261 posts tagged with media and journalism.
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Can Journalism Survive? The Media Elite on Its Future
We gathered 57 of the most powerful people in media — and rather than simply anoint them, we put them to work. What follows is a tour through the state of journalism, assembled from dozens of hours of extremely candid conversations. (Bypass NY Magazine’s business model here). WARNING: a 14,000-word article.
According to whom...?
The Media Bias Chart (interactive, static, and app versions), from Ad Fontes Media, graphs the political bias vs reliability of media articles. [more inside]
The Worst Magazine In America
"I want to explain exactly what it is that I think makes The Atlantic terrible and why I think we’d all be better off if it stopped publishing." Nathan Robinson in Current Affairs
The Fourth Estate's Future
At the end of every year, NiemanLab asks for predictions about the coming year of journalism from experts in the field. Here's the latest batch predicting 2024. (previously) [more inside]
We need fact crusaders
Fact-checking can be nuanced, and every misstatement is not an intentional lie. But many of the lies we see today are obvious. Journalists need to call them out prominently, not just in the 14th paragraph of a story. People read headlines. So journalists must put corrections in headlines. Instead of writing a story headlined “Trump says UAW talks don't matter because EV shift will kill jobs,” news outlets should write stories headlined “Trump lies about electric vehicles during speech to auto workers.” This type of headline would not be a cheap shot. Trump’s September speech to non-unionized auto workers was stuffed with lies. From the October 30, 2023 issue of Stop the Presses newsletter by Mark Jacob, former metro editor of the Chicago Tribune and former Sunday editor of the Chicago Sun-Times. [more inside]
Remember how it improved society somewhat
You might already know that political / reporting / general nonfiction comics outlet The Nib is closing down at the end of August. It was too good to last.
You might not know that The Nib is making all fifteen issues of the magazine free to download as PDFs! Consider kicking back a few bucks to help them preserve the website in the meanwhile.
You might not know that The Nib is making all fifteen issues of the magazine free to download as PDFs! Consider kicking back a few bucks to help them preserve the website in the meanwhile.
I Want Pictures, Pictures of Tomorrow
At the end of every year, NiemanLab asks for predictions about the coming year of journalism from those in the know. Here's the latest batch predicting 2023. And here's the previous efforts: 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 (previously-ly-ly-ly)
Why make yourself uncomfortable when you can be in a comfortable place?
NPR is not our friend. Let’s take a closer look at why this is. “… like much other media, NPR has become a partisan news service with a sterile, professional tone that belies an underlying allegiance to a very narrow range of political viewpoints that are largely inoffensive to those in power. Today, NPR is a product stuffed with advertisements. It receives relatively little in government funding and is mostly paid for by corporations and a small percentage of its listeners who come from a very specific demographic: white, well-educated liberals.“
The Secret Police: Inside a Shadowy Surveillance Machine in Minnesota
An investigation by MIT Technology Review reveals a sprawling, technologically sophisticated system of police surveillance targeting civil rights activists, protesters, and members of the press in Minnesota.
[more inside]part 1: Cops built a shadowy surveillance machine in Minnesota after George Floyd’s murder part 2: After protests around George Floyd’s murder ended, a police system for watching protesters kept going part 3: Inside the app Minnesota police used to collect data on journalists at protests
people with little power or authority at work or when acting as citizens
I want a prominent media home that reflects our size and heterogeneity. I want stories about wealth as opposed to income inequality and its effect on intergenerational and social mobility. I want stories that aren’t just about our problems, but that are also told by, for, and with us. We are civic participants who matter. I want us to set the terms of debate. What could the political effects be of a media that actually served working-class Americans?
stories that feature law enforcement as the sole source of information
Chappell and Rispoli, writing for Neimanlab, argue that we should defund the [journalism] crime beat. (With some secondary links to questionable sources and or paywalled stuff.)
