Thursday, January 9, 2025 |
| It was the first time many Americans saw Rupert Murdoch using his news outlets to advance his interests — and a lesson in how a media mogul’s outside financial ties can taint the editorial product. By Joshua Benton. |
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| “Woods Hole tends to be pretty passionate about things, and when people get startled they get angry.” By Neel Dhanesha. |
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| Zuckerberg didn’t mention that a big chunk of the content fact-checkers have been flagging is not political speech, but the low-quality spammy clickbait that Meta platforms have commodified. By Alexios Mantzarlis. |
What We’re ReadingReuters Institute for the Study of Journalism / Nic Newman and Federica Cherubini
The Reuters Institute’s trends and predictions for journalism, media, and technology in 2025 →“Just four in ten (41%) of our sample of editors, CEOs, and digital executives say they are confident about the prospects for journalism in the year ahead, with one in six (17%) expressing low confidence…More positively, just over half (56%) say they are confident about their own business prospects, a significant jump on last year’s figure.”Substack / Matt Pearce
Fires and the facts →“One of the odd experiences of this week’s local disaster for me was that it was my first in years where I wasn’t working in a newsroom, a privileged position where information from your colleagues pummels you in the face through nonpublic channels like Slack. This time, I’m a civilian. And this time, the user experience of getting information about a disaster unfolding around me was dogshit.”The Washington Post / Will Oremus
Meta’s “tipping point” is about aligning with power →“Barely veiled by the lofty ideals is a cold business calculation: With Trump’s Republican Party controlling the White House and Capitol Hill and a sympathetic supermajority ensconced at the Supreme Court, Meta has more to lose by offending conservatives than by offending liberals or marginalized groups.”Programmable Mutter / Henry Farrell
We’re getting the social media crisis wrong →“This isn’t brainwashing — people don’t have to internalize this or that aspect of what social media presents to them, radically changing their beliefs and their sense of who they are…The more important change is to our beliefs about what other people think, which we perpetually update based on social observation. When what we observe is filtered through social media, our understandings of the coalitions we belong to, and the coalitions we oppose, what we have in common, and what we disagree on, shift too.”The Walrus / Tom Jokinen
Is Canada ready for life without the CBC? Pierre Poilievre, the likely prime minister, thinks so →“In this political climate, people believe the CBC is run by Marxists, but only 11 percent of the whole want the CBC to be cut entirely. So how can Poilievre hang a significant piece of the Tory agenda on such a small cohort? Poilievre’s base is brought to the polls on a range of wedge issues, of which the CBC is only one.”404 Media / Emanuel Maiberg
Facebook is censoring 404 Media stories about Facebook’s censorship →“It was hard enough to deal with having to constantly prove to Facebook that our journalism is not pornography or harmful content when we worked at Vice, where we had a whole audience and social media team who dealt with this kind of thing. It’s much harder for us to do that now that we’re an independent publication with only four workers who have to do this in addition to everything else.”The Washington Post / Jeremy Barr
In trial testimony, contractor says CNN story ruined his career →“Kyle Roche, a lawyer representing Young, argued in his opening statement that CNN’s segment turned his client’s reputation from ‘patriot to criminal.’ He said Young deserves to be compensated for any damages his business suffered, as well as for future lost earnings.”The Verge / Lauren Feiner
Meta is highlighting a splintering global approach to online speech →“The U.S. and the European Union have long had different approaches when it comes to digital regulation, which has at times inflamed tensions since many of the largest tech companies that end up being targeted by Europe’s rules are the U.S.’s crown jewels. That dynamic is likely to be exacerbated under a second Trump administration, with the incoming president’s protectionist policies.”The Guardian / Rachel Leingang
Meta’s factchecking partners brace for layoffs →“Several of the partner organizations have confirmed they’re taking a financial hit that will likely lead to fewer employees. Lead Stories, one of Meta’s factcheck partners, confirmed its staff would take a hit as a result of the decision. ‘Lead Stories will see a drop in revenue with the loss of the Meta contract, which will result in a staffing reduction,’ cofounder Alan Duke said in an email.”The Washington Post / Jeremy Barr
How should the news industry cover Trump? Ten top journalists weigh in →David Remnick: “We also have to think hard about who we’re speaking to and how. And at the same time, not sell our sense of purpose out because the vote went 3 percent one way as opposed to another way. Would we be having this conversation if the Democrats had won a narrow victory?”Techdirt / Mike Masnick
The good, the bad, and the stupid in Meta’s new content moderation policies →“For years we’ve been told that the Biden campaign (pre-inauguration in 2020 and 2021) engaged in unconstitutional coercion to force social media platforms to remove content. And here we have the exact same thing, except that it’s much more egregious and Trump is even taking credit for it…and you won’t hear a damn peep from anyone who has spent the last four years screaming about the ‘censorship industrial complex’ pushing social media to make changes to moderation practices in their favor.”Business Insider / Katie Notopoulos
There are prediction markets for everything now, including deadly fires →“There were at least nine different predictions you could place money on as of Wednesday afternoon that were related to the fire…One question asked: ‘Will the Palisades fire be contained by Friday?’ Only 2% of bets said yes.”9to5Google / Abner Li
Google’s new “Daily Listen” creates a personalized, AI-generated podcast out of your Discover feed →“It’s a bit like NotebookLM’s Audio Overviews…Through Discover and Search, Google is aware of what you are interested in. Daily Listen takes all that into account to create a 5 minute or so episode that provides an overview of stories and topics that you follow.”Digiday / Sara Guaglione
How publishers are strategizing for a second Trump administration: softer news and more social media →“The biggest change to one political news publisher’s social strategy is changing up staffers’ work schedules and expanding social monitoring. Trump is ‘the most active typically when our journalists are not’…Trump is posting on Truth Social, the conservative-leaning social media platform he owns, or X between 5 p.m. and midnight, whereas most of their team works a normal 9 to 5 day, they added.”Press Gazette / David Buttle
What Google’s $100 million payout to Canada news industry means for publishers elsewhere →“The Google deal in Canada is a good one for news but there probably will not be many more at this level of value, absent legislative arm-lock approaches like that taken in Australia. By the time the U.K. regime bites, this is likely to have changed further still.”Semafor / Max Tani
Staff at The Root pressed to write more to “offset” colleague’s death →“We need each of you to write four trending stories daily. This will bring us closer to standards expected of daily writers across the industry, as well as help us offset the tragic loss of Stephanie,” The Root’s deputy editor Dustin Seibert wrote in a memo to staff. “If you are working on a slideshow, you are still only expected to provide two more trending stories that day.”
Nieman Lab / Fuego
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