1406 posts tagged with journalism.
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How the internet revived the world's first work of interactive fiction
Life is not a continuous line from the cradle to the grave. Rather, it is many short lines, each ending in a choice, and branching right and left to other choices, like a bunch of seaweed or a genealogical table. No sooner is one problem solved than you face another growing out of the first. You are to decide the course of action of first Helen, then Jed, then Saunders, at each crisis in their lives. Give your first thought, without pausing to ponder.Consider the Consequences!, a 1930 gamebook co-written by author Doris Webster and crusading journalist Mary Alden Hopkins, is the earliest known example of a choose-your-own-adventure (CYOA) text, offering players a series of forking narratives for three interconnected characters with 43 distinct endings, fifty years before the format was popularized (and trademarked). Just a few years ago this pioneering work was at risk of falling into near-total obscurity. But thanks to the efforts of jjsonick on IntFiction.org, you can now read the book on the Internet Archive (complete with nifty graphs of all possible storylines), or -- courtesy of itch.io developer geetheriot -- play the game online in an interactive fiction format powered by the Twine engine. More in the mood for radio drama? Listen to Audio Adventure Radio Hour's 2018 dramatic reading of the book (based on listener suggestions), and wrap it up with a delightful retro-review by librarian pals Peter and Abby on the Choose Your Own Book Club podcast. [more inside]
"We pay attention to timbre, rhythm, as well as variation"
Got WiFi? Will Spy
“anyone from a landlord to a laundromat – could be required to help the government spy.” (Guardian) The Guardian covers the Houses expansion of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Although presented as a re-authorization, “The Turner-Himes amendment – so named for its champions Representatives Mike Turner and Jim Himes – would permit federal law enforcement to also force “any other service provider” with access to communications equipment to hand over data.” [disclaimer: I am related to the author of this article.] [more inside]
It is a terrible time for the press to be failing at reaching people
I believe it was a mistake to give away journalism for free in the 1990s. Information is not and never has been free. I devoutly believe that news organizations need to survive and figure out a revenue model that allows them to do so. But the most important mission of a news organization is to provide the public with information that allows citizens to make the best decisions in a constitutional democracy. Our government derives its legitimacy from the consent of the governed, and that consent is arrived at through the free flow of information—reliable, fact-based information. To that end, news organizations should put their election content in front of their paywall. The Constitution protects the press so that the press can protect constitutional democracy. Now the press must fulfill its end of the bargain. from Democracy Dies Behind Paywalls [The Atlantic; ungated]
I feared that being near all of this would mean the end of my career
“This was a catch-and-kill,” I told Alpert. “What’s a catch-and-kill?” he asked.
I went on to explain the tabloid practice of buying stories to bury them. Alpert already had the outline of the story, I learned, and I filled him in on more: how Howard had flown out to Los Angeles that summer to buy McDougal’s story for $150,000, with the direction from Pecker to kill it to protect Trump. I stressed to him the importance of the term “catch and kill” and told him that if The Journal included it, it would give me some breathing room. I went back to my office and closed the door. My heart was racing, and I was sweating. from What I Saw Working at The National Enquirer During Donald Trump’s Rise by Lachlan Cartwright [NY Times; ungated] [CW: Trumpland]
Their Men in Havana
A yearlong investigation by The Insider, in collaboration with 60 Minutes and Der Spiegel, has uncovered evidence suggesting that unexplained anomalous health incidents, also known as Havana Syndrome, may have their origin in the use of directed energy weapons wielded by members of Russian GRU Unit 29155. Members of the Kremlin’s infamous military intelligence sabotage squad have been placed at the scene of suspected attacks on overseas U.S. government personnel and their family members, leading victims to question what Washington knows about the origins of Havana Syndrome, and what an appropriate Western response might entail.Unraveling Havana Syndrome: New evidence links the GRU's assassination Unit 29155 to mysterious attacks on Americans, at home and abroad [more inside]
Google Minus Google News
"The featured filters — Images, Videos, Maps, Flights, Shopping, Perspectives, etc. — change and reorder depending on the search term, but this was different. I wasn’t seeing the News tab as an option for search after search, even if I went looking in the 'All filters' drop-down menu. I tried with 'Julian Assange,' 'public subsidies for sports stadiums,' and 'Reckon layoffs.' None showed the News filter as an option. The next day, on a different computer, my News filter was (blessedly) back. But a few other users confirmed I was not alone." Last year Google cut jobs in its news division. Where is Google putting its resources these days? Exactly where you'd expect.