WIRED offering non-journalists a residency program
"Between a pandemic, climate change, and advances in technology that continue to reshape almost every way of life, the past year has been a bellwether for work in the US. At WIRED, we believe some of the people best situated to cover this rapid evolution—from growing pains to genius pivots and everything in between—are the people who know those industries from the inside. That’s why we’re launching a new program called the WIRED Resilience Residency." Last month Wired magazine announced that it is "looking for new voices to provide an insider perspective on rapidly changing industries." [more inside]
Shitty Media Men And Those Who Enable Them
Writing on Medium, former Atlantic managing editor Jennifer Barnett discusses the abusive culture under James Bennet, how it pushed her out of the industry, and how people enabling him allows him - and other like him - to avoid accountability. (SLMedium)
"I have chills"
*slaps roof* this Nieman Lab can fit so many predictions
Nieman Lab asked some of the smartest people in journalism and media what they think is coming in the next 12 months, including Meredith D. Clark on The year journalism starts paying reparations; Doris Truong on Indigenous issues get long-overdue mainstream coverage; John Saroff on Covid sparks the growth of independent local news sites; Taylor Lorenz on Journalists will learn influencing isn’t easy; Ryan Kellett on The bundle gets bundled; and many, many more.
Mine Safety Disclosures Presents
The (Not Failing) New York Times - "How The New York Times went from failing newspaper to thriving digital subscription business."
The Problem Of Watching World News Through White Eyes Only
Only about 0.2% of British journalists are black, compared to 3% of our country’s population. When it comes to the ethnic backgrounds of UK foreign correspondents, figures are scant – but the picture appears to be even less diverse. Marcus Ryder examines why looking at world news through only white people’s eyes is a problem for all of us.
Looking for heroes
Journalism’s Gates keepers – freelance journalist Tim Schwab writes in the Columbia Journalism Review about the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s contributions to journalism (more than $250 million, to outlets such as NPR, BBC, NBC, Al Jazeera, ProPublica, National Journal, The Guardian, Univision, Medium, the Financial Times, The Atlantic etc.) and the ethical issues it raises, as the most prominent example of a larger trend of "billionaire philanthropists’ bankrolling the news".
820 South Michigan Ave
Photographer Barbara Karant's project "820 Ebony/Jet" is a visual time capsule of the "core essence of the Johnson Publishing Company, the most influential African American–owned corporation of its day, and home to Ebony and Jet magazines. The 11- story building in downtown Chicago was designed by Black architect John Moutoussamy and the custom interiors showcased in the September 1972 issue of Ebony. [more inside]
#whitecrimewhitepicture
Alexandra Bell is a multidisciplinary artist who investigates the complexities of narrative, information consumption, and perception. Utilizing various media, she deconstructs language and imagery to explore the tension between marginal experiences and dominant histories. Through investigative research, she considers the ways media frameworks construct memory and inform discursive practices around race, politics, and culture. In her current series, Counternarratives, Bell edits New York Times articles, altering headlines, changing images, and redacting text to reveal oppressive patterns in news reportage and society at large. (9 min doc).
"Why don’t we have space to do longform?”
The Messengers: One Small Magazine’s Fight for the Indian Mind (The Virginia Quarterly Review): "The implications, if true, meant major election fraud in the world’s largest democracy. Did they want to look into it? Jose glanced at me, almost helplessly. He had never imagined that his little magazine, with limited funding, a staff of thirty-eight people, and an inclination toward fiction and poetry, would ever become one of the only outlets breaking major, sensitive political stories in a country of over one billion people. “This is the job for leading newspapers and weeklies, but nobody was stepping in to cover them,” he told me after hanging up the phone. He couldn’t help but feel obligated. “How are you supposed to respond to stories which are journalistic but nobody else is doing them?”
A self help mag for people who hate self help mags
Reasons to be Cheerful is a non-profit editorial project that claims to tell stories "that reveal that there are, in fact, a surprising number of reasons to feel cheerful. Many of these reasons come in the form of smart, proven, replicable solutions to the world’s most pressing problems." Reasons to be Cheerful was founded by artist and musician David Byrne under the banner of his Arbutus Foundation. [more inside]
What a story. What a fucking story.
