What does fake news tell us about life in the digital age? Not what you might expect: The latest from Nieman Lab

[Nieman Lab: The Daily Digest] Thursday, April 6, 2017 [What does fake news tell us about life in the digital age? Not what you might expect]( “By looking more closely at how fake news moves and mobilizes people, we can develop a richer picture of not only how much it circulates where, but also why it circulates and how it resonates amongst different publics.” By Jonathan Gray, Liliana Bounegru, and Tommaso Venturini. [Q&A: How Mic used its social accounts to influence its new vertical-focused editorial strategy]( “The thesis here was that we were connecting the audiences that we were growing organically within social and were doing our journalism and original storytelling around and then connecting that back to our own site.” By Joseph Lichterman. [The election-related stories people seemed to prefer to read and share were about scandals and corruption]( What We’re Reading BuzzFeed / Craig Silverman [Facebook is now trying to teach you how to spot fake news on Facebook →]( “On Friday, people in 14 countries will begin seeing a link to a ‘Tips for spotting false news’ guide at the top of their News Feed. Clicking it brings users to a section offering 10 tips as well access to related resources in the Facebook Help Center. Facebook is also collaborating with news and media literacy organizations in several of countries to produce additional resources.” The Verge / Casey Newton [iOS audio app Anchor adds an interviews feature to create a powerful mobile recording studio →]( You can now use the app to record and publish a phone conversation, turning any call into a potential interview for broadcast. And thanks to a partnership with Watson, IBM’s machine learning software, Anchor will automatically generate a transcript of your call and email it to you. (Here’s some background on how [other news organizations have used Anchor]( Business Insider / Alex Heath [Snapchat just launched an attack on a key source of Facebook’s ad revenue →]( “Advertisers on Snapchat will now have access to goal-based bidding for app install ads, an industry term that means an advertiser can target Snapchat users who are likely to install its app. Snapchat is targeting its app install ads, which ask users to swipe up on full-screen video ads, using machine-learning technology it developed in-house.” Digiday / Aditi Sangal [Mashable’s Pete Cashmore: Snapchat is the future of cable TV →]( “Snapchat is our biggest revenue source on distributed. They’re great for publishers. We love Snapchat. When you’re in Discover, that’s like a publisher’s dream. It has a huge audience, and it’s an audience you can’t reach elsewhere.” The New York Times / Farhad Manjoo [The online ad industry is undergoing self-reflection. That’s good news →]( “Even though they are far from perfect, in many ways programmatic ads are creating a more efficient advertising market. And given that advertising pays for nearly the entirety of what we see and do online, the upside of all the hand-wringing is that we are now examining how all of that money gets spent — a process that should lead to better ads, and better media, too.” Digiday / Lucia Moses [Vox Media: Not the biggest, but that’s OK →]( “Vox Media isn’t exactly a scale play. Its combined traffic — which is still important for publishers’ ability to fully monetize it — for its eight verticals (Vox, The Verge, Polygon, SB Nation, Eater, Racked, Curb and Recode) trailed other venture-backed publishers The Huffington Post and BuzzFeed, according to comScore.” martinbelam.com / Martin Belam [3 ways the Guardian has been working with algorithms →]( 1. Publishing into algorithms. 2. Working with chatbots. 3. Working with “robot colleagues”: “computers absolutely have a role to play now in helping us to write the first drafts in several areas.” Recode / Peter Kafka [BuzzFeed editor Ben Smith jumps into the podcast pool with ‘NewsFeed’ →]( The podcast launches Thursday and features Smith interviewing various Very Important Persons of Interest (first guest: David Axelrod). “I do think it’s this moment in the politics, media, tech intersection, where all the action is at the moment, where people want to know what the hell is going on,” Smith said. Poynter / Franziska Kues [Dutch micropayments startup Blendle lands investment from Financial Times owner Nikkei →]( Amsterdam-based investment fund INKEF Capital also invested (the amount of both investments were not disclosed). It’s been a year since Blendle launched in the U.S. with partners including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post (there are now a total of 22 publishers available on the U.S. platform). VentureBeat / Paul Sawers [Adblock Plus owner Eyeo acquires Swedish micropayments service Flattr →]( “Flattr had only raised around $2.5 million in funding to date, and the fact that Eyeo has snapped it up doesn’t come as a great surprise. Indeed, the duo partnered last summer to launch Flattr Plus, which allows users to contribute cash in exchange for content they consume online.” Business Insider / Alex Heath [Twitter lost its deal to stream the NFL’s Thursday Night Football games to Amazon →]( Amazon paid $50 million for the deal, according to [the Wall Street Journal](. That number is a fivefold increase from the $10 million Twitter reportedly paid the NFL for the same rights in 2016. [Nieman Lab]( / [Fuego]( / [Encyclo]( [Twitter]( / [Facebook]( [View email in browser]( [Unsubscribe]( You are receiving this daily newsletter because you signed up for for it at www.niemanlab.org. Nieman Journalism Lab Harvard University 1 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA 02138 [Add us to your address book](