Way back in 1989, USA Today launched an online sports service. I found it at Goodwill
▪ USA Today Sports Center is a time capsule from a period in which a newspaper could convince people to pay five bucks an hour to log onto their service during the big game.
Pageviews, assemble! Why there’s no escaping the Marvel Cinematic Universe online
▪ In 2022, few pop-culture brands move the needle, so newspaper blue-bloods and recipe sites alike rally around Marvel Cinematic Universe content as their last stand.
Researchers ask: Does enforcing civility stifle online debate?
▪ Some social scientists argue that civility is a poor metric by which to judge the quality of an online debate.
What I learned in my second year on Substack
▪ “I truly wish every reporter could have the experience of getting a raise on the same day they produced something of value to their readers.”
U.S. politicians tweet much more misinformation than those in the U.K. and Germany
▪ “We also found systematic differences between the parties in the U.S., where Republican politicians were found to share untrustworthy websites more than nine times as often as Democratic politicians.”
“You don’t know which side is playing you”: The authors of Meme Wars have some advice for journalists
▪ “The media treating Twitter like an assignment editor is one of the fundamental errors that enabled meme warriors to play everyone.”
Adnan Syed is released — and so is a new episode of the first season of Serial
▪ “To call something the most popular podcast might seem a little like identifying the tallest leprechaun,” David Carr wrote in 2014.
The relief of missing out: Anticipated anxiety is a big reason why more people are avoiding the news
▪ “Obviously, I could be a little bit more into what’s going on and look myself…Knowing more about it doesn’t do anything about it, does it?”
KQED started tracking sources. Here’s (exactly) how they did it
▪ “We can try to address inequities by being conscientious about who we feature in our coverage over a period of time.”
How can local news help inform voters? Here are a few good examples
▪ News organizations can help prepare voters as they head to the polls.
Readers expect news orgs to be impartial, but don’t reward them for it ➚
▪ “News brands are judged by, but not inherently valued for, their impartiality.”
The Verge goes back to bloggy basics with a new redesign
▪ “We just want to be able to tweet onto our own website.”
By making obituaries free to publish, these Ohio news outlets hope to play the long game
▪ “When somebody writes a thoughtful obituary, it’s a reminder that our publication is a platform for people to grieve in a healthy way.”
When tragedy becomes banal: Why news consumers experience crisis fatigue
▪ The sensitivity involved in attending to crises can be a double-edged sword.
The state of California will fund $25 million in local reporting fellowships ➚
Doxxed, threatened, and arrested: Russia’s war on Wikipedia editors
▪ Wikipedia, which has more than 1,800 Russian-speaking volunteer editors, has long been a thorn in the Russian government’s side.
Semafor aims to be the source for “intelligent news consumers” who are “unhappy” and “screaming from the rooftops” ➚
Americans think they know a lot about politics — and it’s bad for democracy that they’re so often wrong in their confidence
▪ “Political overconfidence can make people more defensive of factually wrong beliefs about politics…And those who believe themselves to be political experts often dismiss the guidance of real experts.”
“We can’t just cover the same old shit”: How worker-owned Hell Gate is bringing the alt-weekly voice back to New York City
▪ “I wouldn’t want any readers to get the impression that we have, like, millions of dollars in venture capital that we’re [spending on] sushi Thursdays.”
How Serena Williams forced sports journalists to cover tennis as more than a game
▪ Early coverage sidestepped conversations about the unique kinds of gendered racism that a Black girl from a working-class California neighborhood might face on the professional tour.