The Rise of Populism and the Damages to Journalism
By Frederic Filloux
25 January 2019
In the past two years, the global rise of populism has inflicted severe wounds to journalism. But inadequate responses from the news media has compounded the damages. More
How Local Journalism Can Upend the ‘Fake News’ Narrative
By Damian Radcliffe
22 December 2018
“For the first time media is the least trusted institution globally,” Edelman, the global PR and marketing firm concluded in its annual worldwide study on trust in institutions like the media, business and government. More
Craig Newmark’s New Hit List
By Andrew Zaleski
13 December 2018
There was hay here once. Horses, coachmen. Carriages were stored one room over. But that was a long time ago, before this house in lower Manhattan was even on the market, before the construction workers arrived, before the limestone tile for an adjoining hallway was cut, before the hayloft was removed to make room for a spiral staircase and more bookshelves. More
When Numbers Lie, How Do Journalists Tell The Truth?
By Emily Kaiser
23 July 2018
Hi, my name is Emily, and I’m a data geek.
My problem started when I became a financial journalist at Reuters. As a U.S. economics correspondent, I was immersed in a daily deluge of government data. I could tell you, to the third decimal place, how much Americans owed on their home mortgages. I knew how much time the average person spent eating (it’s approximately 1.17 hours per day — thanks, Labor Department!)
‘No Comment’: The Death of Business Reporting
By Steven Pearlstein
10 July 2018
Recently I went looking for a well-run company to write about — the sort of corporate profile that used to be the bread and butter of business reporting. I quickly hit upon Clorox, which regularly shows up on the list of best companies to work for and recently walked away with an unusual number of awards for its marketing campaigns. I was also intrigued by the challenge of writing about a company in a “boring” industry like consumer packaged goods (Clorox bleach, S.O.S. scrub pads, Burt’s Bees lip balm, Brita water filters, Kingsford charcoal) rather than tech or finance.
Why We Have Bad News: The Disintermediation of the Media
By Alan Keegan
29 June 2018
Multiple times a day, the President of the United States types a thought into his phone, my pocket buzzes, and I read his message. I don’t watch the news anymore.
On TV we get perspective on the white house in the form of a few selected clips from a longer press conference, where someone (who at some point spoke to the president about talking points) gives evasive answers to leading questions from journalists, which are then re-cut and heavily editorialized by major news networks (before being replayed 4 times an hour for 24 hours).
I get a direct, disintermediated line to the president. In fact we all have a direct, disintermediated line to anyone who has a twitter account.
The Messy Fourth Estate
By Danah Boyd
20 June 2018
For the second time in a week, my phone buzzed with a New York Times alert, notifying me that another celebrity had died by suicide. My heart sank. I tuned into the Crisis Text Line Slack channel to see how many people were waiting for a counselor’s help. Volunteer crisis counselors were pouring in, but the queue kept growing.
Emily Bell: Are News Organisations ‘Consciously Uncoupling’ from Facebook?
By GEN
1 June 2018
The relationship between news organisations and platforms has shifted. According to Bell, the reason for this change comes as a result of the investment by investigative journalists and independent academic researchers: Craig Silverman’s work on fake news, Jonathan Albright’s research into algorithms, and most recently, the Cambridge Analytica story, which ‘has completely changed everything’.
Editor of Bangkok Post ‘Forced to Step Down’ Over Coverage of Government
By Hannah Ellis-Petersen
16 May 2018
The editor of the Bangkok Post newspaper has said he has been forced to step down after refusing to curtail critical coverage of the ruling military government.
Umesh Pandey, who has held the position since July 2016, said the board of directors had asked him to “tone down” the newspaper’s reporting and editorials on the actions of the military government, particularly over their suppression of freedom of speech and the delays over long-promised elections.
The Guardian: Can Journalism Be Sold Like a Pair of Trainers?
By Freia Nahser
15 May 2018
The Guardian reports that it is well on track with its three-year strategy to make the Guardian sustainable and break even at operating level by 2018–19.
‘More than 800,000 people now financially support the Guardian, up 200,000 from a year ago. Of these about 200,000 are print or digital subscribers, more than 300,000 are members or regular contributors, and more than 300,000 gave one-off contributions’.