Good reads about journalism, tech and media
Can, or Should Quality News Outlets Survive in Our Algorithmic ‘Post-Truth’ Society?
By Paresseux Scribouillard
31 May 2019
The concept of quality news outlets in 2019 can seem like the talk of a few academics not very in touch with the economics of news in our current environment. More
Here’s Why Google Built a New Search Tool for Data Journalists
By Behind Local News
2 March 2019
Data journalism can deliver some of the most rewarding and valuable stories — but it can also be time-consuming and tricky to fit into a tight newsroom schedule. Vincent Ryan, Teaching Fellow at Google News Lab, explains how Google turned it thoughts to solving the problems. More
Do Not Fear the Robot-Journalist
By Porsche Digital Lab
15 February 2019
Most conversations about AI in journalism tend to revolve around the robot-journalist and the question, if and when machines will replace human writers. But as intriguing as these discussions are, they tend to miss the actual role AI will play in newsrooms and is indeed already playing. More
The State of Technological Journalism
By Max Gorynski
8 February 2019
There is a new and perverse honor in the drive to be a journalist in our century. The grand narrative trope of the wilderness newly civilized by the hardy and intrepid has been reversed by the virtual geo-blanching effect of net economics, as a region of employ once flush and fertile has now become the home of the brave, the desperate, and the obsessive pugilist against the tide. More
Time to Look More Critically at Data Journalism
By Letizia Gambini
31 January 2019
The field of data journalism has traveled a long way since 2012, the year of publication of the first edition of the Data Journalism Handbook. Not just because of more sophisticated technologies, or a different economic setting, but also because society and culture have changed. More
How AI and Chinese-Like Business Models Could Reshape Digital Media
By Rédouane Ramdani
8 January 2019
In January 2018, Facebook announced that it was going to distance itself from news by de-prioritizing it from the News Feed. Just one month later, media companies started feeling the impact. More
Artificial Intelligence Demands Genuine Journalism
By Maria Teresa Ronderos
2 November 2018
Many large newsrooms and news agencies have, for some time, relegated sports, weather, stock exchange movements and corporate performance stories to computers. Surprisingly, machines can be more rigorous and comprehensive than some reporters. Unlike many journalists who often single-source stories, software can import data from various sources, recognise trends and patterns and, using Natural Language Processing, put those trends into context, constructing sophisticated sentences with adjectives, metaphors and similes. Robots can now convincingly report on crowd emotions in a tight soccer match. More
Even the Best AI for Spotting Fake News Is Still Terrible
By Karen Hao
7 October 2018
When Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg promised Congress that AI would help solve the problem of fake news, he revealed little in the way of how. New research brings us one step closer to figuring that out. More
How ProPublica Became Big Tech’s Scariest Watchdog
By Katharine Schwab
5 July 2018
Facebook is a political battleground where Russian operatives work to influence elections, fake news runs rampant, and political hopefuls use ad targeting to reach swing voters. We have no idea what goes on inside Facebook’s insidious black box algorithm, which controls the all-powerful News Feed. Are politicians playing by the rules? Can we trust Facebook to police them? Do we really have any choice?
Department Of Homeland Security Compiling Database Of Journalists And ‘Media Influencers’
By Michelle Fabio
7 April 2018
In today’s installment of “I’m Not Terrified, You Are,” Bloomberg Law reports on a FedBizOpps.gov posting by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with the relatively benign-sounding subject “Media Monitoring Services.” The details of the attached Request for Information, however, outline a plan to gather and monitor the public activities of media professionals and influencers and are enough to cause nightmares of constitutional proportions, particularly as the freedom of the press is under attack worldwide.
The Economist And Financial Times Both Hired Cambridge Analytica For US Expansion
By Mark Di Stefano
29 March 2018
Two of Britain’s most prestigious media brands, the Economist and the Financial Times, hired controversial data firm Cambridge Analytica to help them get more subscribers in the United States, BuzzFeed News has learned.As the fallout continues from a Cambridge Analytica whistleblower’s bombshell claims that the London-based firm misused Facebook data in an effort to intervene in elections around the world, there are now questions about whether commercial clients also benefited from the data.
What Could Blockchain Do for Journalism?
By Nicky Woolf
15 February 2018
David Moore is having fun. The former director of the Participatory Politics Foundation, a nonprofit open-government group that operated OpenCongress.org — a site that tracked the revolving door between Congress and lobbying and became a leading resource for government transparency — is now part of a project with an ambitious goal: finding a way to save journalism.