Asking people to “do the research” on fake news stories makes them seem more believable, not less

[Nieman Lab: The Daily Digest] Monday, January 8, 2024 [Asking people to “do the research” on fake news stories makes them seem more believable, not less]( A new study asked thousands to evaluate the accuracy of news articles — both real and fake — by doing some research online. But for many, heading to Google led them farther from the truth, not closer. By Joshua Benton. What We’re Reading The Verge / Emma Roth [The Apple Vision Pro will launch February 2 →]( “Pre-orders begin January 19 at 8 a.m. ET.” The Washington Post / Will Oremus and Elahe Izadi [AI’s future could hinge on one thorny legal question →]( “Broadly speaking, copyright law distinguishes between ripping off someone else’s work verbatim — which is generally illegal — and ‘remixing’ or putting it to a new, creative use. What is confounding about AI systems, said James Grimmelmann, a professor of digital and information law at Cornell University, is that in this case they seem to be doing both.” The New York Times / Kashmir Hill [This journalist was addicted to her smartphone, so she switched to a flip phone for a month →]( “It may seem strange to go retro in the age of ChatGPT, artificial intelligence-powered personal stylists, and Neuralink brain implants. But with advanced technology poised to embed itself more deeply in my life (not my brain, though — please, never my actual brain), it seemed a perfect time to correct course with the existing tech that already felt out of my control.” The Washington Post / Will Sommer [Axel Springer execs are at odds with Business Insider over its Neri Oxman plagiarism story →]( “Neither [billionaire Bill] Ackman nor [his wife, former MIT professor Neri] Oxman…have pointed to any factual errors in the articles. Still, Ackman’s complaints seemed to get the attention of Axel Springer, the German media giant that owns Business Insider. On Sunday, the company released an unusual statement saying it would ‘review the processes’ that led up to the articles’ publication, while acknowledging that the stories were not factually wrong.” The Wall Street Journal / Tim Higgins [Why MrBeast is rebuffing Elon Musk →]( “The math apparently doesn’t work for a guy like [MrBeast, a.k.a. Jimmy Donaldson], who at 25 years old has built an impressive business empire of his own. ‘My videos cost millions to make and even if they got a billion views on X it wouldn’t fund a fraction of it,’ Donaldson responded recently to Musk’s urging.” Financial Times / Raphael Minder [The EU wants Big Tech to promote opposition media in Belarus →]( “Belarusian journalists in exile have complained to the commission that content critical of the regime of Alexander Lukashenko is failing to reach target audiences, in part because of search algorithms used by Google, Meta, and others, which they claim wrongfully take into account Lukashenko’s media censorship rules.” The Verge / Adi Robertson [The internet copyright machine wasn’t made for Mickey Mouse →]( “Blunt-force copyright enforcement has shaped the boundaries and culture of the internet. It’s ill-equipped for a world where huge numbers of people are testing the edges of a nuanced legal framework — and as more pop culture becomes public property, the situation may only become more complex.” The Guardian / Ashifa Kassam [Al Jazeera accuses Israel of targeted killing of two of its journalists in Gaza →]( “To date, the conflict has claimed the lives of 79 journalists, said Christophe Deloire of Reporters Without Borders. ‘It is definitely a never-ending slaughter,’ Deloire wrote on social media.” Digiday / Kayleigh Barber [How media execs are bracing for another year of ad turmoil →]( “…I would have no reason but to be totally optimistic if not for the fact that when I have conversations with CMOs. They’re a little uncertain…There’s a sense of cautiousness and uncertainty…I’m taking them at their word and I’m tempering my enthusiasm.” The New York Times / Alan Blinder [U.S. News makes money selling its rankings “badges” to colleges →]( “Many lower-profile colleges are straining to curb enrollment declines and counter shrinking budgets. And any endorsement that might attract students, administrators say, is enticing… ‘If we could ignore them, wouldn’t that be grand?’ [University of Maine at Augusta vice president Jonathan] Henry said of U.S. News. ‘But you can’t ignore the leviathan that they are.'” Hamilton Nolan [Tom Scocca on journalism and mortality →]( “People still have the desire to read about the world, but that desire is less powerful or less organized than Google and Facebook’s desire to suck all the money out of the ad market as middlemen, or Alden Global Capital’s desire to liquidate newsrooms for their real estate value, evict the staff, and fill the news hole with words assembled by a Mad Libs bot in some server closet 800 miles away.” The Wall Street Journal / Emily Glazer and Kirsten Grind [Elon Musk’s illegal drug use is sparking concerns at his companies →]( “The world’s wealthiest person has used LSD, cocaine, ecstasy, and psychedelic mushrooms, often at private parties around the world, where attendees sign