A journalistic lesson for an algorithmic age: Let the scientific method be your guide

[Nieman Lab: The Daily Digest] Monday, February 6, 2023 [A journalistic lesson for an algorithmic age: Let the scientific method be your guide]( “One of the best parts about using the scientific method as a guide is that it moves us beyond the endless debates about whether journalism is ‘fair’ or ‘objective.’ Rather than focus on fairness, it’s better to focus on what you know and what you don’t know.” By Julia Angwin, The Markup. What We’re Reading Los Angeles Times / James Rainey [Ken Doctor’s news startup in Santa Cruz is on track to make a profit in 2023 →]( “I just want people to know, more than anything else, that community journalism can be done and that it can be paid for. It requires the proper investment from the start and a really good journalistic product. But it’s no longer a question. It can be done.” Online News Association / Carrie Blazina [LaSharah Bunting will be ONA’s next CEO and executive director →]( “LaSharah has long supported the ONA community, ranging from providing financial support during her tenure at the Knight Foundation to advising ONA on numerous programmatic initiatives, including the Women’s Leadership Accelerator, the Challenge Fund for Innovation and Journalism Education, ONA’s annual conference and more.” Financial Times / Rana Foroohar [Why it’s important that the feds are asking a jury, not a judge, to decide whether to break up Google’s ad business →]( “This is extremely unusual for antitrust cases…It is a risky move…But it’s also quite smart. The federal judges who hear such complex antitrust cases tend to be older, conservative types who are historically more likely to align themselves with large corporations.” Byline Times / Byline Times ( [How deep does The Nation’s Russia problem go? →]( “Nation employees became uneasy about Cohen’s assertions and who was airing his ideas. ‘The people who work there, especially the younger staff, are disgruntled about the Russia coverage,’ Adam Shatz, a former Nation writer and literary editor, says. A joke began circulating around the office: ‘We tried to fact-check Steve’s pieces but we couldn’t find any facts to check.'” Molly White [Sam Bankman-Fried is not a child, but the media is treating him like one →]( “… reading headlines and news stories, you would be forgiven if up until now you had thought he was a teenager still driving around on a learner’s permit, who picked up cryptocurrency trading to avoid the types of high school summer jobs that might force him to go outside.” TechCrunch / Ivan Mehta [Elon Musk says Twitter will kill the bots reliant on its API — unless they’re “providing good content” →]( “This decision is as opaque as some of the other policy decisions under Musk’s management. There is no information on what constitutes ‘good content’ and who will decide that. However, if Twitter ends up implementing this rule, some bots will get a new lifeline on the social network.” The Wall Street Journal / Suzanne Vranica and Patience Haggin [Elon Musk’s Twitter tries a Super Bowl “fire sale” to win back advertisers →]( “Several brands are thinking about returning to the platform thanks in part to the Super Bowl, cheaper ad rates, and the release of a new tool that allows advertisers to create a list of up to 1,000 keywords and avoid having their ads appear above or below tweets containing those words, ad buyers said.” Associated Press / Frank Bajak [An Iranian cyber unit was behind the hacking of Charlie Hebdo →]( “The FBI blames the same Iranian cyber operators, Emennet Pasargad, for an influence operation that sought to interfere in the 2020 U.S. presidential election, the tech giant said in a blog published Friday. Iran has in recent years stepped up false-flag cyber operations as a tool for discrediting foes.” The New York Times / Katie Robertson [The National Enquirer will have new owners →]( “In April 2019, American Media announced that it would sell the Enquirer and several other publications to James Cohen, an heir to the Hudson News empire, for $100 million. But the sale never went through, eventually fizzling during the pandemic.” One of the new buyers is currently under indictment for defrauding investors in MoviePass. Press Gazette / Charlotte Tobitt [The Mirror and Express are the latest British tabloid who seek expansion in the U.S. →]( “It is expected that staff on the U.S. sites will ultimately number about 100 by the end of this year.” The Guardian / Mélissa Godin [“A different