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Friday, July 17, 2020
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Republicans and Democrats read a lot of the same news. What they do with it is a different question.Plus what happens when climate facts get treated as climate opinions. By Laura Hazard Owen. |
What We’re Reading
Medium / Don Day
BoiseDev has 800 paying members and a “time wall” rather than a paywall →
The business-focused outlet in Idaho releases a selection of stories to subscribers first. “This gives a tangible benefit to members without locking everyone else out. It also eliminates that anticipointment factor. The stories are invisible to non-members until they are released.”
The New York Times
How to report on internet culture and the teens who rule it →
“I consider it part of my job to very clearly and explicitly explain the ramifications that coverage in The Times will have. I have had conversations about this with parents, for instance, about what would likely happen when a story went up. I talk to kids about this a lot when I'm discussing how we will refer to them and why. I would never write about someone without communicating what an article about them means.”
Digiday / Lucinda Southern
Inside The New York Times’ first-party data play →
“Our first hurdle was proving we could invite readers to share information that would be useful to our advertisers, showing in a transparent way how we would use that data. In the first proof-of-concept, many more readers than anticipated were willing to share information as a truth-set for how we use these audience models.”
HuffPost / Asha Shajahan
It’s time to assign misinformation a diagnostic code →
“A diagnostic code for misinformation related to COVID-19 would give patients dedicated appointments to address their questions, allot reimbursement to providers for time spent dispelling that misinformation, and encourage training to better guide patients about the virus.”
American Press Institute / Susan Benkelman
Local newsrooms should talk about how to cover politicians who promote conspiracy theories like QAnon →
“A breaking news situation is not the moment to debate whether and how to identify someone as a conspiracy theorist and the precise language to use in describing them. Doing it on deadline can result in a small number of people making decisions too quickly, and getting it wrong.”
The Guardian / Thomas Meaney
Bild, Merkel, and the culture wars: The inside story of Germany’s biggest tabloid →
“As editor, Reichelt sees himself less as a news impresario than as an emotional entrepreneur. ‘Journalism is basically about emotions, as all of the other news outlets in this country seem to have forgotten,’ he told me.”
Substack/On Posting / Luke Winkie
The bad posts are coming from inside the house →
“It all feels bad right now. Rude tweets will not take us to the promised land, but for a moment, they allow us to reconstitute a few stray threads of agency in a decaying industry.”
AP News / David Bauder
USA Today says the anti-Fauci column it solicited and published was misleading and did not meet fact-checking standards →
“It wasn't clear how Navarro's column escaped such scrutiny before being published … USA Today said it had sought Navarro's opinion to accompany an editorial that the newspaper ran calling Fauci ‘a national treasure.'”
Nieman Reports / Brent Renaud
Learning from Little Rock: A look at Black Lives Matter protests and the role of local news →
“Holt says the image of his battered face in an ad maybe ‘would give [residents] an incentive to appreciate more what we do. And maybe that would generate some extra subscriptions or re-subscriptions.'”
Talking Biz News / Chris Roush
Bloomberg EIC: “We are publishing too many enterprise stories that are either mediocre or too long, or both.” →
Editor in chief John Micklethwait sent a blunt memo to Bloomberg’s editorial staff. “The key person to think about is the reader. They are busy people — who normally read only one screen or a story and SELDOM read more than two screens. (A screen typically is around 300 words, though a lot depends on the illustrations.)”