Marty Swant

It's easy to think about AI within the context of a CMS. Of using AI to optimize writing, editing, and SEO workflows. The more exciting choice is putting AI in the hands of reporters early on in the process. Over the weekend we published a deep look at how immigration is being portrayed in political ads this election cycle. It's an absorbing read--with editing and reporting from multiple desks across the newsroom. It's also the debut of one of our AI-powered reporting tools: Haystacker. We carved out a lane in our roadmap for "Ambitious Journalism"--this is what it looks like. https://lnkd.in/eTteMFxY

67

14 Comments

As our world gets more fraught and complex, audiences are increasingly choosing news sources which are more visual, reports are more watched, less read, with YouTube continuing its rise. The implications of this trend for deep understanding of difficult issues is worth pondering. More people are concerned about how to grapple with the rising torrent of fake news, and many having doubts about how AI might be deployed by newsrooms. Edelman has partnered with the Reuters Institute for this annual report as we are all in the business of communicating and good, credible and trusted information is critical to everyone in that process

42

Defending Digital Campaigns Michael Kaiser sheds light on the tactics used by bad actors in election interference, emphasizing their goal could be to sow chaos and apathy rather than influence voting. “They’re trying to divide us at another level,” he said. “For some bad actors, the misinformation and disinformation is not about how you vote. It's just that we're divided.” Learn more in Paige Gross’s article in States Newsroom about combating misinformation and disinformation in the upcoming elections. #Misinformation #Disinformation #Election2024 #ArtificialIntelligence #AI https://lnkd.in/eBypvBP6

2

For today's Wide Shot newsletter, we return to the question of whether streaming is a good business and, more precisely, for whom? We address cable giant John Malone's recent assessment (categorically "no") and take a look at the state of Netflix, Disney, Paramount and others who participated in the streaming war. Who's winning? Who's still losing money? What's the next stage of the streaming business? (Oh, we also get into JOKER 2's box office travesty). #entertainmentbusiness #hollywood #streaming

2

The topic of corrections comes up a lot in comms. There’s some new research on this that is kind of interesting. Here is an excerpt from an article summarizing the findings: “…people generally trust journalists when they confirm claims to be true but are more distrusting when journalists correct false claims. Some linguistics and social science theories suggest that people intuitively understand social expectations not to be negative. Being disagreeable, like when pointing out someone else’s lie or error, carries with it a risk of backlash. We reasoned that it follows that corrections are held to a different, more critical standard than confirmations. Attempts to debunk can trigger doubts about journalists’ honesty and motives. In other words, if you’re providing a correction, you’re being a bit of a spoilsport, and that could negatively affect how you are viewed.” #mediarelations #psychology #sociology #PR

13

The Wall Street Journal editor Paul Beckett’s account in the Columbia Journalism Review of how the Journal mobilized to free Evan Gershkovich after 16th months as a prisoner in Russia is a tour de force and “a free press triumph” and well worth the read. Some excerpts: A phone call to a senior government official who knows this terrain provided the answer: “There are times to be quiet and there are times to be loud—and this is a time to be loud.” “Yet on days like August 1 (when he was freed), the values that underpin democracy and are the foundation of a free press triumph.” “Few countries that are not democracies could point to such care for their ordinary citizens abroad, let alone noncitizens imprisoned for their political beliefs.” “news organizations must continue to assess and calibrate the risks their reporters face when operating in dangerous terrain. Perhaps they need to make more hard-nosed choices on whether it is necessary to deploy in person to countries that target journalists or whether that terrain can effectively be covered from outside, given advances in technology and communications.” “And they could ensure that press freedom around the world—an issue so fundamental to their existence that it is often taken for granted—is a subject they cover as if their livelihoods and their liberty depended on it.” https://lnkd.in/etZTVCeB

10

A Bloomberg reporter was fired for breaking an embargo. It’s a nightmare that fuels paranoia whenever someone is working with sensitive information. What if a reporter, despite promising, file a story earlier than planned? I think what’s happened here – a dangerous, very unfortunate action that could have jeopardised an international prisoner exchange – shows us why we don’t have to worry too much. By far the most common reason to give reporters access to information early is so that they have additional time to plan and report a story. We want to make sure they have the ability to put the news in context, hopefully by speaking to someone and adding more context. Time is also a consideration – the ability to release the story at the soonest possible moment. Even though the news hopefully will be covered by others, you desperately, in this world of thousands of sites and accounts, want people to hear it there first. All of this is understandable and, at some level, benefits everyone. What doesn’t is breaking that agreement. I’ve never had a journalist knowingly break an embargo. And a couple of times, something has gone up quicker than expected, it’s usually been because there’s been confusion over a changing embargo time. (Note: don’t do this.) Moreover the vast majority of pieces of news are interesting to a specialist audience. They are noteworthy, yes, but there’s no massive fame and fortune to be made by leaking. On the contrary, the consequences of being iced out of future deals – and potentially even facing legal action are far more dire. Even in the Bloomberg case, there’s been an impassioned response from the reporter in question about how she never, ever would maliciously break a pre-agreed break time. It seems that what happened – while not acceptable – was somewhere in the process of writing and editing. So breathe easy, and let people with trusted relationships have time to review and report on forthcoming stories.