perspective”: This journalist is reporting on the Amazon through fresh eyes →]( “[Elaíze] Farias is the editor of Amazônia Real, a digital media outlet dedicated to telling stories about the violation of Indigenous, environmental, and human rights in the Brazilian Amazon, that she cofounded 10 years ago with journalists Kátia Brasil and Liege Albuquerque.” Poynter / Angela Fu [Gannett has killed the comments sections on a majority of its news sites →]( Because “changes in staffing” — massive layoffs — has left them without the people needed to moderate them. Washington Post [“Governor, I hate to pull random video off the internet and ask you to respond to it, but this is going around” →]( “…facts did little to stem the tide of misinformation and speculation that followed in the balloon’s path — or the horde of journalists thirsty for any footage of the mysterious device over the weekend.” The Verge / Emma Roth [Twitter will let businesses keep their gold checkmarks — for $1,000 per month →]( “‘As an early access subscriber, you’ll get a gold checkmark for your organization and affiliation badges for its associates,’ the email reads. ‘If you’d like to subscribe, Verified for Organizations is $1,000 per month, and $50 per additional affiliated handle per month with one month of free affiliations.'” Press Gazette / Aisha Majid [How Ladbible grew to become the biggest news publisher on Tiktok →]( It’s got more than twice the following of the No. 2 news brand on TikTok, ABC News. “We’ve definitely found that having someone work on the accounts full-time increases the following at a faster pace. It is possible, however, to build communities on Tiktok by marshaling resources from other platforms and departments.” Press Gazette / Charlotte Tobitt [The BBC has apologized for saying the Manchester Evening News is “rammed with clickbait and sensationalism” →]( “The Radio 4 discussion on 23 January was pegged on The Mill, a local journalism newsletter hosted on Substack covering the Greater Manchester area. The Mill became profitable towards the end of last year.” Raleigh News & Observer / Korie Dean [Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Journalism, co-founded by Nikole Hannah-Jones, will leave UNC-Chapel Hill →]( The society will move to Morehouse College, a historically Black college in Atlanta. Hannah-Jones co-founded the organization with Ron Nixon, Topher Sanders and Corey Johnson in 2016. Inside Higher Ed / Peter Laufer [Professor asks Gannett to donate the local newspaper to the J-school →]( “I’m all for it when the paper stops making money,” Gannett’s senior vice president for corporate development Jay Fogarty told the professor. “Glad we’re talking. But at this point it does make some money.” New York Times / Elizabeth Spiers [“A eulogy for Gawker, the best and worst thing I ever made” →]( “The original Gawker could never exist today. Gen X’s once seemingly edgy skepticism of institutional power has become Gen Z’s outright rejection of it. And, more to the point, nothing is too salacious for mainstream media to cover anymore.” New York Times / Kevin Roose [ChatGPT has more than 30 million users and is, for now, “a money pit” →]( Two months after its debut, ChatGPT gets roughly five million visits a day. That makes it one of the fastest-growing software products in memory. There are no ads, and each conversation costs the company a few cents in processing power, which adds up to millions of dollars a week. POLITICO / VERONIKA MELKOZEROVA [Reporting corruption in a time of war: The Ukrainian journalists’ dilemma →]( “In the first six months of the invasion, Ukrainian journalists and watchdogs decided to put their public criticism of the Ukrainian government on pause and focus on documenting Russian war crimes. But that has backfired. ‘This pause led to a rapid loss of accountability for many Ukrainian officials,’ Mykhailo Tkach, one of Ukraine’s top investigative journalists, wrote in a column for Ukrainska Pravda.” WSJ / Alexandra Bruell [Publisher of Sports Illustrated and Men’s Journal now using AI to generate articles and story ideas →]( “Some articles in Men’s Journal are already AI-generated, the company said, such as ‘Proven Tips to Help You Run Your Fastest Mile Yet,’ and ‘The Best Ways for Men Over 40 to Maintain Muscle.’ The articles were created based on information from 17 years of archived stories from Men’s Fitness, a brand that exists under Men’s Journal.” [Nieman Lab]( / [Fuego]( [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](