"Vicious Cycles", an essay by Greg Jackson in Harper's Magazine, presents "theses on a philosophy of news".
What is the news? That which is new. [...] But what is important? What's in the news.
The View from Somewhere
In 2017, just after covering the inauguration, journalist Lewis Wallace wrote a piece struggling with the election as someone who is transgender and anti-racist: Objectivity is dead, and I'm okay with it. In response, Marketplace fired him. Refusing to sign an NDA, Wallace instead took two years to dive deep into the history of "objective" journalism, activism, and what it means to do reporting during an age of rising fascism and white nationalism. The result is The View from Somewhere, and its companion podcast. Descriptions and links of the episodes so far behind the jump. [more inside]
Democracy At Work
“This is the most ambitious plan on corporate ownership ever put out by a presidential candidate,” Peter Gowan, with the Democracy Collaborative, an economic inequality-focused research institution, said. “[This is] giving real bones to Sanders’ vision of democratic socialism.” Bernie Sanders’s plan to reshape corporate America, explained (Vox) [more inside]
What’s The Matter With Media?
Forty-three new women came forward to describe assault and harassment by Trump. Newspapers ignored them. (Media Matters) Many mainstream news pundits have extravagant salaries, some are actual multimillionaires. Should they have to disclosure this when covering topics that impact their Wealth? (Baffler) “It’s no secret that historically, the struggles, victories, and concerns of the working class have rarely gotten the serious attention they deserve in our mainstream media. Instead, we are bombarded by reminders of the world that sits on top of ours and belongs to none of us: stories about celebrities, corporate America, and the exploits of the super-rich; squabbles between wealthy politicians; and an economy that is “booming” only for shareholders.” (The Nation ) Meanwhile, Twitter tips the scale toward incumbents by refusing the validate serious primary challengers (The Intercept)
🍳 👩🏽🌾🌯 🍜 🍤 🍝
2019 Association of Food Journalists award-winning coverage. Best Food Travel story: Gustavo Arellano at Eater, “The Central Valley Is the Heart and Soul of California”; Best Newspaper Food Feature: Chris Malloy, Phoenix New Times, “A Journey to the Heart of New Arizonan Cuisine”.
Started in 1986, AFJ’s awards competition is the oldest contest for food journalists and recognizes excellence in 15 categories of food journalism including audio journalism, photography, and restaurant criticism. Check out their Awards archive. [more inside]
Started in 1986, AFJ’s awards competition is the oldest contest for food journalists and recognizes excellence in 15 categories of food journalism including audio journalism, photography, and restaurant criticism. Check out their Awards archive. [more inside]
R.I.P. ThinkProgress
ThinkProgress is shutting down today (Daily Beast), after failing to find a new publisher. [more inside]
Hypermedia next gen venture ultra super click bait - future of news
This man is not the adult in the room at the former Gawker Media, just as Kendall Roy was not the adult in the room at Vaulter and Alden Global Capital executives are not the adult in the room at any of the 100 newspapers they are destroying. Sending a copied-and-pasted company handbook, issuing vague edicts about becoming sites for “enthusiasts,” and making inexplicable changes for the sake of making changes are the professional equivalent of a small boy dressing up in his father’s suit: He is role-playing, deluding himself but no one else.
"an ultraconservative news outlet and a conspiracy warehouse"
Trump, QAnon and an impending judgment day: Behind the Facebook-fueled rise of The Epoch Times (NBC News) [more inside]
“The truth is more important now than ever.”