It’s all arbitrary and dumb, but they’re addicted
These games are critical to the Times’ business strategy in trying to reach users—and ideally, future paying subscribers—beyond its core news product. Of course, the Times is still competing for White House scoops with its traditional print and digital rivals and dispatching correspondents to war zones. But the company is also vying for people’s attention against every app on their home screen. So it’s developed products in recent years to satisfy the lifestyle needs of its audience: cooking, shopping (via what is now known as Wirecutter, acquired in a 2016 deal worth more than $30 million), sports (via The Athletic, the site it acquired in 2022 for $550 million), and audio, building on the success of The Daily with a slew of podcasts ... The products and the journalism coexist under what the Times calls “the bundle,” an offering that has turbocharged the company’s ambitious growth strategy. from Inside The New York Times’ Big Bet on Games [Vanity Fair; ungated]
Bad News
It would be far too dramatic to extrapolate from the disastrous week that journalism itself is dying. The New York Times is healthy. Thanks to good management and demographically vigorous readerships, the Boston Globe and Minneapolis Star Tribune carry on. Cable, network and local TV news still toss off profits. But no matter how many heroic nonprofit newsrooms like the Baltimore Banner and Daily Memphian take root, no matter how many Substack-like newsletters blossom or creators emerge to drop their videos on YouTube, you can’t deny the journalism business’ decline. from The News Business Really Is Cratering [Politico] [more inside]
Keeping things published online is an ongoing choice
The upshot: Readers in America, where prior restraint is forbidden and where courts won’t enforce foreign rulings that violate the First Amendment, are blocked from reading a story based on a legal complaint that would be tossed out of most American courts. That’s not the only way the case is resonating in the U.S. from How a Judge in India Prevented Americans From Seeing a Blockbuster Report
What 72 looks like
The global median life expectancy is 72 years old. As part of a photographic project looking at the global community of over 60s we take a look at the lives of a diverse group of people in later life. A photo essay by Ed Kashi, Ilvy Njiokiktjien, and Sara Terry in The Guardian.
The Fourth Estate's Future
At the end of every year, NiemanLab asks for predictions about the coming year of journalism from experts in the field. Here's the latest batch predicting 2024. (previously) [more inside]
An annual exercise in humility
As awesome as we are, on occasion we're reminded that other people are also kind of great. Which is why we at Bloomberg Businessweek practice an annual exercise in humility called The Jealousy List. Put simply, these are the stories so well executed by folks at other outlets that we wish we’d published them. from Jealousy List 2023 [Bloomberg; ungated] [more inside]
Icahn seen clearly now the gains have gone
Also: Consultants Consult, 'Sad' Goat, God-given Middle Finger, Orca Moms & more in The 2023 Headline of the Year Nominees [X, nitter]
Reporting on Long Covid
Covering long Covid solidified my view that science is not the objective, neutral force it is often misconstrued as. It is instead a human endeavor, relentlessly buffeted by our culture, values and politics. As energy-depleting illnesses that disproportionately affect women, long Covid and M.E./C.F.S. are easily belittled by a sexist society that trivializes women’s pain, and a capitalist one that values people according to their productivity. Societal dismissal leads to scientific neglect, and a lack of research becomes fodder for further skepticism. I understood these dynamics only after interviewing social scientists, disability scholars and patients themselves, whose voices are often absent or minimized in the media. Like the pandemic writ large, long Covid is not just a health problem. It is a social one, and must also be understood as such. From Ed Yong in the New York Times (archive link). [more inside]
“Having this trove of interviews was kind of a no-brainer.”
