Nieman Journalism Lab » Pushing to the Future of Journalism

New Jersey’s effort to strengthen local news finally gets its first $1 million

What do we want? Unbiased reporting! When do we want it? During protests!

Not all protests get treated equally. Stories about women’s marches and anti-Trump protests give more voice to the protesters than those about Black Lives Matter and other anti-racism protests.

By Danielle Kilgo

Instagram is busy fact-checking memes and rainbow hills while leaving political lies alone

Plus: Emphasizing a publisher’s name on social doesn’t seem to impact readers’ misinfo radar much one way or the other.

By Laura Hazard Owen

Is this video “missing context,” “transformed,” or “edited”? This effort wants to standardize how we categorize visual misinformation

MediaReview wants to turn the mishmash vocabulary around manipulated photos and video into something structured.

By Joshua Benton

YouTube’s algorithm is pushing climate misinformation videos, and their creators are profiting from it

One-fifth of the ads on climate misinformation videos were from Greenpeace, World Wildlife Fund, or other green/environmental groups.

By Hanaa' Tameez

Jack Dorsey has revealed the secret way to get verified on Twitter (kinda)

Putting news on stage: Bringing journalism back to the theater as a public space

Audiences want proximity and, perhaps more than ever, humanity. Telling stories in a real physical space can be an antidote to the virtual epidemic.

By Catherine Adams

Newsonomics: Worried about Alden taking control of Tribune? It’s already pulling strings inside

The news industry’s own Doctor Octopus has stuck its tentacles deep into another newspaper chain — and it’s unlikely to be dislodged anytime soon.

By Ken Doctor

The new CEO overseeing The Guardian has a Ph.D. in cell biology and neuroscience

In the U.K., one podcast is betting young adults will want a heap of Broccoli Content on Sundays

Plus: Morgan Stanley says Spotify has passed Apple, Slow Burn moves from Tupac to David Duke, and: Do you know any good producers?

By Nicholas Quah

Foundation grants have strings attached, and nonprofit journalists sometimes don’t like being told what to do by them

But comparing grant money to advertisers trying to sway coverage seems a bit much.

By Laura Hazard Owen and Joshua Benton

In India, news aggregator apps are struggling to find a path to sustainability

“This category is all about the next round of funding. None have a sustainable business model.”

By Cyril Sam

G/O Media still wants to revive Deadspin — but in Chicago

“Rated false”: Here’s the most interesting new research on fake news and fact-checking

Journalist’s Resource sifts through the academic journals so you don’t have to. Here they collect the best of 2019, including research into the effectiveness of fact-checking, why people are susceptible to fake news, and the changing volume of misinformation on social media.

By Denise-Marie Ordway

“Warts and all”: Facebook will continue to allow politicians to lie in their ads

Plus: YouTube would radicalize even without its algorithm, Reddit bans fakes both deep and cheap, and Facebook will let you dial down political ads.

By Laura Hazard Owen

What do we want? Unbiased reporting! When do we want it? During protests!

Not all protests get treated equally. Stories about women’s marches and anti-Trump protests give more voice to the protesters than those about Black Lives Matter and other anti-racism protests.

By Danielle Kilgo

Instagram is busy fact-checking memes and rainbow hills while leaving political lies alone

Plus: Emphasizing a publisher’s name on social doesn’t seem to impact readers’ misinfo radar much one way or the other.

Is this video “missing context,” “transformed,” or “edited”? This effort wants to standardize how we categorize visual misinformation

MediaReview wants to turn the mishmash vocabulary around manipulated photos and video into something structured.

What We’re Reading

Digiday / Max Willens

Under California law AB 5, publishers and freelancers see costs rise

“‘Most of them weren’t replaced by other workers,’ [one] executive said about the Californian freelancers who were let go. ‘It’s been more about putting more work into hourly employees.'”

Poynter / Rick Edmonds

How Henry Blodget is thinking about Business Insider’s expansion

“Local journalism is going to be the last piece of the puzzle…it’s a market we hope to get into in another few years.”

CNN / Kerry Flynn

With dance challenges and explainer videos, publishers invade TikTok to court Gen Z

“We wanted to be a part of the dance trends and the feel good moments and build up an audience and then start to insert the news more often.”

NPR

Reporters battle new restrictions in trying to cover Senate impeachment trial

“Reporters are being confined to small cordoned-off sections in areas where unrestricted access was typically standard. They are being prevented from walking with senators to continue conversations — even when the senator involved is willingly participating. Reporters also now may not approach senators for interviews in the halls surrounding the Senate chamber.”

Vanity Fair / Joe Pompeo

The latest about what the deal is with the New York Times Opinion section

Although this article came out before this one.

South China Morning Post / Coco Feng

Short video is now more attractive than news sites for online advertisers in China

“News sites, which were third place in the previous year’s report, fell to the fourth spot with 11.8 per cent of online advertising revenue.”

Concord Monitor / Ethan DeWitt

New Hampshire legislators consider bill requiring news outlets to update crime stories

“A bill by Jack Flanagan, a Brookline Republican, would require news outlets to update all online articles about people in the judicial system if they were acquitted, found not guilty, or had their charges dropped.”

Online News Association

Meet the ONA Women’s Leadership Accelerator’s 2020 cohort

“These 26 women leaders were selected from a pool of more than 400 applicants to participate in the 2020 Women’s Leadership Accelerator. They represent seven countries and a range of backgrounds, newsrooms and expertise, including local news entrepreneurship, operations, product innovation, visual journalism and broadcast. Throughout the year, they will work with top minds in digital media to tackle challenges specific to their careers.”

The Drum / Ian Burrell

Has journalism finally found its big tech ally? Here’s Microsoft’s pitch to publishers

“Its innovations are designed to speed up investigative reporting by allowing vast datasets to be combed in seconds; video interviews can be given instant and searchable text transcripts in one of 40 languages; and reporters can have their voices mimicked by AI so that their articles can be consumed in audio formats, which are growing fast in popularity. At least, that’s the plan.”

BBC News / Joe Tidy

Twitter apologizes for letting advertisers target neo-Nazis and bigots

A BBC investigation found that it was possible for advertisements to target users who had searched for or shown an interest in terms like “transphobic”, “white supremacists”, and “anti-gay”.

See what else we’re reading →

To close out 2019, we asked some of the smartest people we know to predict what 2020 will bring for the future of journalism. Here’s what they had to say.