Thursday, October 19, 2023 |
| CBC’s Because News spent seven years making content for Instagram and YouTube. They got more views on TikTok within two months. By Sarah Scire. |
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| “While we recognize our members need more funding, we’ve decided that’s not our role as a membership association.” By Laura Hazard Owen. |
What We’re ReadingThe Washington Post / Jennifer Hassan and Niha Masih
Journalists killed in the Israel-Gaza war: A look at six lives lost →“Photojournalist Muhammad Sobh was at the newsroom of Palestinian outlet Khabar last week when employees learned that Israeli strikes could soon target a high-rise in Gaza, his editor said. He went to the scene with his colleague….Sobh, 34, took shelter under a building ‘a sufficient distance away from the high-rise that was at risk of being targeted,’ along with other reporters, Nazli said in voice messages to The Washington Post. But the building they sought out as a potential safe space was hit by an Israeli strike, killing Sobh and his colleague, Hisham al-Nawajah.”The New York Times / Mike Isaac, Katie Robertson and Nico Grant
Silicon Valley ditches news, shaking an unstable industry →“Even Google is shaky. Some publishers have seen declines in Google referral traffic in recent weeks, two people at different major media sites said. Though Google remains the most important referral traffic source to publishers by far, those people are concerned that the decline is a sign of things to come.”Poynter / Alex Mahadevan
As misinformation surges during the Israel-Hamas War, where is AI? →“As the conflict in Gaza plays out on social media, generative AI has not been a major factor in the
flood of misinformation. The dominating threat has instead been real footage used out of context. The vast majority of images and videos fact-checkers have debunked during the war have included footage from other countries like
Syria or
Turkey, and the past, like
this video that was actually from a previous conflict in Gaza.”Columbia Journalism Review / Mathew Ingram
The fog of war →“Much of this content was uploaded initially to the messaging service Telegram, the one major social network that hasn’t banned Hamas, which is a proscribed terrorist organization in a number of countries, including the U.S. Often, however, such content has made its way from Telegram to platforms, like Meta and X (the platform formerly known as Twitter), that have then struggled to detect it and either remove it or add context before it goes viral.”Jewish Currents / Mari Cohen
Major news networks are sidelining Palestinian analysts →“While several Palestinians have been featured on major U.S. networks since October 7th—including Palestinian National Initiative secretary Mustafa Barghouti in multiple CNN interviews and former Palestine Liberation Organization spokesperson Diana Buttu on CNN International—Erakat, Munayyer, and Baddar’s experiences are part of the U.S. media’s long history of marginalizing Palestinian voices.”The Verge / Emma Roth
The EU is looking into Meta and TikTok’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war →“The European Commission is formally requesting information from Meta and TikTok on how they’re handling illegal content and disinformation related to the war in Israel. The inquiry comes as part of the European Union’s newly enacted Digital Services Act (DSA), which holds large online platforms legally accountable for the content posted to them.”The New Yorker / Kyle Chayka
How social media abdicated responsibility for the news →“A little over a decade ago, social media was heralded as a tool of transparency on a global scale for its ability to distribute on-the-ground documentation during the uprisings that became known as the Arab Spring. Now the same platforms appear to be making conflicts hazier rather than clearer. In the days since Hamas’s attacks, we’ve seen with fresh urgency the perils of relying on our feeds for news updates.”Silver Bulletin / Nate Silver
It’s easy to screw up on breaking news. But you have to admit when you do. →“I like the lava analogy because it suggests you are dealing with fluid material that is hardening into something more permanent — narratives, the conventional wisdom, established ‘facts’. In the metaphor, the New York Times is not the volcano itself — the cauldron is the news. Rather, the Times’ editors and reporters are like a team of engineers or Department of the Interior employees who are trying to redirect the lava flows — maybe to keep them away from populated areas or to serve some other objectives. Their decisions have big, even permanent consequences.”The New York Times / Ivan Nechepurenko
Russia detains another U.S. journalist →“Dmitri Anisimov, a spokesman for OVD-Info, a Russian rights group, said that the group expected a court to put [Alsu] Kurmasheva in pretrial detention, making her the first individual ever arrested on charges of violating the foreign agents legislation.”The Washington Post / Laura Wagner
Press freedom group warns Israel against banning Al Jazeera →“’We are deeply concerned by Israeli officials’ threats to censor media coverage of the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict, using vague accusations of harming national morale,’ Sherif Mansour, CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa program coordinator, said in a statement. ‘CPJ urges Israel not to ban Al-Jazeera and to allow journalists to do their jobs.’”CNBC / Jennifer Elias
Google cuts dozens of jobs in its news division →“An estimated 40 to 45 workers in Google News have lost their jobs, according to an Alphabet Workers Union spokesperson, who didn’t know the exact number. A Google spokesperson confirmed the cuts but didn’t provide a number, and said there are still hundreds of people working on the news product.”The Guardian / Jane Martinson
Why own a newspaper in 2023? Ask the very rich men trying to buy the Telegraph →“At least a dozen bidders have emerged as potential buyers in an auction meant to kick off this week, while the most recent owners have just come up with an audacious plan to win back control from Lloyds bank. This desire says a lot more about power than profit, and even more about modern Britain. Why might one want to own a newspaper in 2023? Well, despite new television channels testing the limits of impartiality and accuracy, national newspapers still provide a key to influence and the news agenda.”The Wall Street Journal / Alexandra Bruell
News orgs tweaked headlines and sent updated push alerts in aftermath of Gaza hospital blast →We “take steps to remind our reporters that the first reports in a war are often wrong, and we need to take a pause to make sure we’re not jumping to conclusions,” Washington Post International Editor Douglas Jehl said. Poynter / Angie Drobnic Holan
“Online debunking has come to dominate fact-checking in a way it didn’t in our earlier years” →“By my quick unscientific count just now, only about 21 of the last 100 fact checks on PolitiFact focus on public figures. It’s the same story at Full Fact, Africa Check, and others — debunks dominate the day-to-day output, though that’s partly because they can be published much more quickly.”Axios / Sara Fischer
65 Alden-owned daily newspapers ran the same editorial →“The decision to run the editorial [urging media to call Hamas a terrorist group] was made by MediaNews Group and Tribune Enterprises leadership, not the editorial boards of each individual newspaper.”
Nieman Lab / Fuego
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