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Tuesday, June 30, 2020
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NPR launches an afternoon news podcast to complement its morning one, and it hopes you’ll listen to bothPlus: A mid-year podcast check-in. By Nicholas Quah. |
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Newsonomics: The next 48 hours could determine the fate of two of America’s largest newspaper chainsTribune and McClatchy are both approaching critical deadlines that could lead to mergers, divisions — or even the first big nonprofit newspaper chain in the United States. By Ken Doctor. |
What We’re Reading
Axios / Sara Fischer
Facebook says it will change its algorithm to boost original reporting →
The social media company, which has seen a growing ad boycott over its handling of misinformation and hate speech in recent days, will use AI to identify articles cited as the original source. Facebook will also demote stories without bylines or from organizations that do not present information about the company’s editorial staff on their website.
The New York Times Company
The New York Times on why they’ll uppercase “Black” and lowercase “white” and “brown” →
“There has been no comparable movement toward widespread adoption of a new style for ‘white,’ and there is less of a sense that ‘white’ describes a shared culture and history. Moreover, hate groups and white supremacists have long favored the uppercase style, which in itself is reason to avoid it … ‘Brown’ has been used to describe such a disparate range of people — Latin, Indigenous, Asian, Middle Eastern — that the meaning is often unclear to readers. A more specific description is generally best.”
The Hollywood Reporter / Natalie Jarvey
NPR’s Code Switch podcast sees a surge in downloads →
“At the time of its launch, Code Switch was seen as part of a larger move by mainstream media to focus on reporting about race and culture. Podcasts like Another Round and Our National Conversation About Conversations About Race had launched a year earlier, and outlets like MTV News and Teen Vogue had reoriented their coverage around those issues. Four years later, Code Switch is one of the few projects that has endured.”
POLITICO / Emily Nonko
Media by incarcerated journalists, including a revived San Quentin News, has a bigger audience than ever before →
“Ear Hustle, a podcast by and about prisoners that launched in 2017, has had over 41 million downloads to date and was named a finalist for the first-ever Pulitzer Prize for audio reporting.”
New York Times / Rory Smith
“Intelligent” or “strong”? Study finds bias in soccer commentary →
“Broadcast commentators were not only far more likely to praise white players for their intelligence, leadership qualities and versatility, they were also substantially more likely to criticize black players for what they regarded as the absence of those attributes … Black players were four times more likely than their white counterparts to be discussed in terms of their strength, and seven times more likely to be praised for their speed.”
The Wrap / Lindsey Ellefson
WarnerMedia is selling the CNN Center in downtown Atlanta →
But the company will lease back the space — which has been largely empty since the pandemic began — for at least another five years before centralizing CNN’s operations.
Reporters Without Borders
Nearly half of UN member countries have obstructed coronavirus press coverage →
"It is particularly disturbing to see the coronavirus crisis serve as a pretext for press freedom violations to grow and spread throughout the world, including in countries regarded as democratic models.”
Wired / Gilad Edelman
Reddit and Twitch are the latest platforms to take action against Team Trump →
“Why is the dam breaking all at once? Trump ran for office on a platform whose major planks included expelling Mexicans and banning Muslims. As the "rapists" quote reminds us, he has been making comments that seem to violate policies against hate speech literally from the moment he entered politics, and platforms have had anguished internal debates about how to respond for just as long.”