a new weekly webshow about the future of democracy from the Knight Foundation →
“A weekly conversation about the trends, ideas and disruptions changing the face of our democracy.” First guest: the University of Washington’s Jevin West, who tracks COVID-19 misinformation.
Axios / Scott Rosenberg
Why you’re getting Zoom fatigue →
“Videoconferencing imposes cognitive and psychological frictions and aggravates social anxieties. As experts in human-computer interaction point out, using Zoom means putting on a show for others without being able to rely on the cues we primates depend on in physical encounters.”
Cheddar / Michelle Castillo
The New York Times will suspend its Sunday print sports and travel sections →
To be replaced by a new section called At Home. “The extraordinary nature of this moment has driven remarkable changes in our journalism. It has also caused us to rethink the way we produce traditional elements of the news report and, in particular, the structure of the print newspaper.”
South China Morning Post
South China Morning Post is cutting top management pay and putting staff on unpaid leave →
“Twenty-seven senior executives, including CEO Gary Liu and Editor-in-Chief Tammy Tam, have agreed to have their pay cut immediately, and all staff earning more than HK$20,000 a month have been asked to take three weeks unpaid leave by the end of March next year.”