Author: Matt Carroll

3 to read: Power & peril of personalization | The 140-character prez | Why Facebook can’t make you money

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By Matt Carroll <@MattCData>

Oct. 21, 2017: Cool stuff about journalism, once a week. Get notified via email? Subscribe: 3toread (at) gmail. 

  1. The power — & peril — of personalizing the news: Algorithms have the power to connect people to the news they care about most. Or to create filter bubbles so they are rarely exposed to different viewpoints. Yet there is no turning back — algorithms are a major tool in newsrooms’ arsenal of engagement tools. A nuanced look at personalized news by Adrienne LaFrance for Niemen Reports.

2. The legal & ethical questions surrounding the 140-character president: Donald Trump’s controversial use of Twitter is well known. He’s also breaking new ground through his use of a new medium, as presidents Roosevelt (radio) and Kennedy (TV) did before him. Mathew Ingram of CJR takes a thoughtful look at the implications, legal and ethical, of what happens when the president stirs the pot in 140-character bursts. A good read.

3. Q: Can newsrooms use Facebook to make money?

A: ‘Not really.”

Ouch. Jennifer Brandel of Hearken writes a searing takedown of why Facebook is such a bad deal for newsrooms, for instance: posting and writing for the platform is a massive time sink, FB owns the relationship with your readers, and finally, the return on investment is low. Jennifer is not a disinterested party here. Hearken has its own engagement software. But she has a point and it’s an interesting read, especially if you are sick of Facebook and are looking for an alternative.

Extra credit: A ‘wayback machine’ report: Inside Jimmy Breslin’s feud with the NY Post: Jimmy Breslin was the kind of larger-than-life character who was meant to flourish in New York. He might be best known as a columnist for the NY Daily News, where he won a Pulitzer. But he also worked for the NY Post for a couple of years — and he bore that publication a special, inflammatory grudge that lasted decades. For those with a taste for news history, here’s a fascinating, insider view of that rift through the eyes of Howard V. Sann for CJR.

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Matt Carroll teaches journalism at Northeastern University.

3 to read: Gamifying Facebook’s ‘hate speech’ | Kill comments? No way | Soul-destroying platforms

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By Matt Carroll <@MattCData>

Oct. 14, 2017: Cool stuff about journalism, once a week. Get notified via email? Subscribe: 3toread (at) gmail. Originally published on 3toread.co

  1. Gamifying the decision process: What does Facebook consider ‘hate speech’?: The NYT created a wonderful quiz, which illustrates how Facebook decides what is or is not hate speech — and I guarantee Facebook’s reasoning will leave you shaking your head. But it also shows how creating a game can frame an issue far more effectively than a text story. Check it out, not just because of what it shows about Facebook’s sometimes bizarre reasoning, but because it’s a marvelous use of gamification.

2. Actually, do read the comments — they can be the best part: Andrew Losowsky of Mozilla’s Coral Project argues (convincingly) that newsrooms which drop comments are shortsighted. Yes, trolls require a lot of time to police. But civil commenters are your most engaged readers. Why close comments and let social media reap the benefit by exiling that wonderful community? Newsrooms need to do a lot more to build community, not destroy it. A good read.

3. Oh joy: How platforms are eating the souls of newsrooms: Franklin Foer, former editor of the New Republic, argues that the very identity of newsrooms is being destroyed by the platforms they embrace to drive traffic. It’s an interesting thought. Foer has some has serious cred on the topic because he was brought into The New Republic by a billionaire co-founder of Facebook. But heady early days turned into nightmares. Foer argues that the creative force of magazine was blunted by a stultifying embrace of data and algorithms. An Q&A with Hope Reese of NiemanLab.

Bonus: Facebook’s blind tinkering with democracy: Atlantic writer Alexis Madrigal’s terrifying yet thoughtful take on Facebook’s effect on democracy. A chilling read.

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Matt Carroll teaches journalism at Northeastern University.

3 to read: Takedown of a Cabinet secretary | Why can’t FB beat back the trolls? | Make Twitter useful (again)

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By Matt Carroll <@MattCData>

Oct. 7, 2017: Cool stuff about journalism, once a week. Get notified via email? Subscribe: 3toread (at) gmail. Originally published on 3toread.co

  1. Takedown: The inside story on how HHS Secy Price got caught: Wonderful first-person account from the Politico reporters who blew open the story, forcing Thomas Price to resign for using high-cost charter flights when commercial planes were available. It involves stakeouts at airports, hot anonymous tips, and dogged reporting. Well done, Dan Diamond and Rachana Pradhan.

2. Facebook & Google keep getting gamed by trolls — just look at Las Vegas: Everybody’s favorite duopoly talks big about blocking the trolls throwing up fake news. But the trolls don’t seem to have much trouble figuring out how to game their algorithms. Look at Las Vegas: Stories got big play about the how the shooter was an anti-Trump liberal, linked to the Islamic state. Or not. The situation shows the problems facing Facebook and Google, and how far they are from solutions. Good stuff by Kevin Roose at the NYT.

3. How to use Tweetdeck & advanced search to make Twitter useful (again): Feeling like the flood of tweets is making Twitter too much of a pain? Never fear, here are some simple (but effective) tips that make Twitter so much more useful as a newsroom tool again. Nice work by Ren Laforme for Poynter.

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Matt Carroll teaches journalism at Northeastern University.

3 to read: The revolution will be immersive | Engagement: Learning from churches & book clubs | Society news was the old Facebook

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By Matt Carroll <@MattCData>

Sept. 30, 2017: Cool stuff about journalism, once a week. Get notified via email? Subscribe: 3toread (at) gmail. Originally published on 3toread.co

  1. The revolution will be immersive: An interesting piece about where journalism is headed. A couple of thought leaders at the AP, Francesco Marconi, a strategy manager, and Taylor Nakagawa, an emerging media fellow, say the future of journalism is 3D and AR, writes Sophia Fox-Sowell for Storybench. They’ve published a guide for newsrooms: “The age of dynamic storytelling: a guide for journalists to immersive 3-D content.” It’s a tectonic shift for consumers. Instead of passively looking at photos or reading text, consumers are now challenged to “explore and create their own narratives.” Interesting stuff.

2. What newsrooms can learn about engagement from churches & book clubs: In an era of disruption, newsrooms are struggling to understand the new rules of engagement and how to build community. Ruth Tupe for The Membership Puzzle Project argues that news needs to look and learn from different organizations that vary as widely as coworking space and art museums. After all, many types of organizations have been asking themselves the same questions for years, while newsrooms are only getting started. Cool tips and anecdotes about what has worked.

3. Before Facebook was Facebook, society columns provided news — and community: Newspapers tended to shrug off the society columns as filler for somewhere in the back pages. But Sam Ford for CJR writes a wonderful ode to what is a disappearing piece of newspaper’s past. But those columns, write Ford, were important in ways maybe the page one editors never understood — they provided place and community for so many readers. (Sam should know. He took over his grandmother’s column at the ripe old age of 12.)

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Matt Carroll teaches journalism at Northeastern University.