Mediagazer: An anonymous junior reporter who's worked at Gannett and Tronc discusses life in the daily newspaper trenches (Lucia Moses/Digiday)

7:40 AM ET, January 30, 2017

Top News:

Michael M. Grynbaum / New York Times:

A look at Sean Spicer's first week on the job and feedback he's received, including Trump's distaste of his suit size, comments from Bannon and GOP strategists — WASHINGTON — In his first, rocky week as President Trump's press secretary, Sean M. Spicer was scolded by his boss …

Discussion: @mlcalderone

Margaret Sullivan / Washington Post:

Despite erosion of trust, Pew research shows people still appreciate media's watchdog role and want journalists to call out lies — Journalism, according to the renowned media scholar and historian Sean Hannity, is dead. — Of course, the Fox News host and Donald Trump disciple …

Discussion: @nppalawyer, @brianstelter, @juz44, @nickochsnerwbtv, @deanpwright, The Huffington Post and AOL

Ethan Zuckerman / Deutsche Welle:

News media landscape is changing with the spread of fake news, propaganda, and “disinformatzya,” and these variants must be treated with different techniques — Fake news, propaganda and “disinformatzya” are changing the media landscape - in the US, Russia and Turkey and across the world.

Discussion: @informor, @dmlresearchhub and @jeroneanderson

Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch: New study finds the use of warnings on fake stories alongside real news can mitigate the spread of misinformation

Lucia Moses / Digiday:

An anonymous junior reporter who's worked at Gannett and Tronc discusses life in the daily newspaper trenches — Newspapers have struggled more than any print media in finding a sustainable digital media model. For the latest in our anonymous Confessions series, we talked …

Discussion: @bzelizer, @david_hicks and @digiday

Tamar Wilner / Columbia Journalism Review:

Texas Senate cites ‘decorum’ to increase distance between legislators, reporters — REPORTERS IN TEXAS have long enjoyed an unusual level of access to their state legislators. But when the legislative session started earlier this month, they became the latest statehouse journalists to find …

Jonathan Peters / Columbia Journalism Review:

Journalists arrested in DC inauguration protests have law on their side … Or, if you're a journalist, you get arrested simply for gathering news at protests. — At least six journalists have been charged with felony rioting, as The Guardian first reported, after their arrests Friday at Trump's inaugural parade.

Discussion: DCist and @augensteinwtop

Dave Itzkoff / New York Times:

Samantha Bee is hosting a counter-event to the White House Correspondents Association's annual dinner, called “Not the White House Correspondents' Dinner” — The annual custom of the White House Correspondents' Association dinner suddenly seems uncomfortable if not untenable …

Discussion: Variety and Washington Post

Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:

How one of the largest and most profitable regional newspapers in the UK fell from £59M revenue and 581 staff in 1996 to £16m and 107 staff by 2011 — Former editor of the Leicester Mercury and Derby Telegraph Keith Perch is now a lecturer at Derby University.

Discussion: @emilybell, @bbcdouglasf and @stevedyson

Caitlin Dickerson / New York Times:

Posts on Facebook from ultraconservative websites like Breitbart News and Infowars stoke anxiety about Muslim refugees — Type the word refugees into Facebook and some alarming “news” will appear about a refugee rape crisis, a refugee flesh-eating disease epidemic and a refugee-related risk …

Discussion: Washington Post, @itscaitlinhd, @efairhead, @michaelkruse, @danpfeiffer, @jodikantor, @jodikantor, @brianstelter, Daniel Kreiss, Denver Westword and The Daily Caller

Mark Harris / Vulture:

Trump's long tenure in the entertainment industry has given him a warped view of journalists as publicists who dole out uncritical media praise — Donald Trump's presidency has opened, and the reviews are raves! I know this because of a press release the White House issued on Wednesday morning.

Discussion: RealClearPolitics, @peterbeinart, @ryanlizza, @hadas_gold and @nymag

The Guardian:

George Orwell experts on how the Trump era shares aspects of the dystopian world of 1984 — Since Kellyanne Conway spoke of ‘alternative facts’, Nineteen Eighty-Four has hit the No 1 spot in Amazon's book sales chart. So, is the age of Newspeak here? … Jean Seaton: The seeds were sown during the George W Bush era

Discussion: @brenttoderian, @jamesgleave1, @penamerican and New Matilda

Ted Johnson / Variety:

ISPs, studios, and record labels end the four-year-old copyright alert system that sent warnings to users over P2P downloads of pirated content — Major internet providers are ending a four-year-old system in which consumers received “copyright alerts” when they viewed peer-to-peer pirated content.

Discussion: @spepofficial, Engadget and Multichannel News

Chris Cillizza / Washington Post:

The flood of leaks now coming out of the White House suggest that Trump's aides have resorted to influencing him through a public airing of grievances — All White Houses leak. Sometimes the leaks are big, sometimes small. But there are always people willing to talk to reporters about the …

Discussion: @thefaketrump, @feistymoderate, @moniquepressley and New York Times