New York Times: Introducing Gift Articles, a New Way for Times Subscribers to Share Articles. “New York Times news subscribers can now share up to 10 gift articles with nonsubscribers each month on NYTimes.com and soon, on iOS and Android.”
Poynter: The lessons of Squash, the first automated fact-checking platform. “Today, Squash (our code name for the project, chosen because it is a nutritious vegetable and a good metaphor for stopping falsehoods) has been a remarkable success. It displays fact checks seconds after politicians utter a claim and it largely does what those readers wanted in 2007. But Squash also makes lots of mistakes.”
The Conversation: How to consume news while maintaining your sanity. “The amount and variety of news produced today often tests people’s ability to determine its value and veracity. Such a torrent of information threatens to drown news consumers in a river of confusion…. But techniques exist for ferreting out what we can trust and what we should question, and there are steps we can take to help determine where the news comes from.”
AP: AP says it will no longer name suspects in minor crimes. “The Associated Press said Tuesday it will no longer run the names of people charged with minor crimes, out of concern that such stories can have a long, damaging afterlife on the internet that can make it hard for individuals to move on with their lives.”
Chicago Crusader: Proposed ‘house museums’ continue to get momentum. “Museums have the power to share the history, lived experiences, culture, myths and voices of a community, era or people. With that in mind, many are keeping a watchful eye on proposed developments slated in the former Bronzeville homes of blues legend Muddy Waters and journalist Lu Palmer and his activist wife, Jorga.”
The Hill: CNN to sell ‘Moments’ NFTs based on historic events recorded in digital archives. “CNN has started selling NFTs, or digital nonfungible tokens representing historical moments stored in its archives, although NFT purchasers will not own copyrights to the content or have any control over it.”
Global Investigative Journalism Network: Tips for Using the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine in Your Next Investigation. “There are many ways journalists, researchers, fact checkers, activists, and the general public access the free-to-use Wayback Machine every day. Several thousand articles have been written about us, or reference our services. In fact, in GIJN’s My Favorite Tools series wrap for 2020, several leading investigative journalists identified it as a mainstay of their work. Following is an introduction for reporters interested in trying out the Wayback Machine for their next investigation.”
International Journalists’ Network: Journalists can combat scientific misinformation with Science Pulse tool. “A project of ICFJ Knight Fellow Sérgio Spagnuolo, Science Pulse aggregates English, Spanish and Portuguese social media posts from scientists, scientific organizations and other experts in its database. Rather than wade through Twitter and Facebook feeds, journalists can now use Science Pulse’s tools to stay on top of the latest research and other scientific news shared on social media.” ENGLISH READERS! When you go to the application page, look for the dropdown menu reading “Escolha o idioma dos tweets”. Choose Inglés and enjoy.
Poynter: Brand over substance may determine the public’s perception of news articles, study says . “The public’s perception of a news outlet’s trustworthiness may come down to branding rather than content, according to a recently released study from the Knight Foundation and Gallup. The study used data from a specially designed news aggregation platform called NewsLense to test participants’ perceptions and interactions with articles from outlets identified as either ‘sympathetic,’ ‘no lean,’ or ‘adversarial.’”
Al Jazeera: Gaza-based journalists say their accounts blocked by WhatsApp. “According to the Associated Press, 17 journalists in Gaza confirmed their WhatsApp accounts had been blocked since Friday. By midday Monday, only four journalists – working for Al Jazeera – confirmed their accounts had been restored.”
NiemanLab: The U.S. Media Index database shows news consumers who owns what. “If you ever wanted to track down who owns a news outlet, it’s now much easier to do it. The U.S. Media Index database by the Future of Media Project has done the grueling work of compiling that information for us. The databases includes three indices: The U.S. Mainstream Media Index details the 176 parent companies of daily news outlets; the index of emerging nonprofit media and donors lists 231 nonprofit news outlets and who funds them; and an index of the seven owners of daily newspapers is categorized by state.”
Journalist’s Resource: What’s peer review? 5 things you should know before covering research. “As scholars and other experts rush to release new research aimed at better understanding the coronavirus pandemic, newsrooms must be more careful than ever in vetting the biomedical studies they choose to cover. One of the first steps journalists should take to gauge the quality of all types of research is answering this important question: Has the paper undergone peer review?”
International Journalists’ Network: Decoding how news consumers interpret information. “In recent years it became clear to the newsroom that mis- and disinformation, disruption and confusion among audiences was increasing, especially on social media. To address the growing concern, Global Voices launched a method in 2019 called the Civic Media Observatory to investigate and decode how individuals in diverse, ‘seemingly chaotic media ecosystems’ interpret content, and in turn construct their reality.”
World Economic Forum: This innovative project fuses journalism and music to highlight lawlessness at sea. ” All of that time spent at sea allowed me to build an audio library of field recordings. It featured a variety of textured and rhythmic sounds like machine-gun fire off the coast of Somalia and chanting captive deckhands on the South China Sea. Using the sound archive and inspired by the reporting, over 400 artists from more than 60 countries are producing EPs in their own interpretive musical styles, be it electronic, ambient, classical or hip-hop. Many artists also used the reported footage to make their own videos tied to their song, including Louis Futon, Roger Molls, and De Osos.” This is really good. Major timesink.
South China Morning Post: Hong Kong protests: former RTHK journalist Bao Choy to appeal conviction over database search, fearing lifelong regret if she gives up ‘pursuit of justice’. “A former journalist at Hong Kong’s public broadcaster is appealing against her conviction for improperly accessing public records during the making of a documentary critical of how police handled a 2019 mob attack, saying letting the case go now would be a source of lifelong regret.”
