Wednesday, May 29, 2024 |
| “To describe one form of journalism as ‘fact-based’ is to tacitly acknowledge that there is also such a thing as ‘non-fact-based journalism.’ And there isn’t.” By Philip M. Napoli and Asa Royal. |
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| “There was just this nastiness that emerged in the way celebrities were covered in the 2000s.” By Aimee Levitt. |
What We’re ReadingAxios / Sara Fischer
The Atlantic and Vox Media cut deals with OpenAI →“Through Atlantic Labs, The Atlantic will experiment with developing new AI-driven products and features. Atlantic Labs will leverage OpenAI’s tech but also partner with other AI companies … Internally, Vox will leverage OpenAI’s tech for its first party data platform … Externally, Vox plans to use OpenAI’s technology to support content discovery and recommendations on its websites. For instance, Vox will match shoppers with gifts endorsed by its consumer recommendations site, The Strategist.”The Guardian / Jim Waterson
London Evening Standard to close daily newspaper and launch new weekly →“The newspaper said it has been hit hard by the introduction of wifi on the London underground, a shortage of commuters owing to the growth of working from home and changing consumer habits… Closing the Evening Standard will mean that for the first time in centuries, Londoners will have no general-interest daily print newspaper.”WIRED / Vittoria Elliott
Germany’s far-right party is running hateful ads on Facebook and Instagram →“Researchers found 23 ads from the party that accrued 472,000 views on Facebook and Instagram and appear to violate Meta’s own policies around hate speech. The ads push the narrative that immigrants are dangerous and a burden on the German state, ahead of the European Union’s elections in June.”Rest of World / Shukri Hassan
Influencers are using TikTok to encourage voting in South Africa →“[Amahle] Gebane is one of several young political influencers in South Africa who have been using TikTok to persuade young voters to participate in the elections this year. Given the popularity of the social media platform in the country, experts believe this trend could have a significant impact on the outcome of the election.”Politico / Natalie Allison and Jonathan Lemire
Biden campaign makes a “guerrilla-style” pivot on the Trump trial →“The Biden campaign decided over the weekend to authorize a ‘guerrilla-style’ campaign event near the courthouse in an effort to break through the nonstop cable news coverage of the Trump trial, according to two people familiar with plans and granted anonymity to describe them.”The New York Times / Benjamin Mullin and Katie Robertson
The Daily Beast’s new bosses plan buyouts to cut losses →“About 10 to 15 members of The Beast’s unionized editorial staff — about a third — are expected to take a buyout, according to two people familiar with the discussions. Mr. Sherwood and Ms. Coles are also planning to make cuts beyond the unionized staff.”Columbia Journalism Review / Yona TR Golding
Q&A: Omar Ferwati on Forensic Architecture’s probes of the present and the past →“It seems that there’s an increasing awareness [among civilians] that the footage that they’re broadcasting in real time of what has happened to them, or what is about to happen to them, is a kind of act of defense.”404 Media / Emanuel Maiberg
Google researchers say AI now leading disinformation vector (and are severely undercounting the problem) →“New research from Google researchers and several fact checking organizations have found that most image-based disinformation is now AI-generated, but the way researchers collected their data suggests that the problem is even worse than they claim.”The Washington Post / Drew Harwell
How the U.S. ignored a chance to make TikTok safer →“The video app, owned by a Chinese company, said it would let federal officials pick its U.S. operation’s board of directors, would give the government veto power over each new hire and would pay an American company that contracts with the Defense Department to monitor its source code, according to a copy of the company’s proposal. It even offered to give federal officials a kill switch that would shut the app down in the United States if they felt it remained a threat. The Biden administration, however, went its own way.”The Verge / Mia Sato
Google won’t comment on a potentially massive leak of its search algorithm documentation →“Some details in the leaked documents call into question the accuracy of Google’s public statements regarding how Search works.”Digiday / Kayleigh Barber
How Time’s collectible covers make the case for a print comeback →“This year, Time has been trying to capitalize on the success of the collectible model by publishing more special interest publications (which the publisher calls ‘bookazines’), including with a ‘bookazine’ celebrating Pokémon’s 25th anniversary, published in collaboration with Dotdash Meredith.”
Nieman Lab / Fuego
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