Mediagazer: The soul of a new machine: Gawker struggles with the slippery slope between viral and true (Mathew Ingram/paidContent)

3:55 PM ET, October 5, 2013

Top News:

Mathew Ingram / paidContent:

The soul of a new machine: Gawker struggles with the slippery slope between viral and true — When you come across a viral story about a heart-warming incident that you know will get millions of pageviews, how closely should you look into the claims that the viral story is based on?

Discussion: BuzzMachine, @mattbors, @antderosa, @qhardy, Medium and @jayrosen_nyu

AllThingsD:

Vivian Schiller Is Lead Candidate for Twitter's Head of News Position — According to sources close to the situation, NBC News chief digital officer Vivian Schiller is currently the leading choice for Twitter's Head of News position, which the company hopes to name soon.

Discussion: @karaswisher, @johnekdahl, @agolis and @sachapfeiffer

AllThingsD:
Twitter Close to Picking High-Profile Head of News to Make Even Nicer With Media Types

Discussion: @mlcalderone, Talking Biz News and @rubinafillion

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:
Twitter's ‘head of news’ position up in the air as company files to go public

Discussion: Talking Biz News, @taylorlorenz and @rajunarisetti

Peter Lauria / BuzzFeed:

How Twitter's Business Model Is Just Like Broadcast TV — Only Worse — In its IPO filing, Twitter describes itself as a “global platform for public self-expression and conversation in real time.” Casually, it is referred to as a microblogging service or an internet social-messaging network.

Discussion: @zimbalist and @peterlauria3

Kate Kaye / AdAge:

Twitter's Overlooked Data Business Could Grow As Retailers Mine Chatter — It Won't Challenge Advertising, But More Businesses Will Rely On It — When thinking about Twitter's future, almost all the focus is on advertising. After all, 85% of its sales came from ads in the second quarter.

Pema Levy / Newsweek:

Profile: Marcy Wheeler, the expert behind the NSA-focused emptywheel blog — THE WOMAN WHO KNOWS THE NSA'S SECRETS — Trawling for needles in the data haystack

Discussion: @nslayton, @jayrosen_nyu, @jlllow, @trevortimm, @straightedge, @kgosztola, @medeabenjamin, @astepanovich, @seanpaulkelley, @ggreenwald, @mmasnick, @rsingel, @repjustinamash, @wizardkitten and @timkarr

AFP:

Egypt journalist gets suspended jail term in military trial — An Egyptian military court Saturday handed a journalist a six-month suspended jail term for reporting without authorisation in a military zone of the Sinai , his lawyer and an army source said. — Ahmed Abu Derra was acquitted …

Discussion: New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Egypt Independent, english.ahram.org.eg, english.ahram.org.eg and Daily News Egypt

Thomas Kent / The Huffington Post:

Who's a Journalist? Closing in on a Definition — The debate over “who's a journalist” is getting more urgent. Fortunately, the outlines of a definition are becoming clearer. Might some basic ethical tests help in further drawing the lines? — Once mainly a subject for navel-gazing …

Discussion: @froomkin and @radleybalko

Raymond Bonner / ProPublica:

Former NYT writer Raymond Bonner describes government investigation into his reporting — How a Telecom Helped the Government Spy on Me — Over the past several months, the Obama Administration has defended the government's far-reaching data collection efforts, arguing that only criminals and terrorists need worry.

Discussion: @propublica, @jasonleopold and @timkarr

Simon Rogers / Twitter blog:

Politicians, gov't agencies turn to Twitter amidst #Shutdown — The U.S. federal shutdown this week means that for many government departments and agencies Twitter accounts and websites are temporarily paused while negotiations continue. But others have not let the cessation stop them getting …

Discussion: @grossman

David Zurawik / Baltimore Sun:

At crucial time, cable news fails on shutdown, Obamacare — Lots of coverage on MSNBC, Fox and CNN, but few facts, little clarity — I did something foolish last week. I spent at least four hours a day with cable TV news, starting Tuesday. — I was hoping for some information and clarity …

Lisa Richwine / Reuters:

U.S. TV networks tout video on-demand for catch-up viewing — The morning after a new episode of the drama “Sleepy Hollow” airs on the Fox broadcast network, a message on the show's Facebook page encourages viewers to catch up with the show by clicking on their cable operator's video on demand service.

Trudy Lieberman / Columbia Journalism Review:

Reviewing Obamacare coverage: Week 1 — A look at the good, the not-so-good, the interesting, and the opportunities ahead — It's been overshadowed a little bit by the shutdown in Washington, but this week marked the rollout—at long last—of the Affordable Care Act, and with it came a wave of media attention.

Discussion: msnbc.com, Forbes and The Raw Story

Ina Fried / AllThingsD:

Loom Gets $1.4 Million in Seed Funding From Google, Tencent to Build a Better Photo Library — Seeking to stand out in a crowded photo-storage space, Loom said on Friday that it has raised a $1.4 million seed round to fund its vision for syncing photos across multiple devices.

Discussion: VentureBeat and TechCrunch