Thursday, August 31, 2023 |
| “For me, social media is the purest way of doing service journalism.” By Hanaa' Tameez. |
Pop-ups for prestige TV, paywalls, and other excitement at CNN What We’re ReadingAtlanta News First / Tim Darnell
Cameras, YouTube live stream allowed in Georgia Trump hearings, trials →“Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee said he will permit live, streaming YouTube coverage of all related hearings and trials that emanating from the Trump indictment. The live stream will be operated by the court.”The New York Times / Tiffany Hsu
Falsehoods follow close behind this summer’s natural disasters →“For decades, the oil and gas industry spent billions of dollars waging a coordinated and highly technical campaign to influence public opinion against climate science, and then climate action. Recently, conspiracy theorists and extremists have operated in a more decentralized way, generating revenue through deceptive clickbait about global warming.”The Chronicle of Philanthropy / Brian Eule
Opinion: Why all of us need to give to nonprofit news outlets →“In 2022, private sources — individuals, foundations, and corporations — gave an estimated $499.33 billion to U.S. charities. If less than half a percent of that went to journalism, we could improve democracy and save powerful journalism like that being created at Futuro [Media] from being threatened.”Kansas Reflector / Sherman Smith
Kansas reporter sues Marion police chief, alleging retaliation in newsroom raid →In a lawsuit filed in federal court Wednesday, Marion County Record reporter Deb Gruver “is seeking damages for ’emotional distress, mental anguish and physical injury’ as a result of [Police Chief Gideon] Cody’s ‘malicious and recklessly indifferent violation’ of her First Amendment free press rights and Fourth Amendment rights against unlawful search and seizure.”The Atlantic / Kaitlyn Tiffany
The world will never get the truth about YouTube’s rabbit holes →“[Dartmouth government professor Brendan] Nyhan and his co-authors surveyed 1,181 people about their existing political attitudes and then used a custom browser extension to monitor all of their YouTube activity and recommendations for a period of several months at the end of 2020. It found that extremist videos were watched by only 6 percent of participants. Of those people, the majority had deliberately subscribed to at least one extremist channel, meaning that they hadn’t been pushed there by the algorithm. Further, these people were often coming to extremist videos from external links instead of from within YouTube.”CNN / Clare Duffy
Gannett to pause AI experiment after botched high school sports articles →“CNN identified several other local Gannett outlets, including the Louisville Courier-Journal, AZ Central, Florida Today and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, that have all published similar stories written by LedeAI in recent weeks.”The Verge / Emilia David
U.S. Copyright Office wants to hear what people think about AI and copyright →“The agency wants to answer three main questions: how AI models should use copyrighted data in training; whether AI-generated material can be copyrighted even without a human involved; and how copyright liability would work with AI. … Written comments are due on October 18th, and replies must be submitted to the Copyright Office by November 15th.”The Washington Post / Regine Cabato
Meta rejects own board’s request to suspend account of Cambodian strongman →“As important elections are looming, Meta is reportedly dramatically cutting its safety responses, allowing users to opt out of fact-checks, disinvesting in Trust and Safety teams, and abdicating responsibility for political content,” said RFOB policy adviser Zamaan Qureshi.Columbia Journalism Review / Mathew Ingram
In Europe, a regulatory vise tightens around big tech →“Unlike the GDPR, which targeted all online activity, the new European laws are focused primarily on the largest digital platforms and services. Two of the most significant new regulations are the Digital Services Act, or DSA, and the Digital Markets Act, or DMA. Under the former, which governs everything from the removal of illegal or harmful content to the retention of personal user data, any time a service such as Facebook removes content, they have to file that decision with the EU, as part of a public database. … The DMA, meanwhile, targets a wide range of anti-competitive behavior, requiring any company defined as a ‘gatekeeper’—in effect, big digital platforms that provide core services such as search, app stores, or email and messaging—to interoperate with other platforms, and forbids them from giving their own apps and services priority over those of others.”Substack / Richard J. Tofel
Journalism can’t give it all away (again) →“What remains of those same publishers are trying to negotiate with AI providers to license the right to mine their content. There are some early signs that a few of the larger publishers may accept deals in which they get paid, while most others are stiffed. Another case of the rich getting richer or, if you prefer, elites further entrenching themselves.”Poynter / Amaris Castillo
How The Daily Tar Heel designed the front page everyone is talking about →“Emmy Martin, the 2023-24 editor-in-chief of The Daily Tar Heel, was in bed and looking through all the text messages she’d received during the lockdown. She hadn’t had a chance to respond to them. She also saw social media posts from some of her UNC peers who posted the text messages they’d received. ‘And that’s kind of when it hit me. Everyone was getting these texts, and we were all kind of not having the same experience, but having an experience we all shared together,’ said Martin, a junior double majoring in journalism and information science. ‘That’s when I kind of knew that that is our front page.'”The Verge / Emma Roth
X wants permission to start collecting your biometric data and employment history →“One possibility for using biometric data is enabling passwordless sign-ins. According to findings from app developer Steve Moser, X plans on rolling out support for passkeys, which can use your device’s fingerprint, facial recognition, or PIN to log in to your account.”TechCrunch / Aisha Malik
Substack introduces new AI-powered audio transcription tools →“With these new tools, users can easily generate transcripts and audiograms.”The Desk / Matthew Keys
Sacramento NPR station CapRadio lays off 12% of workforce →The NPR member station is blaming a slowdown in financial contributions. The layoffs will affect 12 people.
Nieman Lab / Fuego
Twitter / Facebook
View email in browser
Unsubscribe
You are receiving this daily newsletter because you signed up for for it at www.niemanlab.org.
Nieman Journalism LabHarvard University1 Francis Ave.Cambridge, MA 02138
Add us to your address book
