By Matt Carroll <@MattCData>

July 21, 2018: Cool stuff about journalism, once a week. Get notified via email? Subscribe: 3toread (at) gmail. Originally published on 3toread.co

Fake news. That’s the theme of this week’s “3 to read.” Two stories are profiles — one of a top digital sleuth who is dedicated to uncovering fake news of all stripes and the other on a fake-news troll whose life derailed into murder. The third is about how conservatives in the US helped support Macedonians who created a tsunami of fake news on Facebook in the runup to the presidential election.

1. Dirty secret: The role US conservatives played in the Macedonian “fake news” boom that helped elect Trump: Craig Silverman and others at BuzzFeed peel back the layers of how conservatives in America helped Macedonians create a whirlwind fake news factory of conspiracy theories and crazy stories that helped elect Trump. It’s not a pretty picture. But it is fascinating.

2. Meet Jonathan Albright, the digital sleuth blowing up fake news: Albright may be the biggest name in the battle against fake news. He has helped reporters at the NYT, WaPo, BuzzFeed and others on stories ranging from how Facebook played down the influence and number of Russian ads to how Cambridge Analytica was a bad actor. A wonderful profile by Issie Lapowsky of Wired.

3. From alt-right troll to father killer: The unraveling of Lane Davis: Some trolls push whacko conspiracy theories because of the fun that comes from stirring the pot. Others are true believers. Lane Davis was a true believer, and it led down a very dark road. Joe Bernstein of BuzzfeedNews tells the story of his one-time source — an alt-right hero with no income who lived in his parents’ house — who finally cracked and killed his own father. An intense but great read.

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By Matt Carroll <@MattCData>

July 13, 2018: Cool stuff about journalism, once a week. Get notified via email? Subscribe: 3toread (at) gmail. Originally published on 3toread.co

1. 9 core ideas around journalistic innovation: If you visited 50-plus journalism innovators across America and Europe, what common factors would you find? Start with that the most successful at engaging audiences and growing revenue are breaking a host of old newsroom true-isms. For instance, how about challenging the idea of staying neutral and instead working hard at informing people what they stand for. Or actively involving readers in everything from coming up with ideas to research, helping to become more transparent. These are some of the nine core ideas found by Per Westergaard and Soren Schultz Jorgensen who spent a year visiting newsrooms. Interesting stuff here.

2. Matter of conscience: Why a journalist revealed her source to the FBI: In the argumentative world of journalism, where any two reporters can’t even agree on what pizza to order, there is one rule that everyone agrees on: Never reveal your sources. But that’s exactly what was done Marcy Wheeler, who writes the emptywheel blog, which focuses on national security. Wheeler, startlingly, turned in her source to the FBI. Her reasons are still murky, but it involves Russian interference with the election. A fascinating read by Margaret Sullivan of the WaPo, with more to come, I’m sure.

3. Reporters’ guide: Why semi-open platforms like WhatsApp are replacing open platforms like Facebook: Facebook is losing ground as a place for news. But other closed and semi-open platforms like WhatsApp, subreddits, and closed Facebook groups are gaining ground. A guide by Mark Frankel, social media editor at the BBC, on how reporters can crack the code and find stories and sources.

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By Matt Carroll <@MattCData>

July 7, 2018: Cool stuff about journalism, once a week. Get notified via email? Subscribe: 3toread (at) gmail. Originally published on 3toread.co

1. It’s not just that mainstream media missed the Trump wave…: Mainstream media was (justifiably) criticized for missing the rise of Trump. Now the same phenomenon appears to be happening on the left — mainstream media appears to be clueless about the rise of a left wing wave of support, as seen in the primary win of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez over establishment favorite Congressman Joe Crowley in new York. A nice piece by Jon Allsop for CJR on the media fumblings of political coverage and what needs to be done.

2. Support local news — it’s crucial to our democracy: There’s a bitter lesson to be learned from the massacre at the Capital Gazette — it’s about the value of local news. Alberto Ibarguen, former publisher of the Miami Herald and president of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, writes a stirring reminder that it’s local newsrooms that are the bedrock of our understanding of what’s happening in our community. A good read and a nice reminder, following a horrible incident.

3. Complicating the Narratives: How to get the whole story: Let’s face it: Life is messy. Which can make writing a story difficult, if a journalist is trying to squeeze excess messiness into a comfortable narrative. That’s what makes this article by Amanda Ripley for the Solutions Journalism Network so interesting. It’s a great primer on how to better interview and act with people. That may result in a more complicated, way nuanced story — which is good, she argues, because it better reflects people in the real world.

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Matt Carroll, a former member of the Boston Globe Spotlight team, teaches journalism at Northeastern University. Twitter: @MattCData. Instagram: mattcarroll54.

By Matt Carroll <@MattCData>

June 30, 2018: Cool stuff about journalism, once a week. Get notified via email? Subscribe: 3toread (at) gmail. Originally published on 3toread.co

1. Solutions journalism at its best: News outlets join forces to track down children separated from their parents: There’s a lot of talk about solutions journalism. This is a great example. A bunch of very different news sites — BuzzFeed, ProPub, The Intercept, Univision, and others — are joining together to get information about children separated from their parents by the US. They are doing this by asking for tips from readers. It’s a great idea. Let’s hope we see more of this outside the box thinking.

NPR’s guide to building immersive storytelling projects: Storytelling is getting more complicated — more newsroom players, more tools, greater impact. Yet the process for building the stories is different at every news organization, and sometimes from story to story, as people struggle to create new storytelling systems. NPR is working to create a replicable system for storytelling. Here’s how they do it. Good stuff by Wesley Lindamood of NPR’s Digital Content Team.

3. Life after tronc: Norman Pearlstine’s plans for the LA Times: Pearlstine has cred. And the 75-year-old veteran of Time and the WSJ, among other newsrooms, will need every crumb of it as he takes over a newsroom that was shaken to the roots by the awful management of tronc (which gets my vote for dumbest news name ever). Pearlstine comes across as the right guy for the next few years, careful about what he is promising but stressing quality journalism. Hopefully he, and the LA Times, do well. An interesting interview by Shaya Tayefe Mohajer for CJR.

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Matt Carroll, a former member of the Boston Globe Spotlight team, teaches journalism at Northeastern University. Twitter: @MattCData. Instagram: mattcarroll54.