By Matt Carroll <@MattCData>

Sept. 24, 2017: Cool stuff about journalism, once a week. Get notified via email? Subscribe: 3toread (at) gmail. Originally published on 3toread.co

1. The future of news is humans talking to machines: “Pivot to video”? Screw that. The future of newsrooms all about getting news from Alexa, Siri, and Google. Or that’s the fascinating argument made by Nieman Fellow Trushar Barot for Poynter, who thinks voice interaction could have a bigger impact than the iPhone. That’s the interesting news. The bad news is that newsrooms are about to miss out, just like they missed the Internet, if they don’t catch up quick. Provocative stuff.

2. The state of data reporting: Improving quickly: As a long-time data geek myself (and now teaching data reporting), this report is heartening. Half of all newsrooms — and 60% of digital only — have a dedicated data nerd. The report by Google News Lab, which surveyed more than 900 reporters and editors, has some interesting nuggets. For instance data is often used in quick-hit stories — about half of the respondents took a day or less to do a data story, while about 10% took several weeks.

3. What Vox learned building groups & communities on Facebook: Interesting insights from Vox about how a newsroom can use Facebook to create engaged groups. For instance, Vox created special interest groups, such as one around Obamacare, which made it easier for them to find sources for stories. And surprisingly (well, to me anyways), members of groups were good about moderating other members. The tone of discussion also deepened over time as members got to know one another. Good stuff for newsrooms wishing to dive deeper in Facebook Groups.

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Matt Carroll teaches journalism at Northeastern University.