For the Chicago-based Investigative Project on Race and Equity, training the next generation matters as much as the reporting

[Nieman Lab: The Daily Digest] Thursday, October 26, 2023 [For the Chicago-based Investigative Project on Race and Equity, training the next generation matters as much as the reporting]( “We’re growing and learning, but the core of what we do is this really supported experiential learning.” By Sophie Culpepper. [The BBC’s Shayan Sardarizadeh on how he fact-checks misleading posts about the Israel-Hamas war]( What We’re Reading The Hollywood Reporter / Brian Stelter [“Everyone wants us to pick a side”: Reporters grapple with covering Israel–Hamas war →]( “In conversations with two dozen staffers at outlets like The New York Times, ABC and Al Jazeera, some of whom are working in the war zone, I heard about four overwhelming and overlapping challenges: dangerous conditions, factual disputes, distortions and disinformation.” NPR / Jaclyn Diaz [At least 24 journalists have been killed in the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza →]( “Of the two dozen journalists who have died, 20 were Palestinian, three were Israeli and one was Lebanese. At least eight other journalists have been reported injured, while three others are believed missing or detained, according to the CPJ.” Washington Post / Will Sommer [Mysterious bylines appeared on a USA Today site. Did these writers exist? →]( “A Gannett spokesperson took issue with the Guild claim that the writers weren’t real people, pointing to the LinkedIn page of one AdVon Commerce writer whose named appeared on a Reviewed article. At the top of his account, that writer touted his experience in ‘polishing AI generative text.'” Medill Local News Initiative / Mark Caro [On the lookout for local news: Q&A with Ken Doctor →]( “When I was in St. Paul, we had a business news staff, and I was surprised—I was surprised then, I’m no longer surprised—at how many people in our trade, in journalism, are essentially innumerate. They’re not illiterate. They’re pretty literate, most of them [laughs]. But they have been innumerate. They do not understand how money works.” Axios / Sara Fischer [X usage plummets in Musk’s first year as owner →]( “Engagement metrics are down across the board. App downloads fell roughly 38% globally between October 2022 and September 2023, according to Sensor Tower estimates. In the U.S., mobile app downloads fell 57% in the same time period. Data from Data.AI, another app tracking firm, shows similar trends.” Usage, average time spent daily per user, and web traffic have all also decreased, while user churn is up. But hey, “Traffic to Elon Musk’s personal profile and posts were up 96% year-over-year in September.” The Verge / Elizabeth Lopatto [The tragically millennial vocabulary of the Sam Bankman-Fried trial →]( “If [Caroline] Ellison liked ‘stuff’ and ‘things,’ [Sam] Bankman-Fried liked ‘heh’ and ‘yup.’ Both alleged co-conspirator Nishad Singh and former FTX lawyer Can Sun gave testimony that Bankman-Fried responded to them with ‘yup’ or ‘yup, yup.’ He also seems to use ‘oof’ a lot.” Poynter / Angela Fu [With two months left in the year, Gannett journalists question status of company diversity reports →]( “From 2020 to 2022, the latest Gannett released newsroom-level demographic information was Sept. 1. As October draws to a close with no report in sight, some journalists are wondering whether Gannett has stopped its annual disclosures. The subject has been a point of discussion among union leaders at various Gannett papers, said Indianapolis Star photojournalist Jenna Watson, who heads the Indianapolis NewsGuild as its president.” The Daily Northwestern / Jacob Wendler [Imitated front pages of The Daily Northwestern circulated across NU’s campus →]( “When hundreds of Northwestern students arrived at their classes in the Technological Institute Wednesday morning, they found imitated front pages of The Daily Northwestern lying on their desks…an article headlined ‘Northwestern complicit in genocide of Palestinians’ parodied the University’s response to the Israel-Hamas war. The article featured fabricated quotes from University administrators and a metaphor comparing Ozzis — reusable food containers offered by on-campus dining halls — to civilian hostages taken by Hamas.” Slate / Scott Nover [It’s the most important tech trial in years. All the juicy stuff is happening in secret. →]( “Jennifer Nelson, a senior staff attorney at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said it’s unusual to have this much testimony in a case be inaccessible to the public. ‘The court has an obligation to make sure that any closure is narrowly tailored to address any potential harm that could come from the public airing of testimony,’ Nelson told me. ‘I struggle to understand how one individual’s entire testimony could be behind closed doors — that does not appear to be narrowly tailored at all.'” Washington Post / Sammy Westfall and Miriam Berger [Family of Al Jazeera Gaza bureau chief killed in airstrike →]( “Wael al-Dahdouh has been a steady face of wartime news out of Gaza for Al Jazeera Arabic viewers. But on Wednesday night, his work turned personal when he learned that the strikes he had covered from the ground all day had claimed the lives of his wife, teenage son, daughter and grandson, and eight other members of his extended family.” Twitter / Ashley Carman [Into It, the Vox Media culture podcast hosted by Sam Sanders, is ending →]( When Sanders left NPR after 12 years to launch the show, the move was covered by [The New York Times]( [Bloomberg]( and more. Washington Post / Adam Taylor [Why news outlets and the U.N. rely on Gaza’s Health Ministry for death tolls →]( The Gaza Health Ministry is an agency of the Hamas-controlled government. The Post published a Q&A for readers on citing its figures. Reuters / Jonathan Stempel [33 states are suing Meta and Instagram for “fueling a youth mental health crisis by making their social media platforms addictive” →]( “Meta has harnessed powerful and unprecedented technologies to entice, engage, and ultimately ensnare youth and teens,” according to the complaint filed in the Oakland, California federal court. “Its motive is profit.” [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](