Between 1980 and 2005, Boston music journalist Larry Katz recorded over one thousand twenty-four interviews with established rock stars, local favorites, and industry pioneers. This article from Atlas Obscura, "Unearthing Gems in a Massive Archive of Rock Star Interviews", gives an overview of the vast cache, which is now hosted and searchable on Northeastern University's Digital Repository Service. Giordana Mecagni, head of special collections at Northeastern: “The most important part of these tapes is that they’re just really raw . . . they are unpolished and unvarnished.” [via jessamyn]
We need fact crusaders
Fact-checking can be nuanced, and every misstatement is not an intentional lie. But many of the lies we see today are obvious. Journalists need to call them out prominently, not just in the 14th paragraph of a story. People read headlines. So journalists must put corrections in headlines. Instead of writing a story headlined “Trump says UAW talks don't matter because EV shift will kill jobs,” news outlets should write stories headlined “Trump lies about electric vehicles during speech to auto workers.” This type of headline would not be a cheap shot. Trump’s September speech to non-unionized auto workers was stuffed with lies. From the October 30, 2023 issue of Stop the Presses newsletter by Mark Jacob, former metro editor of the Chicago Tribune and former Sunday editor of the Chicago Sun-Times. [more inside]
Let's talk about the climate, what do you know?
Fall of X
Remember how it improved society somewhat
You might already know that political / reporting / general nonfiction comics outlet The Nib is closing down at the end of August. It was too good to last.
You might not know that The Nib is making all fifteen issues of the magazine free to download as PDFs! Consider kicking back a few bucks to help them preserve the website in the meanwhile.
You might not know that The Nib is making all fifteen issues of the magazine free to download as PDFs! Consider kicking back a few bucks to help them preserve the website in the meanwhile.
What is gender-affirming care?
"So what is gender-affirming care, exactly? And why is it important? The 19th spoke with health care professionals who provide gender-affirming care to adults and adolescents — as well as trans young adults who were comfortable sharing their experiences — to answer those questions."
A British Reporter Had a Big #MeToo Scoop. Her Editor Killed It.
Nick Cohen, a former columnist at The Guardian, was accused of sexual misconduct for years, but little happened. An investigation by The Financial Times was spiked, meaning the whole story has only just come out now (NYT, Archive.is). "The British news media is smaller and cozier than its American counterpart, with journalists often coming from the same elite schools. Stringent libel laws present another hurdle. And in a traditional newsroom culture of drinking and gender imbalances, many stories of misconduct go untold, or face a fight."
"Addressing some of political journalism’s long-standing shortcomings"
7 news outlets reimagining political journalism in smart ways (WaPo opinion page gift link) [more inside]
Mysterious Company Buys entire California Ghost town for 22.5 mil
"A road diverges in the yellow flats along the outer rim of Joshua Tree National Park. The two lanes in the middle of the desert peel off Interstate 10 ..." "A few foremen live on the premises full time to keep watch over Eagle Mountain. Verdant palm trees poke out from the street they live on, while the rest of town remains preserved by dust. One night in the stillness, a foreman heard trespassers in the dark. The sound of a shotgun blast into the sky scared them off."
The end of the road for FiveThirtyEight?
After Disney laid off more than half of FiveThirtyEight's 35 staff members earlier this week, editor-in-chief Nate Silver said on Twitter that he was unlikely to renew his contract when it expires this summer. [more inside]
“Don’t give away the papaya.”
