Wednesday, December 8, 2021 | “Objectivity as an aspirational ideal ends up encouraging journalists to avoid addressing what matters.” By Anita Varma. |
| “Nonprofit news has created meaningful new reporting capacity for American journalism, but its long-term success and impact depend upon it becoming a much larger and smarter business.” By Jim Friedlich. |
| “China’s and Russia’s global influence operations won’t need to resort to fake news to exploit the genuine dysfunctions in the American system.” By Cherian George. |
| “A new crop of right-of-center sources would help bring the balance that could restore daily news as a shared American institution. But I don’t think that’s in the cards for 2022.” By Jennifer Coogan. |
| “To do this effectively, journalists must conceptualize stories through an honest discussion that has format at its core.” By Mario García. |
| “As in banking, there are only so many times a journalistic outlet can misprice a story and suffer a proverbial default on it before readers begin to lose trust.” By Izabella Kaminska. |
What We’re ReadingMorning Brew / Ryan Barwick
Here’s the business model behind the media bias chart that’s gone viral →“To review individual articles, podcasts, and news shows, Ad Fontes relies on roughly 35 part-time analysts, each paid $20 an hour. Each piece of content is given three analysts who self-report as politically left-leaning, right-leaning, or center (uh, leaning?). They individually rate content—whether it’s an article or podcast episode—based on a scale, then combine their scores.”Austin American-Statesman / Madlin Mekelburg
Austin-based public radio reporter Joy Diaz launches campaign for Texas governor →“‘I recently left journalism to fulfill a mission — an unshakeable dream, a fire in my soul — to serve you as the next governor of the great state of Texas,’ Diaz said in a video posted online ahead of her Wednesday campaign launch at Scholz Garten in downtown Austin.”Vice / Mohammed Rasool
France says it detained the wrong person over the murder of Jamal Khashoggi →“‘Extensive checks on the identity of this person showed that the warrant did not apply to him,’ France’s general prosecutor’s office said.”The Washington Post / Adam Bernstein
Claudia Levy, Washington Post journalist and advocate for women in the newsroom, dies at 77 →“In an outgrowth of her union work, [Levy] helped lead a group of more than 100 Post employees (men and women) in bringing a sex-discrimination complaint against the newspaper in 1972.”Refinery29 / Money Diaries
“I’m 22, I make $55,000 & I’m a journalist in New York City” →“9:45 a.m. — I chat with my coworker while I eat the yogurt, blueberries, and granola that I packed. I talk to her for more than an hour and a half before I realize I need to write my story.”Bloomberg / Kurt Wagner
When trolls strike, the highest profile tweeters get the VIP treatment →“Code-named Project Guardian, the internal program includes a list of thousands of accounts most likely to be attacked or harassed on the platform, including politicians, journalists, musicians and professional athletes. When someone flags abusive posts or messages related to those users, the reports are prioritized by Twitter’s content moderation systems, meaning the company reviews them faster than other reports in the queue.”The Guardian / Johana Bhuiyan
“So vague, it invites abuse”: How Twitter’s new privacy policy helps the far right →“The policy meant to tackle doxxing on the platform has left many anti-fascist activists locked out of their accounts.”Wired / Moustafa Ayad
An “alt-jihad” is rising on social media →“The playbook of the ‘alt-right’ is guiding a new generation of fringe jihadists, showing just how complicated extremism is about to become online.” The Verge / Barbara Krasnoff
How to keep some of your Twitter data away from advertisers →“You can’t keep Twitter out of your data completely, but you can lessen the damage.”The Wall Street Journal / Ryan Tracy and John D. McKinnon
Instagram’s Adam Mosseri faces Senate panel about the app’s effect on body image issues →“‘After bombshell reports about Instagram’s toxic impacts, we want to hear straight from the company’s leadership why it uses powerful algorithms that push poisonous content to children driving them down rabbit holes to dark places, and what it will do to make its platform safer,’ said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.), chairman of the subcommittee, in a statement.”The New York Times / Michael M. Grynbaum and John Koblin
Publisher pulls Chris Cuomo’s upcoming book →“‘We do not intend to publish the Cuomo book,’ a spokeswoman for HarperCollins said on Tuesday.”Poynter / Kathy Lu
What inclusion work looks like in four Chicago newsrooms →“In four Chicago area newsrooms, work is underway to recognize internal biases, to bring more inclusive perspectives into stories, and to cover communities with intention.”
Nieman Lab / Fuego / Encyclo
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