As many people are now working from home, it may be hard to escape the constant reporting on the tragedies of COVID-19. To shift the narrative, this week’s newsletter focuses on journalists and reporters covering the virus. 

1. Coronavirus Brings a Surge to News Sites: Marc Tracy for the New York Times looks at how the coverage of COVID-19 has impacted journalists and newspapers in the U.S. For many newspapers, readership has gone up by almost 50%, many people flocking to read the most recent and accurate information. Some newspapers have reported their subscriptions also going up immensely. However, for some papers, especially local newspapers have taken a hit in their revenue. Advertisements have been calling to cancel and there has overall been a panic in the uncertainty of the virus. Read more about how newsrooms are dealing with the new changes in this article. 

2. How to Cover a Fast Moving Pandemic: As newsrooms struggle to cover the outbreak of COVID-19, Kyle Pope of CJR has curated a few points on what they have learnt so far through their experience so far. Some of his points include the fact that journalism that matters is local, not to obsess too much over numbers and to uphold the values of journalism. The article dives into how the shift in attitude can impact how the media covers a pandemic of this scale. 

3. ESPN Adapts their Broadcasting Program as Sports Around the U.S. Shutdown: One of the most impacted media channels in the current crisis is the sports media. Alex Sherman of ESPN writes about how ESPN has adapted to the changing landscape of sports since the outbreak began. As most people are staying at home now, many of them may now be tuning into television frequently. ESPN amongst other sports channels are struggling to find content to place in their program in order to keep their audience entertained in a time where all sports are virtually on pause. In the long run, this could hurt cable news as people become dissatisfied with not being able to watch regular sports seasons via ESPN. 

1. Fighting misinformation in a world where fake news can spread faster than the virus: The coronavirus essentially ticks off all of the boxes of a “how to virally spread information” checklist. It starts with the Chinese government failing to disclose accurate data on the number and spread of cases, which has led to an increase in racism against Chinese people, mainly because of the spread of misinformation. Many news sites are writing “debunking articles,” where they take widespread “information” and prove it is false. In this article, Erwin Lemuel Olivia lists some of the ways journalists can prevent misinformation from spreading when covering public health issues.

2. On Twitter, false news travels faster than true stories: For many journalists using Twitter as a key source of news out in the field, fact-checking becomes ever more important in light of this recent study. Peter Dizikes for MIT News Office writes about three scholars from MIT who found that misinformation spreads virally much faster than real or accurate news does. What’s even more scary, they found that the source of the spread is not bots as many assume but due to people retweeting inaccurate information. With a lot of floating and confusing information, for example from the recent Iowa caucuses, journalists should be careful with what they see on Twitter as it may just be inaccurate information flowing from the retweeting of people. 

3. Charting new territory with young news consumers: It’s long been known that young people consume much of their news through social media. That could be bad for newsrooms. Or, for The Economist, a way to reach a new audience. Helen Atkinson, a visual data journalist at The Economist, lists tips for developing charts that are both visually appealing and captivating, as well as informative and accurate. Using Instagram, these charts create an interactive platform for news.

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Matt Carroll is a journalism professor at Northeastern University.

Logo by Leigh Carroll <Instagram @Leighzaah>

1. International stories of conflict, like Iran coverage, mean walking on an ethical tightrope: With the eruption of the Iranian-US conflict over the beginning of the new year, journalists worried about spreading misinformation and have been more than cautious in presenting information. Words have been precisely chosen, images double, even triple checked, and coverage has been carefully curated. Especially when the crisis may potentially impact US citizens directly, this article by Kelly McBride for Poynter highlights the importance of journalists building and maintaining the trust of the readers.

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2. Getting it Right: Strategies for truth-telling in a time of misinformation and polarization: Journalists have been under scrutiny for a few years now, especially since Donald Trump’s presidential election. With the upcoming 2020 elections, a crucial year for accuracy in journalism, journalists are struggling to maintain the trust from a polarized and untrusting public. In this series of reports, Susan Benkelman for API devises a strategy, which includes: responses to misinformation and manipulation, burial of false information, responses to attacks to erode trust, and how to deal with a polarized audience and divided audience. 

3. Shining light into the dark spaces of chat apps: In a world where any information, true or fake, can travel at a rapid pace, instant messaging apps have taken the lead in the sharing of this information. However, Sharon Moshavi for CJR writes about the missed opportunities we haven’t taken with instant messaging apps, unlike other countries. This tool gives us direct communication with the audience, and with new technology quickly emerging and taking the place of others, we need to be experimenting more with the new ways in which we can spread accurate information quickly to a greater audience in order for news to stay credible and reputable in the near future. Because if journalists don’t, plenty of others with ill intentions are perfectly willing to spread disinformation using these apps, as we have already seen happening. 

• Get notified via email: Send a note to 3toread@gmail.com

Matt Carroll is a journalism professor at Northeastern University.

Logo by Leigh Carroll <Instagram @Leighzaah>