There was another factor I hated to acknowledge as a freelance journalist. The work biases me toward odd and surprising narratives, the more dangerous the potential story, the more powerful its draw. This sensibility can be helpful when finding and exposing wrongdoing. But there are also those occasions when I only catch myself behaving like an aggressive and mercenary cynic. from Bad Tape by Dan Hernandez
"the dead-tree era of computer journalism is officially over"
Maximum PC and MacLife have stopped producing printed copies. Harry McCracken posts a eulogy to an era in computer journalism.
"Our failures here could last a generation."
Three Years Later, Covid-19 Is Still a Health Threat. Journalism Needs to Reflect That. Outlets like The New Yorker, The Washington Post, and NPR, to name just a few, have amplified voices and arguments that helped create a narrative that not only pathologizes those who remain cautious about the disease, but also fails to adequately convey the risks associated with Covid such that many people are unwittingly taking on potentially lifelong risks.
"What are you favorite profile features, famous or not?" SL Twitter
“the longing for a digital national champion”
How the Biggest Fraud in German History Unravelled A wild tale of state-corporate collusion in Germany's Fintech industry: The tech company Wirecard was embraced by the German élite. But a reporter discovered that behind the façade of innovation were lies and links to Russian intelligence. Come for some standard finance shenanigans, stay for the inappropriate use of state power against journalism. (ungated)
Her career was being monitored, prodded and shaped by a group of spies
The worst literary agent? Bryan Denson begins the story by describing how journalist/literary agent Robert Eringer helped Earth Liberation Front spokesperson Craig Rosebraugh develop a book. Then things take a turn. (SLNYT) [more inside]
I Want Pictures, Pictures of Tomorrow
At the end of every year, NiemanLab asks for predictions about the coming year of journalism from those in the know. Here's the latest batch predicting 2023. And here's the previous efforts: 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 (previously-ly-ly-ly)
A newspaper vanished from the internet. Did someone pay to kill it?
The Hook, a beloved Charlottesville weekly, closed a decade ago but its archives lived on — until its 22,000 stories were suddenly taken offline in June. Former staffers have theories about its mystery buyer. [more inside]
"America’s Grand Inquisitor"
"a way that builds more trust instead of tearing it down"
When you realize you want to turn a private group chat conversation into a useful public document, Sisi Wei suggests: "Many times, it is only because a conversation was off the record that we are able to learn the most — and after learning it, we realize that the broader community could benefit from learning it too. So how do we share knowledge from conversations we all agreed would be private, in a way that builds more trust instead of tearing it down? I’m so proud to announce the launch of 'How to turn 🔒 Private Conversations into 🌳 Public Resources through 🤝 Community Consent,' a step-by-step guide for journalists on how to use a consent-based, trust-building process to turn off-the-record conversations into public, shareable resources." [more inside]
How We Stopped And Listened To The Birds
Drawing the Times is a platform for graphic journalists and cartoonists, publishing special issues on climate change, "meat-free cities" and refugees. Tânia Alexandra Cardoso's ongoing series on Amsterdam (Chapter 1, Chapter 2)
during the pandemic explores how an "emptied" city is full of decades of decisions on urban redevelopment.
Why make yourself uncomfortable when you can be in a comfortable place?
NPR is not our friend. Let’s take a closer look at why this is. “… like much other media, NPR has become a partisan news service with a sterile, professional tone that belies an underlying allegiance to a very narrow range of political viewpoints that are largely inoffensive to those in power. Today, NPR is a product stuffed with advertisements. It receives relatively little in government funding and is mostly paid for by corporations and a small percentage of its listeners who come from a very specific demographic: white, well-educated liberals.“
"Every day is April Fool's in nutrition."
Bitter chocolate tastes bad, therefore it must be good for you,” he said. “It’s like a religion.” [more inside]
Brave heart and courteous tongue will carry thee far through the jungle
A week ago veteran journalist Dom Phillips and Indigenous Peoples expert Bruno Pereira went missing, now presumed executed in the far west of the Brazilian Amazon.
The two men had previously visted the Javari Valley in 2018 with photographer Gary Carlton.
