Nieman Foundation at Harvard
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The media becomes an activist for democracy
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Archives: May 2018

For a company that’s known little but chaos in its short life, the degree of uncertainty is now as high as ever. Just about the only thing we know: Tronc execs will come out well in the end.
“At the start, we understand the intention of the show, and that’s to promote good governance and social justice in Kenya. So before each season begins, we have a list of issues that we feel are major things that we should address or highlight.”
Since 2011, the share of Americans’ media consumption that happens in print has dropped about 40 percent. But the share of American ad dollars that go to print has dropped more than 60 percent.
“People are always on their phones, but this isn’t ‘Let’s just start shooting them info over text.’ When you integrate into somebody’s routine in an intimate way, it has to feel right for the platform.”
“The other day there was big news in Bosnia. They said a Hooters had opened up in Sarajevo…But we didn’t even get the chance to mock the sexist business model of the place — first we had to correct the facts. Which is, that it wasn’t a real Hooters at all.”
Its Facebook chatbot asks angry readers what insults they want to level at the publication, then ends up looping them into a conversation. It’s also building a network of satire writers by training members of its community, who then train others.
“I wouldn’t say we give hope with humor. That’s a stretch. But at least we’re helping bridge a gap with the censorship that’s happening on TV and radio.”