Earlier this week, after its first front page headline about Trump's response to the El Paso and Dayton mass shootings sparked a furious backlash, the New York Times amended it for the second edition and executive editor Dean Baquet explained the first headline as more of a technical mistake than a matter of bad judgment, while Trump praised the original headline and Politico's Jack Shafer took issue with the "Twitter multitudes... swinging caltrops and battle axes in protest". But is the furor only about a headline? Or is it an expression of an increasing frustration with the media’s coverage of Trump’s rhetoric, as encapsulated in the words of Beto O’Rourke, "members of the press, WTF?" Is political coverage in the Trump era, as described in a much-retweeted thread by Heidi N. Moore, in a crisis? And if so, what are the solutions? [more inside]
The Fall of Mic Was a Warning
It's been a hard year for new media blogging empires, which has reaped a bumper crop of case studies on how millenial-targeted, VC-funded media properties, rise, fail, and fall.
In addition to the G/O Media / Spanfeller case [covered here yesterday], join the HuffPo on the shuttering of Mic and The Cut on the collapse of Babe.net, breaker of the Aziz Ansari #metoo story.
Media And Workers
“As to how a changing business model has served to disempower and erase the American working class, Martin posits that a shift in the 1960s and 1970s towards an advertising model aimed at an upscale middle-class readership is the primary culprit. With the rise of television, the newspaper industry grew ever more consolidated and concerned with addressing and reflecting the interests and lifestyles of a predominantly middle-class audience. ” The Real Working Class Is Invisible In The Media (Jacobin) “There is a solution, however, and it’s something that the devils in the corner office would never have dreamed of allowing to happen (they got mad enough when we started unionizing everything). In my estimation, the only true way forward for digital media is to blow it all up, and start again. It’s time for the fourth estate to seize the means of production.” (Commune)
Charles Koch Institute Trains Future Journalists
Who is now in the business of training young journalists? Why the Charles Koch Institute, that's who, along with the (potentially puzzling) assistance of the Poynter Institute. "The Media and Journalism Fellowship program is for aspiring and entrepreneurial journalists and storytellers. Our program offers media and creative professionals the opportunity to refine their skills and accelerate their careers while learning about the crucial role of free speech and a free press in our society. The year-long fellowship starts its next session in June 2019." [more inside]
It's pseudos all the way down
How to Escape Pseudo-Events in America: The Lessons of Covington. "In an era defined by virality, is there any way to stop a non-story from becoming a real one? What the Covington saga reveals about our media landscape." [more inside]
Newsfilter
"Citizens agenda." Dorky name. It works.
In November, Jay Rosen outlined an alternative approach to covering elections: "The idea was very simple: campaign coverage should be grounded in what voters want the candidates to talk about. Which voters? The ones you are trying to inform." As Rosen clarifies in a new thread, the solution for the "500 or so people who produce campaign coverage in the national press" isn't just "more issues" or "more policy" because the problem is at the level of purpose. WaPo's Margaret Sullivan backs up the call for an overhaul. [more inside]
Truth Sandwiches
How the media should respond to Trump’s lies: a linguist explains how Trump uses lies to divert attention from the “big truths.” "George Lakoff, a professor of linguistics and cognitive science at UC Berkeley ... recently published an article laying out the media’s dilemma. Trump’s 'big lie' strategy, he argues, is to 'exploit journalistic convention by providing rapid-fire news events for reporters to chase.' According to Lakoff, the president uses lies to divert attention from the 'big truths,' or the things he doesn’t want the media to cover. This allows Trump to create the controversies he wants and capitalize on the outrage and confusion they generate, while simultaneously stoking his base and forcing the press into the role of 'opposition party.'" [ViA] [more inside]
Apocalyptic Climate Reporting Completely Misses the Point
"Reporting on the IPCC, and climate change more broadly, is unbalanced. It’s fixated on the predictions of climate science and the opinions of climate scientists, with cursory gestures to the social, economic, and political causes of the problem. Yet analysis of these causes is as important to climate scholarship as modeling ice-sheet dynamics and sea-level rise."
The Voice and its Village
An alum looks back at the storied alt weekly [The Baffler]: "When I think about my two stints at the now-shuttered Village Voice—for which I freelanced regularly from the late seventies to the late eighties, returning as a staff writer from 1994-1999—one unexpected but apt word that keeps popping to mind is 'fecund.'" THE VILLAGE VOICE (1955–2018) [Art Forum]: "The destruction of the Village Voice—in the spirit of the paper itself, let’s not mince words about the nature of its ending—may not have been a surprise, but it was still a shock to the system." The demise of the Village Voice, previously: "Today is kind of a sucky day."