Andrew Fishman posts a draft version of Dom's selection of his favorite reporting.
The two men had previously visted the Javari Valley in 2018 with photographer Gary Carlton.
Andrew Fishman posts a draft version of Dom's selection of his favorite reporting.
favorites
Joseph Pulitzer is best known for the Pulitzer Prizes, which were established in 1917 as a result of his endowment to Columbia University. The prizes are given annually to recognize and reward excellence in American journalism, photography, literature, history, poetry, music, and drama.
Sometimes just seeing someone else's favorites is enough to make your day: 2022 Pulitzer Prize winners.
Sometimes just seeing someone else's favorites is enough to make your day: 2022 Pulitzer Prize winners.
The Secret Police: Inside a Shadowy Surveillance Machine in Minnesota
An investigation by MIT Technology Review reveals a sprawling, technologically sophisticated system of police surveillance targeting civil rights activists, protesters, and members of the press in Minnesota.
[more inside]part 1: Cops built a shadowy surveillance machine in Minnesota after George Floyd’s murder part 2: After protests around George Floyd’s murder ended, a police system for watching protesters kept going part 3: Inside the app Minnesota police used to collect data on journalists at protests
Ruth Barrett: How can we miss her if she won’t go away?
Journalist Ruth Shalit Barrett sues The Atlantic. “Ruth Shalit Barrett, the freelance writer whose widely read 2020 story the Atlantic retracted after saying it had lost confidence in her credibility, is suing the magazine for $1 million in damages. She alleges that the retraction of the article and a lengthy editor’s note that disavowed her and mentioned incidents of plagiarism in her past “destroyed her reputation and career.”” [more inside]
"This was a political persecution of a journalist, plain and simple."
Yesterday evening, the Cole County, Missouri prosecutor declined to file charges against Josh Renaud, a journalist from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch who discovered a flaw in a state website exposing private information and ethically disclosed the vulnerability to the state before the paper published its story. Renaud's statement begins: "This decision is a relief. But it does not repair the harm done to me and my family. My actions were entirely legal and consistent with established journalistic principles." [more inside]
Your favorite band is not my thing, but I admire your passion
"Saying goodbye to Steve, the reader who commented on everything I wrote for 17 years" -- reflections after death closes the door on an exchange of correspondence between a journalist/music critic and an older reader who was always willing to give something a listen.
I trust people with the capacity for pregnancy
You Are Not Owed a Reason for Somebody's Abortion Caitlin Cruz writes about writing about reproductive rights: "No one owes us their reasons for having an abortion, and it is not our job to convey relief, give praise, or recoil at certain reasons for abortion if we do learn them." [more inside]
Audie Cornish speaks upon her exit
All Thing Considered host Audie Cornish is departing. She shares, apparently reluctantly, on twitter: "It seems my assumption that I would have a quiet transition was naïve. So I will attempt to provide whatever insight I can… using language the internet understands lol 🧵#NPR". Threadreader version.
A brazen, complex web of fuckery
How Bad Art Friend Became Twitter’s Favorite Parlor Game
CBT, chronic pain, and ableism
The article reads as self-congratulatory, biased, and anti-opioid, going so far as to say that therapists are providing a “powerful salve for suffering” despite later admitting that most research only shows one-third of participants experience significant improvement. They removed the quotes they had from actual patients who received CBT and found it unhelpful or harmful. [more inside]
As #COP26 heads into its second week....
Environmental journalist Patrick Galey has been exposing the puff-and-fluff of #COP26 headlines: Of the 23 countries that made NEW commitments to phase out coal... TEN of them Don't. Even. Use. Coal. #COP26. Climate analyst Ketan Joshi reminds us that the harm of climate change is caused by **cumulative** greenhouse gases. So: a very slow path to zero by 2050 does much more absolute harm than a very fast one. In other words, "Net-zero pledges delay the action that needs to happen." [more inside]