Nieman Lab: The Daily Digest

Journalists can help explain climate’s role in extreme weather, even before all the data comes in

Even if scientists haven’t confirmed that a particular hurricane, wildfire, or heat wave was made worse by climate change, they know a lot about the big-picture effects of warming on extreme weather events. By María Mónica Monsalve.
What We’re Reading
CBC / Darren Major
Meta permanently ending news availability on its platforms in Canada starting today →
“In order to provide clarity to the millions of Canadians and businesses who use our platforms, we are announcing today that we have begun the process of ending news availability permanently in Canada,” Rachel Curran, Meta’s head of public policy in Canada, said in a statement.
Vanity Fair / Charlotte Klein
Ron DeSantis’s media reset may be too little too late →
“In the past few weeks, the slumping DeSantis campaign has undergone a much-discussed ‘reset,’ which has included reallocating resources and cutting staff. A new press strategy involving more mainstream media interviews was also said to be part of the reboot, a significant departure for the Florida governor better known for bashing the news media and turning to friendly conservative outlets.”
Intelligencer / John Herrman
How AI will change the news business: 3 theories →
“In the longer term, it won’t be workers who decide how new productivity tools are deployed or how potential gains in productivity are absorbed — it’ll be people in charge of the news business, who have their own priorities that, to put it gently, don’t always align with those of their staff.”
Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project / Bernadette Carreon and Aubrey Belford
The Solomon Star promised to “promote China” in return for funding →
“A major newspaper in Solomon Islands received nearly US$140,000 in funding from the Chinese government in return for pledges to ‘promote the truth about China’s generosity and its true intentions to help develop’ the Pacific Islands country, according to a leaked document and interviews.”
Animal Político
Neurona, the deception factory for the left in Latin America →
In Spanish: “We were able to establish that, between 2015 and 2019, the consultancy set up a network of at least 116 web pages in different countries, some created within minutes of each other, and that 31 of these were used as media outlets that had inauthentic behavior. In other words, most of these newscasts acted as empty shells, activating at times close to elections, with little production of their own.”
Columbia Journalism Review / Jon Allsop
A Catholic newspaper confronts its anti-Semitic history →
“[La Croix’s editor-in-chief Isabelle de Gaulmyn] told me that her work was inspired by similar excavations of past racism on the part of other newspapers, not least in the US, and also by American Jesuits who documented their historical ties to slavery and promised to raise a hundred million dollars to benefit the descendants of those they enslaved.”
The Verge / Jess Weatherbed
Facebook’s Oversight Board says the platform needs stricter rules that ban gender-based violence →
“On Tuesday, the board asked Meta to address a gap within its bullying and harassment policy that seemingly permits content promoting gender-based violence by ‘praising, justifying, celebrating, or mocking it’ to slip through its moderation practices.”
The Verge / Umar Shakir
A plugged-in Tesla can still make front page news somewhere →
“’Borrowed Volts,’ read the article title in the Ekalaka Eagle, which mentions that it might be the first electric vehicle ever to charge in the town.”
TechCrunch / Natasha Lomas
Meta says it will offer Europeans a free choice to deny tracking →
“The tech giant is subject to an ongoing regulatory procedure over the legal basis it claims to run microtargeted ads which had been expected to conclude around the middle of this month. But in an update to a blog post today it announced its ‘intention’ to switch to a consent-based legal basis for targeted advertising.”
Poynter / Robin Kwong
Why newsrooms need to embrace project management →
“Every newsroom has someone herding cats, making sure trains run on time, visuals get assigned, designers and developers on the same page and the stories are published across every platform. If you are that person, odds are you don’t identify yourself as a project manager.”
Los Angeles Times / James Rainey
The Santa Barbara News-Press bankruptcy brings uneasy end to an owner’s bitter tenure →
“The finishing stroke came without fanfare or public notice. ‘All of our jobs are eliminated, and the News-Press has stopped publishing,’ Managing Editor Dave Mason wrote in a brief email to the outlet’s staffers. ‘They ran out of money to pay us.’”
Android Police / Chethan Rao
YouTube is testing AI-generated video summaries →
“The release note specifies these are not meant to replace the written summaries submitted by the creators themselves.”
Politico / Giorgio Leali
French newspaper staff ends strike against new far-right editor →
“The JDD newsroom had been on strike since June to oppose the naming of controversial right-wing journalist Geoffroy Lejeune as the newspaper’s top editor — a move seen as a consequence of the publication being bought by conservative media tycoon Vincent Bolloré.”