Fresh useful insights for people advancing quality, innovative and sustainable journalism
You might have heard: Sinclair Broadcasting is waiting for the FCC to approve its acquisition of Tribune Media, which would increase Sinclair’s lead as the country’s largest broadcaster (New York Times)
But did you know: Sinclair is requiring its local TV anchors to read a script that claims other news organizations publish ‘fake news’ (The Concourse)
“We’re concerned about the troubling trend of irresponsible, one sided news stories plaguing our country. The sharing of biased and false news has become all too common on social media. More alarming, some media outlets publish these same fake stories… stories that just aren’t true, without checking facts first,” the script reads. The result, Timothy Burke writes, is “dozens upon dozens of local news anchors looking like hostages in proof-of-life videos, trying their hardest to spit out words attacking the industry they’d chosen as a life vocation.”
+ “It sickens me the way this company is encroaching upon trusted news brands in rural markets,” an investigative reporter for Sinclair told CNN (CNN Money)
+ Noted: At town halls in New York and Iowa, Meredith employees called out the company’s lack of diversity in its upper leadership: “They’re basically all middle-aged white males from the Midwest,” a former Time Inc. employee said (New York Post); Christian Media Corp., an online publisher with close ties to Olivet University, was running the same malicious ad code used by Newsweek Media Group (BuzzFeed News); Facebook is building a Custom Audiences certification tool that would require “marketers guarantee email addresses used for ad targeting were rightfully attained” (TechCrunch); 10 public radio stations are partnering for a two-year series on gun violence in the U.S. (Nieman Lab)
No cake on International Fact-Checking Day. Celebrate by correcting fake news. (USA Today)
Today is International Fact-Checking Day, and API’s Jane Elizabeth says the best way to celebrate is by correcting misinformation you see in your everyday life: “On April 2, take a few minutes to refute even one misinformed story on Facebook, or report one fake Twitter account or one manipulated photo on Instagram. Think of the impact — and the message — if even a small percentage of the millions of people who use social media would make just one effort to support facts and denounce fakery.”
What is ‘extreme transparency,’ and how can it help journalists build more trust with readers? (Nieman Reports)
“Extreme transparency” can include anything from explaining your reporting methods to sharing raw footage to posting transcripts of all of a reporter’s interviews, Michael Blanding explains. This kind of transparency, Blanding says, is an important tool for building trust. One example of an organization adopting “extreme transparency” is the Kansas City Star, which has built a transparency team that is developing a model corrections policy.
After it was purchased by Alibaba, some say the South China Morning Post is ‘pioneering a new form of propaganda’ by producing positive stories about China (New York Times)
Alibaba purchased The South China Morning Post two years ago. With that purchase came a new mission for the Post, NYT’s Javier C. Hernandez writes: “Improving China’s image overseas and combating what it sees as anti-Chinese bias in the foreign media.” Hernandez writes: “Every day, the Post churns out dozens of articles about China, many of which seek to present a more positive view of the country. As it does, critics say it is moving away from independent journalism and pioneering a new form of propaganda. Alibaba, which has been open from the start about its ambitions for the newspaper, envisions a day when The Post is the dominant news organization in the world, riding the momentum of China’s rise as a superpower.”
+ Earlier: Last summer, Quartz examined how Alibaba was changing the South China Morning Post, including its mission to counter the “negative” portrayals of China in Western media (Quartz)
Are branding and user experience at odds? Defining a brand means considering the total user experience (The Drum)
In some ways, user experience design and branding seem at odds: The goal of UX is to improve the user’s experience with a product, which sometimes means “[making a] decision between making a more agreeable experience for the user or maintaining brand identity.” But Francis Choo argues that UX design and branding are two sides of the same coin: “We have to keep in mind that customers do not compartmentalize brands in the same manner as most typical corporate structures — a brand is a single concept in the customer’s mind. The most important thing is to ensure consistency across all touchpoints. … To ensure that your customers perceive your brand as you wish them to, we must first be clear on what your company’s brand promises are. You need to define your real brand promise based on your corporate culture, organizational behavior, service policies, marketing collaterals — in other words, the total user experience.”
Here’s how Cambridge Analytica’s targeting model worked, according to the person who built it (Nieman Lab)
Cambridge Analytica’s targeting model was similar to Netflix’s method for recommending movies, Aleksandr Kogan says. “The accuracy he claims suggests it works about as well as established voter-targeting methods based on demographics like race, age, and gender,” Matthew Hindman reports. “If confirmed, Kogan’s account would mean the digital modeling Cambridge Analytica used was hardly the virtual crystal ball a few have claimed. Yet the numbers Kogan provides also show what is — and isn’t — actually possible by combining personal data with machine learning for political ends.
‘We want to see how we might be able to help shape the future of local news from our corner of the country,’ the Fort Collins Coloradoan says (Nieman Lab)
In Denver, legacy and digital publications alike have had to make cuts: The Denver Post just went through major layoffs, while Denverite has cut jobs as well. But an hour north of Denver, the Fort Collins Coloradoan is taking on some big experiments and finding success in local news. One of those experiments included a neighborhood watch Facebook group that now has 1,500 members where reporters post “updates about local crime and mischief.” “We want to just try everything and see what difference we can make. We want to see how we might be able to help shape the future of local news from our corner of the country,” content strategist Jennifer Hefty says.
The post Need to Know: April 2, 2018 appeared first on American Press Institute.
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