3 to read: Facebook? Change? No way | Era ends: NYT’s Markoff retires | Print is dead (not)

By Matt Carroll <@MattCData>

Dec. 13, 2016: Cool stuff about journalism, once a week. Get notified via email? Subscribe: 3toread (at) gmail.

  1. Why Facebook has zero interest in making changes for news: OK, the hedline exaggerates. Frederic Filloux of Monday Note says Facebook does have one good reason — it’s good PR. But otherwise… Facebook is about ads, page views and emotion. News? It don’t care; ain’t part of the game plan. So newspeople who are counting on Facebook to make substantive changes? Sorry. A tough read, but sounds realistic to me.
  1. A tech era ends: NYT’s Markoff retires: For anyone who has followed the world of tech, reporter John Markoff is a rock star. Markoff chronicled the ins and outs of digital, from Apple to browsers, from AI to dark hackers. Now he’s pulled the plug, after nearly three decades. His retirement speech looks back over his illustrious career at the new York Times.
  2. Print is dead. Long live print: Why print is so hard to kill (hint: people like it): Michael Rosenwald argues in the Columbia Journalism Review that newspaper publishers are giving up on print way too soon. People still love print and — btw — that’s still where a lot of the money is. He makes an interesting argument (even if I’m not sure I quite buy it.)
  • Get notified via email: Send note to 3toread (at) gmail.com

Matt Carroll is a journalism professor at Northeastern University.

Advertisement

3 to read: How to use term ‘alt right’ | Snapchat’s quiet rise | Reddit’s civil war is about Trump

By Matt Carroll <@MattCData>

Dec. 6, 2016: Cool stuff about journalism, once a week. Get notified via email? Subscribe: 3toread (at) gmail.

  1. The bruising battle over using the term ‘alt-right’: The NYT has become ground zero for the fight over using the term “alt right.” Every time it’s used, readers write in, pro and con (but always with passion), about how and whether it should be used. Public editor Liz Spayd explains how the Times will be using “alt right” in the future.
  2. The rise of the browser over apps (again): First came the browser, and it was good. Then came the apps, and they were better. And now comes … the browser, again? How browsers are winning back your phone. By Hugh Durkin of Intercom.
  3. The civil war tearing Reddit apart is all about Trump: Reddit is incredibly successful because it (mostly) let’s people say and post whatever they want. But now the Trump election and the rise of manipulative trolls is putting incredible stress on one of the web’s most cheerfully anarchic sites. By Bryan Menegus at Gizmodo.
  • Get notified via email: Send note to 3toread (at) gmail.com

Matt Carroll is a journalism professor at Northeastern University.