Thursday, December 19, 2024 | “Some pivots, once deemed infeasible, might be worth a second look using new technology.” By David Cohn. |
| “Podcast super listeners are ready to take things to the next relationship level with their favorite shows.” By Juleyka Lantigua. |
| “Rather than treat AGI as a fringe concern, we must be proactive and ambitious: taking the possibility seriously, considering the implications, and starting a public, democratic conversation.” By Shakeel Hashim. |
| “As illiberal regimes take pointers from one another, the sum of their efforts to suppress information is greater than the parts. But two can play at this game.” By Laxmi Parthasarathy. |
| “While perceived authenticity has always been an important piece of evaluating trustworthiness, performed authenticity has become much more important than ever before because of social media.” By Seth C. Lewis. |
| “Instead of calling for journalists to listen to the public, journalists are asking: Why didn’t America listen to us?” By Talia Stroud. |
| “How can public engagement be harnessed productively, to provide well-rounded feedback that takes into account ideas, sentiment, and knowledge from throughout the community while still providing cogent insight?” By Sam Ford. |
| “Likes are one of the very few ways audiences send us signals across platforms and I don’t think we can count on those hearts in 2025.” By Julia B. Chan. |
| “Journalism’s fight against disinformation risks irrelevance if it fails to consider how the human mind processes and reacts to both falsehoods and facts.” By Cristina Tardáguila. |
| “In optimizing walled gardens of like-minded folks, we’ve forgotten how to create the conditions for us to safely and openly disagree.” By Jennifer Choi. |
| “In this environment, it is urgent that news organizations defend their editorial independence, rather than capitulate to these attacks in advance. We must cover these perils accurately.” By Mari Cohen. |
| “Democrat-controlled state legislatures could redouble efforts toward working with grassroots groups to support local journalism initiatives. Even some Republican lawmakers might wish to salvage what’s left of rural and small-town newspapers.” By Victor Pickard. |
| “What I hear is a mix of anxiety, resilience, and curiosity — we are journalists, after all — about the back and forth we’ve seen at the ballot box and in the culture wars in recent decades.” By Francisco Vara-Orta. |
| “Amid lingering concerns that nonprofits aren’t winning enough audience to make up for the losses sustained by legacy media, it’s clear that local-national partnerships continue to offer an excellent way forward.” By Kevin D. Grant. |
| “The social topography is a hierarchy of networks, with journalists at the top. Most people are members — not subscribers, not users, but meaningful parts of something larger than themselves.” By Justin Kosslyn. |
| “The obligations of journalists extend beyond mere reporting; we must encompass the creation of a genuine forum for discourse.” By Michael Rain. |
| “El presente y el futuro del periodismo es el que se anima a cruzar fronteras; que se desvela y se desnuda, que se permite ser vulnerable, opinar, expresar y querer cambiar.” By Maritza L. Félix. |
What We’re ReadingThe Guardian / Robert Booth
UK arts and media reject plan to let AI firms use copyrighted material →“In a joint statement, bodies representing thousands of creatives dismissed the proposal made by ministers on Tuesday that would allow companies such as Open AI, Google and Meta to train their AI systems on published works unless their owners actively opt out. The Creative Rights in AI Coalition (Crac) includes the British Phonographic Industry, the Independent Society of Musicians, the Motion Picture Association and the Society of Authors as well as Mumsnet, the Guardian, Financial Times, Telegraph, Getty Images, the Daily Mail Group and Newsquest.”Fortune / Leo Schwartz
Billionaire Justin Sun allegedly pushed CoinDesk’s new owners to remove banana article, editorial chair Matt Murray resigns →“After Sun’s team complained about the tone of the piece, CoinDesk’s owners, the crypto exchange Bullish, demanded editorial staff remove it from the publication’s website, according to sources familiar with the matter. Tron is a major sponsor of CoinDesk’s flagship Consensus conference series. In response, sources close to CoinDesk say the site’s journalists raised concerns over editorial independence.”The Hollywood Reporter / Winston Cho
Filmmakers sue to end “unconstitutional” permitting rules to shoot in national parks →“In August, Rienzie and Burkesmith were denied a permit to film an attempt to break the record for the fastest time to ascend a mountain in Grand Teton National Park. They filmed anyway from publicly accessible areas of the park using small handheld cameras and minimal equipment but haven’t fully commercialized the content due to National Park Services threatening criminal charges.”BBC / Ahmed Nour, Joe Tidy and Yara Farag
How Facebook restricted news in Palestinian territories →“Facebook has severely restricted the ability of Palestinian news outlets to reach an audience during the Israel-Gaza war, according to BBC research. In a comprehensive analysis of Facebook data, we found that newsrooms in the Palestinian territories — in Gaza and the West Bank — had suffered a steep drop in audience engagement since October 2023. The BBC has also seen leaked documents showing that Instagram — another Meta-owned platform — increased its moderation of Palestinian user comments after October 2023. Meta, the owner of Facebook, says that any implication that it deliberately suppressed particular voices is ‘unequivocally false.'”L.A. Taco / Lexis-Olivier Ray
More than 70 people reported feeling ill after eating oysters at the L.A. Times “101 Restaurants” food event →“For this story, L.A. TACO spoke to more than 11 people who attended the reveal party—including one of our staff members—who suspected they got food poisoning at the event.”BBC / Graham Fraser
Apple urged to scrap AI feature after it creates false headline →“The AI-powered summary falsely made it appear that BBC News had published an article claiming Mangione, the man accused of the murder of healthcare insurance CEO Brian Thompson in New York, had shot himself. He has not. Now, the group Reporters Without Borders has called on Apple to remove the technology. Apple has made no comment.”404 Media / Jason Koebler
Artists, merch sellers, and journalists face bogus copyright claims over Luigi Mangione content →“They might coming after small, independent publishers because they know we don’t have the money for a large legal defense, and they’re gonna make an example out of us, and they’re going to say that if you try anything funny, we’re going to try to bankrupt you through a frivolous lawsuit.”The New York Times / Katie Robertson
Publishers battle for the C-suite →“When the digital news start-up Semafor began in 2022, its founders talked about reaching a vast global audience of 200 million college-educated, English-speaking people. But their latest push is aimed at just a tiny — albeit moneyed — sliver of that: top executives. The company said Thursday that it would start an invitation-only newsletter for chief executives, The CEO Signal, in January. It will be free but available only to the leaders of companies with more than $500 million in annual revenue.”The Verge / s.e. smith
What happens when the internet disappears? →“When you describe yourself as a ‘writer’ but your writing has become hard to find, it creates a crisis not just of profession, but identity. Who am I, if not my content? It is hard not to feel the disappearance of creative work as a different kind of death of the author, one in which readers can’t interpret my work because they can’t find it.”
Nieman Lab / Fuego
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