Top News:
Taylor Lorenz / The Atlantic:
Kara Swisher and Jack Dorsey's #KaraJack chat showed Twitter needs major product fixes to make it easier to follow complex public conversations — Without major fixes to the product, the platform will never be a place for complex discussions. — Earlier this week, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey …
Discussion:
Recode, Recode, @jack, Twitter, @recode, @digiphile, CNET, The Next Web, @klasfeldreports, @waltmossberg, Fortune, @voxdotcom, @blackamazon, @kurtwagner8, BBC, 9to5Mac, @karaswisher and The Verge
South China Morning Post:
Xuexi Qiangguo, a propaganda app with Snapchat-like messaging features developed by China's Communist Party, becomes top free app on Apple's App Store in China — The Xuexi Qiangguo app is now most downloaded item on Apple's App Store in China, surpassing popular social media apps such as WeChat and TikTok.
Discussion:
New York Times, Cult of Mac, shanghaiist, Tech in Asia, CNN, The Edge Markets, BBC, The Guardian, China Media Project and Fortune, more at Techmeme »
Poynter:
Outgoing director of the International Fact-Checking Network reflects on how fact-checking changed since 2015, dealing with platforms like Facebook, and more — So long, fact-checkers … When I started as director of the International Fact-Checking Network in September 2015, there was very little there to direct.
Discussion:
@politifact, @newslitproject, @firstdraftnews, @digiphile, @dpfunke, Nieman Lab, @janebsinger and @mantzarlis
Jason Koebler / Motherboard:
Kids YouTube star Blippi on how he abused DMCA takedown requests to keep Harlem Shake Poop, an embarrassing viral video he starred in 2013, hidden on the web — Someone claiming to represent Blippi filed DMCA copyright takedown requests to Google in order to get an embarrassing viral video hidden.
Anna Altman / Columbia Journalism Review:
Interview with Matt Gertz, a senior fellow at Media Matters, who has been closely tracking how Fox News coverage influences Trump's tweets since 2017 — “There's a saying in politics that personnel is policy,” Matt Gertz, a senior fellow at Media Matters, said on a recent afternoon.
Discussion:
@mattgertz, @mattgertz, @susannahchen, @mattgertz, @mattgertz, @mattgertz and Washington Post
Daniel Funke / Poynter:
Brazilian fact-checker AosFatos.org describes how it found an estimated 3M visits to fake news sites allegedly connected to its impersonator AosFatos.com — Someone is publishing fake news stories on a website that looks like a fact-checking organization. — On Wednesday, Brazilian fact …
Loyola Phoenix:
In editorial, journalists at Loyola University's newspaper describe how the university communications office has restricted media access to professors and staff — A Phoenix news reporter, on the trail of a story about Loyola's above-average abundance of women in STEM programs …
Discussion:
@johnrobinson, @mikemcdtweets, @crampell and @royalpratt
Ashley Baker / Daily Front Row:
Interview with Conde Nast CRO Pamela Drucker Mann on transition from a publishing company to a full-fledged media company, content partnerships, and more — Bob is out and a new CEO is (eventually) coming... so what exactly is going on at Condé Nast?
Ryan Mac / BuzzFeed News:
Twitter hides a tweet, reportedly from Iran's head of state, for pointing out that a previous leader's verdict to murder novelist Salman Rushdie is still valid — Twitter removed a tweet from an account that reportedly belongs to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei on Friday …
Discussion:
@mrejfox, @rmac18, @dabeard and @digiphile, more at Techmeme »
Kali Hays / WWD:
Challenger Gray study: 15.5K jobs cut in news, broadcast news, TV, film, and music in 2018, a 281% increase YoY, of which 11.8K were in news organizations alone — A study from an industry outplacement firm said 2018 was the worst year for media in a decade. This year isn't shaping up so well already.
Discussion:
@saraschonhardt and @wwd
Rani Molla / Recode:
Profile of NewsGuard, a rare for-profit fact checking startup that uses a team of 25 journalists to rate 2,000+ news outlets, and the challenges it faces — Experts weigh in on whether a for-profit journalism initiative can do what big tech can't. — A battle between fact and fake news …
Discussion:
@ranimolla, @newsguardrating, @jimwarren55 and @dariasolo
Duncan Cooper / Pitchfork:
While some artists whose music is used in TikTok videos are compensated through their labels' sales of blanket licenses, others forgo payment for exposure — The company behind lip-sync app TikTok is reportedly worth three times as much as Spotify, but the artists whose music powers the platform are seeing very little of that money.
Discussion:
@getalternative and @mattnavarra, more at Techmeme »