Tuesday, September 5, 2023 |
| Nieman Lab is adding two new staff writer positions: One focused on local news, the other on the intersection of generative AI and journalism. By Laura Hazard Owen. |
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| Plus: The catalyzing effect of attacks on journalists, how journalists describe their target audiences, and new evidence of local news nonprofits’ impact. By Mark Coddington and Seth Lewis. |
What We’re ReadingWall Street Journal / Anne Steele and Sarah Krouse
Spotify’s $1 billion podcast bet turns into a serial drama →“Spotify’s decision to keep many of its original shows exclusive to the platform limited the number of listeners. At the same time, the company was pursuing greater ad revenue — which required larger audience numbers.”Columbia Journalism Review / Jon Allsop
What is media criticism for? →“Media criticism has its own particularities: our job is ultimately to interrogate the basic ways in which people find out about things that impact their lives, and the mechanisms of power—yes, real power—that shape that dynamic.”Digiday / Sara Guaglione
Publishers’ workforce diversity reports released this summer show slow, steady improvement in newsroom diversity →“Gannett, Insider and The Washington Post have released their annual (or, in Gannett’s case, biannual) reports on the diversity of their workforces, revealing very little — if any — change in overall employee diversity year over year.”NPR / David Folkenflik
NPR CEO John Lansing will leave in December, capping a tumultuous year →“His four-year tenure will be defined by his handling of the extreme challenges of the pandemic, a racial reckoning, and headwinds in the podcasting industry that led to severe layoffs.”El País / Jordi Pérez Colomé
Will Community Notes, Elon Musk’s tool to combat misinformation, turn into a polarized battleground? →“Sometimes things can get complicated. El País came across comments about a posted video related to the
Luis Rubiales controversy. The contentious post produced seven suggested notes (none have been approved yet), followed by another six explanations for why a note was unnecessary.”The New York Times / Sapna Maheshwari
How Montana’s TikTok ban put the state at the center of a geopolitical storm →“[Attorney General] Austin Knudsen and Montana now face a legal brouhaha against some of the world’s biggest and most powerful tech companies as well as free speech groups. Locals, too, have questioned the wisdom of the ban and the state’s decision to take on this battle.”Trans Journalists Association
The updated and revised Trans Journalists Association style guide is live →“Trans people — not their parents, children, friends, colleagues, or critics — should be at the heart of stories written about them.”Reuters / Danial Azhar
Malaysia is mulling over rules for Google and Meta to pay news outlets for content →“The proposed regulations will be similar to rules in Australia, which in 2021 made it compulsory for Google and Meta to compensate media outlets for content that generates clicks and advertising dollars.”Bloomberg / Ashley Carman
Spotify is cutting back promotional spending on white noise podcasts →“Spotify Technology SA is cracking down on white-noise podcasters, reducing the advertising support for programmers that provide little more than soothing sounds like rain or chirping birds.”TechCrunch / Manish Singh
India’s richest man wants tech companies to pay for network usage →“Critics, such as Nikhil Pahwa from Medianama, caution that adopting the suggestions of telecom networks would breach principles of net neutrality. Nearly ten years ago, Pahwa was instrumental in raising awareness about potential violations of net neutrality when Meta tried to introduce Free Basics in the country. TRAI eventually banned Free Basics.”The New Yorker / Clare Malone
CNN’s new white knight →“Dean Baquet, the former executive editor of the Times, said that Thompson’s hiring likely indicates a strategy that goes beyond cuts. ‘I’m not saying he won’t do cost cutting, but, if what you’ve decided is that CNN’s future is cost cutting, you don’t hire Mark Thompson to do that.'”The Verge / Justine Calma
Facebook’s unloved “News” tab is going away in Europe →“But there’s always room for more Reels.”Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism / Gretel Kahn
Focus on the humans, not the robots: tips from the author of AP guidelines on how to cover AI →“I think we’re in a bit of a hype cycle, or what some might call a doom cycle. But rather than just staying in that esoteric debate about whether AI models are good or bad, coverage of AI tools should really get back to journalistic basics, which includes thinking about: how do these systems actually work? Where are they deployed? How well do they perform? Are they regulated? Who’s making money as a result?”The Fix / Anna Sofia Lippolis
What the decade-long saga of the Google News shutdown (and reopening) in Spain has meant for publishers, readers, and the digital landscape →“When Google News shut down, its users were able to replace some but not all of the types of news they previously read. Post-shutdown, they read less breaking news, hard news, and news that is not well covered by their favorite news publishers.”Columbia Journalism Review / Joel Simon
Risk assessments can make journalism safer →“Every news organization, no matter its size and budget, can implement a safety check-in and risk assessment as part of its assigning process.”
Nieman Lab / Fuego
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