By Matt Carroll <@MattCData>

May 9, 2017: Cool stuff about journalism, once a week. Get notified via email? Subscribe: 3toread (at) gmail.

1. Alex Jones *is* the conspiracy: Alex Jones burst from out from under the alt right’s big slimy rock and into mainstream consciousness when President Trump appeared on the conspiracy maven’s talk show. What drives this Infowars powerhouse, who blames 9/11, Sandy Hook, and the Boston Marathon murders on government conspiracies? BuzzFeed’s Charlie Warzel peels back the lid on the motormouth in this profile.
2. Zuckerberg & Facebook wrestle with how to save the world (they may be wrecking): Alarm bells are ringing inside Facebook, as complaints arise outside and inside the company about its outsized role in influencing the country through its promotion of news, fake or not. What’s not clear is how loud the alarms are or who is listening. The NYT Magazine’s Farhad Manjoo paints a portrait of founder Mark Zuckerborg at least beginning to confront some of the issues that have long been voiced by critics. Interesting.
3. What the White House press corps *really* thinks about Trump: The president has turned attacks on the press into a minor art form, which makes this survey of what White House reporters think about the commander-in-chief so fascinating. If you’re interested in a peek behind the press curtain at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., you’ll love this. One surprise: One third don’t think he’s the the most anti-press president in history. By Politico Magazine, with wonderful graphics.

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• 3 to read logo by Leigh Carroll (Instagram: @leighzaah)

Matt Carroll is a journalism professor at Northeastern University.

By Matt Carroll <@MattCData>

May 2, 2017: Cool stuff about journalism, once a week. Get notified via email? Subscribe: 3toread (at) gmail.com

1. The dirty war between Trump & the press: The public sees Trump and the rest of his administration trashing the press. But behind the scenes, it’s a very different picture, as Trump and others work hard to curry favor with certain reporters — including the mainstream publications they disparage in public. A nuanced look at the the tense, brawling relationship between the media and the presidency. By Ben Schreckinger and Hadas Gold for Politico Magazine.
2. ‘Wikitribune’s’ lofty goal is to fight fake news — too bad it will fail: Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has created Wikitribune to take on the scourge of fake news. The idea is to create a crowd-funded cooperative that channels the power and skill of professional journalists. But Mathew Ingram of Fortune is dubious it will work. Other similar efforts have failed. It’s just not clear that non-journalists care enough to pay at scale to fund the effort, he says.
3. How real is that ‘media bubble’?: Media critic Jack Shafer argues that the East Coast/West Coast media bubble, with newsrooms isolated from the conservative heartland and clustered in mostly liberal metro areas, is real and is more extreme than is generally believed. Others argue that’s wrong because the big right-wing outlets are located in exactly those some areas. Either way though, the charts in the Shafer story show fewer and fewer reporter jobs are in the heartland.

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Matt Carroll is a journalism professor at Northeastern University.

By Matt Carroll <@MattCData>

April 25, 2017: Cool stuff about journalism, once a week. Get notified via email? Subscribe: 3toread (at) gmail

1. In a new journalism era, quality is key: Online news has quickly cycled through a number of eras — portals, search, and social, each with its own winners and losers, argues David Skok on Medium. Now, he says, we are entering a new era where journalism will be paid for by readers, for readers. It’s a great opportunity for newsrooms that produce quality journalism and can build tight bonds with their readers. An interesting take.
2. What went wrong with Instant Articles: Instant Articles was ballyhooed by Facebook as a great innovation for news publishers — big revenue and readership were expected. But two years in, news publishers have found that neither has happened, and organizations from the New York Times to Vice News have given it up. A nice “what went wrong” piece by Casey Newton for The Verge.
3. Facebook denies what it is & its responsibilities: It’s time Facebook figured out they are a media company, and with that comes tremendous responsibility, argues Margaret Sullivan for the WaPo, pointing to the recent murder on Facebook Live. Yet the company, with 2 billion users, keeps its head firmly in the sand, denying the obvious even to itself. That has to change, she writes. A good read.

Extra: A conference on ‘Conversations’: The Northeastern U conference on “Conversations” focused on how the media can build bridges to fragmented communities. A short video about the day.

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Matt Carroll is a journalism professor at Northeastern University.

By Matt Carroll <@MattCData>

April 18, 2017: Cool stuff about journalism, once a week. Get notified via email? Subscribe: 3toread (at) gmail.

1. How local newsrooms can collaborate on big projects:Slowly, maybe reluctantly, more newsrooms are collaborating on projects. Want it to go well? Well, says Kristen Hare for Poynter, pick your partners carefully, set aside your competitive instincts, and be ready to give up some controls. A good set of tips for how to create a successful news collaboration. Yes, it can work.
2. Me & my (polite) troll — the evolving world of comments:Commenting on stories was originally seen as a way for news sites to engage better with readers. Then came the trolls, driving readers away, and Facebook and Twitter, giving commenters major platforms to speak their mind. Jason Pontin of the MIT Technology Review writes about how one particular polite troll on his site has forced him to rethink comments, and how that world is changing.
3. Pulitzer win highlights decline of family-owned papers: When the family-owned Storm Lake Times in Iowa won a Pulitzer for editorials, it was a win for the little guy. But the victory for the 2,000-subscriber paper was also a grim reminder of how few papers are still owned by a single family. Nice piece by Lukas I. Alpert of the WSJ on the long, slow decline of what was once a journalism staple.

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Matt Carroll is a journalism professor at Northeastern University.