nondisclosure agreements or give up their phones to enter…People close to Musk, who is now 52, said his drug use is ongoing, especially his consumption of ketamine, and that they are concerned it could cause a health crisis.” The New York Times / Robert D. McFadden [R.I.P. Joseph Lelyveld, former top editor of The New York Times →]( “Cerebral and introspective, Mr. Lelyveld was for nearly four decades one of the most respected journalists in America, a globe-trotting adventurer who reported from Washington, Congo, India, Hong Kong, Johannesburg and London, winning acclaim for his prolific and perceptive articles.” Axios / Sara Fischer [Substack writer Eric Newcomer says revenue surpassed $1 million in 2023 →]( “The ‘Newcomer’ newsletter has more than 75,000 free subscribers and more than 2,000 paid subscribers, he said. Subscribers pay $200 annually for access to his content, up from the $150 annually Newcomer charged at launch.” Bloomberg / Ashley Carman [On Spotify, human-created playlists are losing ground to AI-generated recommendations →]( “Not long ago, getting prime placement on a popular Spotify playlist could almost single-handedly catapult a new artist to mainstream prominence. But those days may be numbered. To hear industry insiders tell it, the golden era of mega-popular streaming playlists appears to be drawing to a close.” Media Nation / Dan Kennedy [How Alden and Gannett inadvertently provided a boost to startup local news projects →]( Brant Houston: “Alden’s brazen and brutal harvesting of a disrupted and distressed news industry has made clear the long death spiral of newspapers and legacy media. And it has made clear how a new business model for journalism (usually a nonprofit model or a public benefit corporation) is needed and how independent digital newsrooms need to form deeper alliances.” The Wall Street Journal / Alexandra Bruell [Puck taps a former Twitter customer chief as CEO →]( “The two-year-old publication, whose writers focus on covering power brokers in tech, media, finance and politics, has amassed around 40,000 full-paying subscribers and surpassed $10 million in revenue in 2023, according to a person close to the company.” The Verge / Ariel Shapiro [Podcast downloads were down 24% at the end of 2023 (but there’s an explanation) →]( “It used to be that if you subscribed to a show, forgot about it for a while, and then returned, all of the intervening episodes would download automatically. But iOS 17 has made it so downloads pick up where you left off without those automatic downloads. In the end, it is a good thing both for your phone memory and for advertisers who want a precise idea of who is actually listening to their spots. But for publishers, it is a correction that scales their overall metrics down in the short term.” Sportico / Anthony Crupi [Football has swallowed TV whole: NFL games were 93 of 2023’s top 100 broadcasts →]( “… an improvement on 2022’s already impressive tally (82) and a huge leap forward compared to the 61 slots the NFL commandeered just five years ago. If it’s widely accepted that TV is now merely a delivery system for live sports and insurance commercials, last year’s deliveries suggest that the rest of the so-called Big Four leagues have been remanded to a shadow tier.” IEEE Spectrum / Gary Marcus and Reid Southen [Generative AI has a visual plagiarism problem →]( “Even though prevalence may vary, the mere existence of plagiaristic outputs raises many important questions, including technical questions (can anything be done to suppress such outputs?), sociological questions (what could happen to journalism as a consequence?), legal questions (would these outputs count as copyright infringement?), and practical questions (when an end user generates something with a LLM, can the user feel comfortable that they are not infringing on copyright? Is there any way for a user who wishes not to infringe to be assured that they are not?).” The Guardian / Alex Hern [Reduced view counts are leading some educational YouTubers to step away →]( “It feels like a lot of people who’ve been making long-form videos have recently announced…not retirements but reductions, step-backs. Everyone I know is noticing their views slowly falling, and therefore their ad revenue reducing.” The Guardian / David Batty [Swearing is becoming more widely acceptable, linguistics experts claim →]( “They made the comments after the BBC presenter Mishal Husain swore seven times in under a minute during an interview with the home secretary, James Cleverly.” The Guardian / Amelia Gentleman [“Cool, calm, precise”: How the BBC’s Mishal Husain became the interviewer U.K. politicians dread →]( “Her colleague Nick Robinson says senior politicians are trained to ‘fill the time with obfuscation’ and to get listeners on their side by suggesting to the audience that the presenter is ‘not being fair, not letting them have their say, interrupting them.’ But, he says, Husain’s ‘cool, calm, precise style’ does not permit that trick. ‘With her, someone in power is held to account in a way that is courteous and persistent. It’s about the wielding of the scalpel, not the bloodshed.'” [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](