Coincidentally, this is in line with a technique advocated by Milijana Rogač, a Serbian fact-checker, in a recent piece for Poynter. “Spin-checking,” she said, is just as important as fact-checking. “It means that we go beyond whether an individual fact is true or not, so that our reporting highlights patterns in public deception, deconstructs propaganda, points out emotionally charged language, and offers a more robust look at political manipulation techniques.”
NEWS IN FOCUS
Headlines, resources and events aligned with API's four areas of focus
Civic Discourse & Democracy
+ Colorado Sun politics reporter kicked out of GOP state assembly (Colorado Sun)
Sandra Fish, a reporter for the nonprofit Colorado Sun, was kicked out of a Republican party meeting Saturday. The state GOP chairman, Dave Williams, a congressional candidate who believes Donald Trump won the 2020 election, said Fish was a “fake journalist.” Sun editor Larry Ryckman called it “a sad day when politicians get to decide who can and cannot report for the American people,” adding that the situation was reminiscent of his days as a correspondent in the Soviet Union.
+ Join us:Developing products for voters and local audiences. Table Stakes alumni are invited to attend a set of virtual lightning talks with three news organizations that created products to help their audiences make more informed decisions in local elections. Journalists from LAist, Enlace Latino NC and Spotlight PA will share what they’ve learned and how they’ve navigated 2024 so far. Learn more and register for this event to be held on Thursday, April 18 at 1 p.m. Eastern.
+ Also coming up: Frameworks to focus your election coverage. How can newsrooms best deploy their resources in covering elections including local races for mayor, city council, school boards and others that affect people deeply and daily? This discussion and Q&A on Thursday, April 25 at 1 p.m. Eastern will be the second in our series of webinars with the Associated Press. Register to participate.
Culture & Inclusion
+ Media misogynoir: Analyzing the treatment of Black women in modern media (Forbes)
Sports commentator Emmanuel Acho drew public ire for recent comments about Louisiana State University basketball player Angel Reese that many saw as biased. People working in the media should be educated on how to avoid the “angry Black woman” trope and “adultification bias,” writes Janice Gassam Asare. “Black women are not often given the space and the grace to be vulnerable about their trials, tribulations, and traumas,” she says.
+ Join Us: We’re hosting a demo of our Source Matters tool
API’s Source Matters tool can help your newsroom better reflect the communities you serve by tracking source diversity. It is now available for local and community organizations of all types and sizes. Join us for a demo tomorrow at noon Eastern, or on May 9.
Community Engagement & Trust
+ ‘Pink slime’ sites masquerade as real news. There are 65 in Pennsylvania alone. (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
Alfred Lubrano details the extent of “pink slime” news sites in Pennsylvania and spells out for readers how they can discern these operations from legitimate news organizations. It’s hard to tell how much traction they’re getting, but they are nonetheless “polluting the local information space,” Andrea Wenzel, an expert and Temple University professor of journalism, tells Lubrano. “It’s damaging.”
+ Forget a ban — Why are journalists using TikTok in the first place? (The Intercept)
Security researcher Nikita Mazurov points to a Forbes investigation finding that TikTok surveilled reporters in arguing that journalists should avoid using the app. Mazurov suggests that reporters who may need to access TikTok videos for journalistic purposes use a burner phone.
+ Trust Tip: Use video to explain ballot initiatives and candidate viewpoints (Trusting News)
For a few years now, the ABC10 team in Sacramento has been producing and sharing explainers of ballot propositions, airing the videos on TV and posting them to YouTube to make them accessible and easy to share on social, in newsletters and elsewhere. The videos are effective for a number of reasons, explains Lynn Walsh. A big one: They are short and concise.
Revenue & Resilience
+ How tech giants cut corners to harvest data for A.I. (The New York Times)
Online content — including news stories, fictional works, podcasts and other works — has “increasingly become the lifeblood of the booming A.I. industry,” a team of New York Times reporters concluded in an examination of how the tech companies obtain digital data to fuel their artificial intelligence models. Among the findings: The companies are so desperate for new data that some are developing what The Times called “synthetic” information.
Related: AP report: Generative AI in journalism: The evolution of newswork and ethics in a generative information ecosystem (AP)
+ At nonprofit newsrooms, is good journalism but sparse audiences a recipe for irrelevance? (Poynter)
The great hope of nonprofit journalism comes with a hitch, argues Rick Edmonds. Too many startups don’t emphasize marketing enough, meaning too few readers see their work. Edmonds spoke with several experts in the field and walked through strategies like newsletters, content variety and the right mix of metrics outlets can use to grow their audiences.
