Top News:
Tom McArthur / BBC:
RSF publishes its World Press Freedom Index and places Norway, Denmark, and Sweden in the top three, the US down 10 spots at 55, and Eritrea in last place — Gaza is one of the deadliest places in the world to be a journalist, according to Reporters Without Borders
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Patrick Greenfield / The Guardian:
UNESCO: at least 749 environmental reporters have faced violence and intimidation since 2009, 44 were murdered but that resulted in just five convictions — Unesco joint research dating back 15 years found violence and intimidation against about 750 reporters and 44 murders — The age of extinction is supported by
Sara Fischer / Axios:
A look at news publishers' conflicting approaches toward AI companies, and how the lack of a data marketplace makes it hard for buyers and sellers to set rates — - The new suits add heft to the Times' claims. … Several other large news publishers, including the Financial Times …
Discussion:
@sarafischer, Peter Csathy on LinkedIn, Digimentors on LinkedIn and New Republic
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Sources: the expectation at Paramount Global is that neither of the two offers in play, Skydance-RedBird and Sony Pictures-Apollo, will come to fruition — After months of M&A talks, Paramount Global and controlling shareholder Shari Redstone might be going it alone after all.
Discussion:
New York Times, CNBC, @willsun_1, The Wrap, Quartz, Financial Times, Rich Greenfield on LinkedIn, Reuters, Variety, LightShed Partners and Los Angeles Times
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New York Times:
Sources: Sony Pictures and Apollo Global formally express interest in acquiring Paramount for ~$26B; Paramount's negotiating period with Skydance ends May 3
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, Reuters, Advanced Television, @sherman4949, Associated Press, The Guardian, Yahoo Finance, Liz Spaulding on LinkedIn, Inside Radio, ComingSoon.net, The Information, Media Play News, Financial Times, Radio & Television …, CNBC, The Streamable, Quartz, The Wrap, The Desk, Bloomberg, Business Insider, Variety, Next TV and Cord Cutters News
Alex Kantrowitz / Big Technology:
Elon Musk says he wants Grok to create news summaries by relying solely on X posts, without looking at article text, and improved story citations are coming — Musk emails with details on AI-powered news inside X. An AI bot will summarize news and commentary, sometimes looking through tens of thousands of posts per story.
Discussion:
@kantrowitz, @mcculloughirvin, @brianstelter, CoinGape, @pkafka, @scobleizer, @kurtwagner8, @thekenyeung, @nxthompson, @chrismoranuk, @hshaban, @hshaban, @hshaban, @iethics, CoinGape, Bloomberg, @nzpom.com, @krveale.bsky.social, @anthonyintx.bsky.social, @avishaybsg.bsky.social, Business Insider, @born2bemild.bsky.social, @notgareth.bsky.social, @mjpaul.bsky.social, @caprine.bsky.social, @emmiehine@dair-community …, @Kierkegaanks@beige.party, @nateschenkkan.bsky.social, @kilgoretrout.bsky.social, @getwired.bsky.social, @smartsmears.bsky.social, @blackamazon.bsky.social, @legalba.bsky.social, @niedermeyer.io, @LiamEgan@mstdn.ca, @firerock31@threads.net and @reneeleegreco@threads.net
RELATED:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
X launches Stories on X, with news curated and summarized by Grok AI, available for Premium subscribers in the Explore tab on iOS and on the web — X, formerly Twitter, is now using Elon Musk's AI chatbot Grok to power a feature that summarizes the personalized trending stories in the app's Explore section.
Discussion:
@xeng, Neowin, @lindayax, @x, @rocksizedrock.bsky.social, @annlaabs.bsky.social and Engadget
Matt Cooper / University of Oregon:
A group of researchers say Twitch is increasingly becoming a news source, and traditional news outlets could use it for added income and audience engagement — The popular app Twitch, created to livestream video game action, is redefining journalism as it becomes a source for news, University of Oregon research found.
Discussion:
Taylor & Francis
Rachel Metz / Bloomberg:
A look at Runway's second International AI Film Festival, which it says grew from 300 short-video submissions in 2023 to 3,000 in 2024 with 10 finalists chosen — Artificial intelligence has changed filmmaking a lot over the past year, even though the technology is just getting started. But first...
Discussion:
@nemperez, @semil, New York Post, Fortune and IndieWire, more at Techmeme »
Wendy Lee / Los Angeles Times:
How the AI-generated music video for Washed Out's The Hardest Part was created entirely using OpenAI's Sora, a first from a major record label — “The Hardest Part,” a new song from indie pop artist Washed Out, is all about love lost, among the most human of themes.
Discussion:
@paultrillo, Tom's Guide, @realwashedout, @kennyle31, @billyfx.ig@threads.net, Paul Trillo on Vimeo, @paultrillo, @paultrillo, @realwashedout, @realwashedout, @ankitpr89, @realwashedout, @carlfranzen, @abelowrob, @counternotions, @patrickromeoau@threads.net, @realwashedout, @vividfeverdrms, Mashable, @thisisnalaa, Kamila Sultanova on LinkedIn, @realwashedout, TechRadar, Thred Website, No Film School, Voicebot.ai, Interesting Engineering, Stereogum, @paultrillo, Washed Out on YouTube, VentureBeat, Boing Boing, r/washedout and r/videos, more at Techmeme »
Barry Schwartz / Search Engine Roundtable:
Google updates its ad policy to ban the promotion of services that generate, distribute, or store synthetic sexually explicit content, starting May 30, 2024 — Google Ads, Shopping Ads, Admob, and other Google Ads products will soon disallow deepfake sexual content, synthetic sexually explicit content …
Discussion:
Engadget, Search Engine Land, Google Help Center, The Verge and 404 Media, more at Techmeme »
AJ Vicens / CyberScoop:
The Post Millennial and Human Events websites were hacked and defaced late May 2, initially with links added to datasets of subscribers, writers, and editors — The hack included links to download subscriber data and a message claiming that Post Millennial's editor was transitioning to a woman.
Discussion:
@r.gilmore@threads.net, @mmasnick.bsky.social, @phylan.bsky.social and Mediaite
Christina A. Cassidy / Associated Press:
In a letter, several Democrats serving as their state's top election officials ask Meta to repeal a policy allowing ads that claim the 2020 election was stolen — Several Democrats serving as their state's top election officials have sent a letter to the parent company of Facebook …
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