國際傳媒新聞：2018/10/26~2018/11/01
Alas, the blockchain won’t save journalism after all
“It was as if an Olympic weight lifter said that, at a minimum, he’d be able to clean and jerk 400 pounds, and then did not manage to move the bar more than an inch off the ground.”
THE NEW YORK TIMES / JONAH ENGEL BROMWICH / NOV 1
Facebook is expanding its Breaking News feature to more people and more countries
“In the test period, we’ve seen that breaking news posts about politics, crime, disaster, and business perform best.”
FACEBOOK / JOEY RHYU / NOV 1
LA Times publishes completely different political endorsements in English and Spanish
“The English version of the LA Times suggests you re-elect U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein because she comes from a more ‘civil and productive era of governance’ and has accomplished a great deal like that. The editorial casts doubt on the effectiveness of her challenger, state senator Kevin de León who seems ‘unwilling to compromise.’ LA Times en Español, however, has a different take. According to its editorial, de León is the best choice because he seems pragmatic and effective enough and knows the immigrant community best. And, after all, ‘Dianne Feinstein has been in the Senate since 1992’ and that’s ‘too long. A generational change is needed.’”
LATINO REBELS / PILAR MARRERO / NOV 1
Report for America will place 10 local reporters in California newsrooms next year
“Report for America has previously placed a regional corps in Appalachia, where corps members have driven a substantial increase in reporting on under-covered parts of Eastern Kentucky and West Virginia. This second region-specific initiative marks the beginning of a major effort to create similar geographically-focused, locally-funded reporting corps. The goal is to both address areas that have large ‘news deserts’ and draw in new, local philanthropic support for community journalism.”
REPORT FOR AMERICA / OCT 31
56 percent of Americans say cable TV has become unaffordable
“In 2015, there were 205.4 million subscribers to traditional TV, according to eMarketer, but that will drop to 169.7 million by 2022. If TV executives intend on wooing some of those defectors back, they have their work cut out for them, as the THR/Morning Consult poll indicates that 72 percent of those who have cut the cord have little or no interest in resubscribing.”
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER / PAUL BOND / OCT 31
Jamal Khashoggi was brutally murdered four weeks ago. We’re still waiting for answers
“Yet the Saudis are deflecting questions by pretending to investigate what happened; the kingdom’s chief prosecutor traveled to Istanbul on Monday to meet his Turkish counterpart. Worse, rather than demand a genuinely independent investigation, the Trump administration is playing along. It has withheld its own conclusions about the murder while pretending to believe that the Saudis can conduct a credible probe — even though a chief suspect is the kingdom’s own autocratic ruler.”
WASHINGTON POST / EDITORIAL BOARD / OCT 31
British and Canadian parliaments still want Mark Zuckerberg to testify about disinformation
“The joint hearing, said to be the first of its kind, is due to take place on 27 November and will be led by the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee. Zuckerberg has until 7 November to reply to the call….Other parliaments are also being invited to send representatives to the hearing.”
PRESSGAZETTE / OCT 31
Q&A: Andy Donohue, managing editor at The Center for Investigative Reporting
“In your quest to be unique, you can end up covering stuff that nobody cares about, and there’s a reason it never got any coverage. It’s really a fine balance — finding stuff that resonates with people, but also making sure that we’re totally unique and saying things that they’ve never heard from anybody else.”
MEDIUM / ELIZABETH RABEN / OCT 30
Voter suppression is a crucial story in America, but broadcast news mostly shrugs
“Obsessed with all things Trump — caravan invasion, anyone? — and occupied with breaking news about hurricanes and mass shootings, the networks have almost ignored voter suppression.”
THE WASHINGTON POST / MARGARET SULLIVAN / OCT 30
Five reporters from local Texas outlets are sharing an AMA about the Senate race
“I’ve heard that voting machines are switching the votes. Can you confirm? If true, what is the reaction of the state and/or the voters themselves?”
REDDIT / GROMER JEFFERS, BUD KENNEDY, ABBY LIVINGSTON, MADLIN MEKELBURG, JEREMY WALLACE / OCT 30
The rumor caravan: From Twitter reply to disaster
“Where and when did these claims originate, and how did they creep into news headlines? In my research, published on Medium last week, I found the earliest social media posts that kicked off the Soros-funded-migrant caravan narrative.”
COLUMBIA JOURNALISM REVIEW / JONATHAN ALBRIGHT / OCT 30
What is lost when contracts bar freelancers from discussing pay?
“I found that a slate of companies — Newsweek, News Deeply, America’s Test Kitchen have issued contracts that either specifically bar discussing payment amount for an assignment or prohibit disclosing contract terms altogether.”
COLUMBIA JOURNALISM REVIEW / ADINA SOLOMON / OCT 30
To get to 3 million subscribers, The Wall Street Journal focuses on product testing
“Gray’s team focuses on product changes that can be implemented as quickly and cheaply as possible, like the copy in existing marketing messages, their placement and design. Of the adjustments that improved outcomes by more than 4 percent, over two-thirds involved text or design.”
DIGIDAY / MAX WILLENS / OCT 30
Will Google’s homepage news feed repeat Facebook’s mistakes?
“It seems like a pretty inopportune time for Google to decide to put yet another news feed in front of millions (or billions) of people. There has probably not been a time in 2018 when Google could have chosen to launch a new news feed that wouldn’t have made me feel this way, but this week seems particularly bad.”
THE VERGE / DIETER BOHN / OCT 30
Using “radical hospitality” to bring communities together to discuss important issues
“91 percent of participants said they were inspired to act on the issue by staying in touch with people they met at the event or getting involved in projects dealing with housing issues. 89 percent of participants said they planned to discuss what they learned at the Story Circle with family or friends. And 82 percent of participants said they met people they wouldn’t typically meet and were exposed to new perspectives.”
LENFEST INSTITUTE / JOSEPH LICHTERMAN / OCT 29
Canada’s Postmedia continues its downward spiral
“Despite crying poverty to its employees, Postmedia’s top executives continue to enrich themselves with growing amounts of compensation. A financial statement issued last year revealed that the company gave its top executives a 33 per cent pay raise in 2017 — from $3.9-million to $5.3-million. CEO Paul Godfrey’s compensation jumped from $1.66-million to $1.74-million, while COO Andrew MacLeod‘s increased from $721,000 to $841,000.”
NATIONAL OBSERVER / ROBERT HILTZ AND BRUCE LIVESEY / OCT 29
CPJ calls on Trump to dial back rhetoric against media and critics
“While we cannot say that Trump’s speech directly incites violence, it is clear that some people are influenced by it. Journalists across the country feel unsafe because of the constant hostility and belittling of their role in our democracy by the head of state. It needs to stop.”
CPJ / ROBERT MAHONEY / OCT 29
Facebook hires the BBC’s Trushar Barot to lead its Integrity Initiatives in India
“This will mean leading their work on combating fake news and digital misinformation, developing digital literacy training programmes, working with startups and most importantly, coming up with big ideas that will bring significant positive impact in the digital development of a country with over a billion people.”
TWITTER / TRUSHAR BAROT / OCT 26
Nine types of visual storytelling on mobile
For one, “longform scrollytelling.”
REUTERS INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF JOURNALISM / EMMA-LEENA OVASKAINEN / OCT 26
Local news is the “biggest crisis” in journalism, but a sustainability campaign is underway
“This is the first in a series of articles on America’s local news crisis and the work of the newly launched Local News Initiative at Northwestern University’s Medill School.”
LOCAL NEWS INITIATIVE / MARK JACOB / OCT 26
