Medium: Conspiracy Theorizing in the Time of Covid-19: The Complementary Roles of Social and Hyper-Partisan News Media. “This post is a ‘data memo’ examining how social media and hyper-partisan online news media play complementary roles in the spread of conspiracy theories. It is a story about how a discredited scientist and vaccine skeptic became a household name in conversations about Covid-19. Well, it’s a small part of that story, one that is interwoven into a larger tapestry of politics and media in the Internet connected era. The story is told through snapshots of data, including a collection of tweets related to Covid-19, and views into public Facebook interactions provided by the Crowdtangle platform.”
journalism
NiemanLab: Aiming for novelty in coronavirus coverage, journalists end up sensationalizing the trivial and untrue
NiemanLab: Aiming for novelty in coronavirus coverage, journalists end up sensationalizing the trivial and untrue. “When a clear beginning, middle, and resolution are not discernible, the demand for any morsel of new information can confuse, rather than clarify, the story. Journalists rushing to amplify any small update can mistakenly inflate its importance with sensational headlines or hyperbolic broadcast framing.”
Ireland should consider forcing Google, Facebook to pay media for content: PM (Reuters)
Reuters: Ireland should consider forcing Google, Facebook to pay media for content: PM. “The Irish government should consider copying Australia’s plan to force Facebook Inc (FB.O) and Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google to share advertising revenue with local media, Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said [in April].”
The Moscow Times: Russia Pushes Google to Block Report on Low Virus Deaths, Probes NYT and FT
The Moscow Times: Russia Pushes Google to Block Report on Low Virus Deaths, Probes NYT and FT. “Russia’s state communications watchdog has demanded that Google block a Russian news website’s article on a Financial Times report about Russia’s possibly undercounted coronavirus deaths. Roskomnadzor, the watchdog, said Thursday it was probing reports by FT and The New York Times, which analyzed official mortality data to investigate whether Russia is undercounting its coronavirus deaths, to establish whether they violated the country’s law against disinformation. It did not say whether it planned to punish the media outlets, as demanded by some Russian officials.”
ProPublica: I’m an Investigative Journalist. These Are the Questions I Asked About the Viral “Plandemic” Video.
ProPublica: I’m an Investigative Journalist. These Are the Questions I Asked About the Viral “Plandemic” Video.. “My brother is a pastor in Colorado and had someone he respects urge him to watch ‘Plandemic,’ a 26-minute video that promises to reveal the “hidden agenda” behind the COVID-19 pandemic. I called him and he shared his concern: People seem to be taking the conspiracy theories presented in ‘Plandemic’ seriously. He wondered if I could write something up that he could pass along to them, to help people distinguish between sound reporting and conspiracy thinking or propaganda So I watched ‘Plandemic.’ I did not find it credible, as I will explain below.”
First Draft: How to analyze Facebook data for misinformation trends and narratives
First Draft: How to analyze Facebook data for misinformation trends and narratives. “There is a mountain of data that can help us examine topics such as the spread of 5G conspiracy theories or where false narratives around Covid-19 cures came from. It can help us analyze cross-border narratives and identify which online communities most frequently discuss certain issues. While Twitter’s public data is accessible through its Application Programming Interface (API), it can be much more complicated for researchers to access platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. Facebook-owned platform CrowdTangle is the most easily accessible tool to handle three of the most important social networks — Facebook, Instagram, and Reddit — and it is free for journalists and researchers.”
TechRadar: Facebook and Google will be forced to pay for news content in Australia
TechRadar: Facebook and Google will be forced to pay for news content in Australia. “The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has been instructed by the Australian government to create a mandatory code of conduct to instruct tech giants on how to share the revenue they generate from using content produced by news outlets, which Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said seeks to ‘level the playing field’.”