Choosing what to amplify vs. media manipulation
danah boyd (previously) delivered a keynote speech (available as text or video) to the Online News Association. It’s about manipulation of the media and how extremists and conspiracy theorists try to get their phrases covered so that they can get people to search for their terms and be indoctrinated.
"Today is kind of a sucky day."
The Village Voice has been shut down — The loss of the legendary New York publication is a tragedy for local media, alt-weeklies, and criticism. [more inside]
Journalistic Deficiencies: Metaphors Differ
David Roberts argues that journalists' desire to appear unbiased impacts their ability to understand the substance:
[I]magine covering substantive disputes every day but not allowing yourself to develop opinions about them. It takes will & effort! [ . . . ] Political/policy analysis, when done well, is developed through dialog. [ . . . ] It's a muscle that requires exercise. And "objective" reporters don't exercise it. [ . . . ] I've seen it again & again: when I can cajole "objective" reporters into sharing their opinions on, oh, the national debt, or climate policy, or electoral dynamics, those opinions are almost always shockingly flat-footed & childlike.[Threadreader link for the twitter averse] [more inside]
The endless reign of Rupert Murdoch
Together, his aptitude and his tastes combine into something one of his editors called “crassmanship”. “When it comes to headlines, as well as the play of stories, Rupert sheds with ease, if not relief, his Oxford prejudices, intellectual pretensions and the mannerisms of his wealth.” The proprietor’s talent is “uniquely geared to attract the lowest common denominator of reader.” [more inside]
Seriously, it was impossible to predict
From the Department of No One Could Possibly Have Foreseen this: Tronc finally realizes it has a stupid name (previously) (previouslier) [more inside]
A start, not an end point.
Science journalist, blogger and author Ed Yong has spent the last two years trying to fix the gender imbalance in his stories. [more inside]
Show Your Work
Show your work: The new terms for trust in journalism is an essay by media critic Jay Rosen (previously) that outlines 11 steps that journalists should take to improve transparency, and build trust with their readers.
“There was a real sense of a kind of moral corruption around the media”
“This means there's no commercial justification anymore for producing broad generalist news packages. It means we can expect private sector media to narrowly target people who are well-off and well-educated, because they are the ones who are the most interested in news, the ones most able to pay subscription costs, and the ones advertisers most want to reach. That's not great for democracy: We can expect to see a growing gap in political knowledge and participation.” PUBLIC BROADCASTING: ITS PAST AND ITS FUTURE - the argument for public funding of news media.
The Times Doesn’t Know Where Nazis Come From, But The Internet Does
On Nov. 25th the NYT published ‘A Voice of Hate in America’s Heartland’, a profile of white nationalist Tony Hovater that, in the Times own words, ‘has drawn significant feedback, most of it sharply critical.‘ Criticism included failure to fact check or confront Hovater’s claims (‘Here Are Some Facts And Questions About That Nazi The New York Times Failed To Note’- Splinter News), briefly linking to a Nazi merchandise store, normalizing white nationalism ( ‘New York Times Faces Back Lash Over Half-Basked Profile’ - Washington Post), and a failure to understand where these young men are being radicalized into far-right groups ( ‘The online ecosystem that supports and nurtures white nationalists..’ - Buzzfeed cw: Nazi imagery, hate speech.)
Empathy requires inquiry as much as imagination.
"...And so it was with a familiar disappointment that Somalis watched as details of the attack failed to headline broadcast news or resonate globally on social media. There was no impromptu hashtag of solidarity, no deluge of television coverage. It was as if the bombing were just another incident in the daily life of Somalis—a burst of violence that would fade into all the other bursts of violence. The lack of public empathy was startling but not surprising." [more inside]