24

1 Comment

Are you following the latest political polls and wondering how much you should trust them? Check out my latest Q&A for Knowable Magazine with survey research expert Jon Krosnick! To answer the question: If the survey is not based on a random sample where everyone in the population has an equal chance of getting selected, it's probably not worth paying much attention to! Read on for more insights. https://lnkd.in/gCQEYj2X

11

For this podcast, the Confident Retirement, there's a twist: I was the one interviewed, not the one asking the questions. (I like it better the other way - but that was fun - thanks for inviting me on, Kristopher Flammang CRPC®AIF®BFA®) Oh - and I'm not retiring :) Some of the things we talked about: * My early journalism career change to being a juvenile probation office for three years; • Why and how the Business Observer has made a transtions to #digitalfirst — and why we keep the focus on that; and • The lessons I've learned from interviewing hundreds of entrepreneurs ands business owners Take a listen!

30

1 Comment

As I approach my third month at The Baltimore Banner, I have been thinking a lot about defining success. A mentor offered the following thoughts: For reporters, it is much easier to define success. Editors often need help seeing that their goals should be quite different than their reporters'. They need to see each of their reporters as individuals with different strengths and weaknesses. So editors need to meet each reporter at a different place and help them improve, and hopefully, thrive. Sometimes that means focusing on reporting or writing skills, sometimes it is helping a reporter figure out how to cover a beat, or how to distinguish their work from the competition. Editors of course are key to guiding coverage, whether it's breaking news or a more conceptual beat, when the goal has to be finding the front edge of the topic (for an education reporter, that might be new trends in teaching and for the city hall reporter it might be who are the emerging power brokers.) When it comes to editing copy, editors have to avoid rewriting stories, which can completely demoralize reporters, but they also can't send along stories that are confusing or take too long to get to the point. It takes awhile for editors to figure out that sweet spot between improving copy but not just rewriting it the way they would have written it. The hardest part of editing is probably dealing with difficult reporters and there is no easy answer for that. The only part of running a newsroom that I could advise on is running the coverage and for me, that was always driven by focusing on the big news of the day. You have to make sure that editors have put enough staffers on the big stories and are looking across the news cycle, e.g. what will we have to publish first thing tomorrow, and make sure some people are trained on the bigger, deeper questions that take a few days to report. If you are clear on your top priorities each day and the newsroom aligns behind those, then the smaller stories will take care of themselves. You will be judged by how the Banner did on the big things, not the small things.

41

1 Comment

A new newsletter that we Media and Journalism Research Center have written for Journalism Funders Forum as part of our great cooperation with Philea - Philanthropy Europe Association. With may thanks to our expert Robert Nemeth. Interviews with media leasers, research on relevant topics, and several articles about funding independent journalism. #journalism #newsmedia #media #funding #research #newsletter

4

Public perceptions of crime don't always match reality, a problem fueled by dodgy campaign rhetoric and (drum roll, please) ... old and incomplete crime data. Unlike readily available data on inflation and unemployment trends, national crime data lag by many months. The consequences? Here's what our Crime Trends Working Group says in its new report outlining a roadmap for progress: “Even small discrepancies can have big consequences in the policy and political environment. The potential fallout can be huge — in terms of crime tactics and strategies, whether the police chief stays on the job or gets fired, even whether the mayor or prosecutor is re-elected or driven from office. At stake are billions in government spending on public safety and criminal justice, the viability of businesses and urban centers, and the extent to which Americans are safe, and feel safe, in their homes and communities.” Tom Jackman of The Washington Post wrote a thoughtful summary of the problem and our group's recommendations this week. https://lnkd.in/gj4yXqje And please see the post below before turning on the TV tonight:

28

2 Comments

DOS Won't Hunt -- Recording Schedule through December   Interested panelists, please contact me directly via email, not just with comments on this post: [email protected]   Note to public relations teams: please only pitch panelists you have CONFIRMED will be available on those dates. This is a video podcast recording. Only the panelists will be in the session. Here are the topics I plan to cover on the podcast in the weeks ahead. All recordings will be on video, panel discussions, at 12 pm ET on the recording dates below.   December 6 – What Enterprise IT Predictions Actually Mattered in 2024? Every year sees prognostications about what tech will take off, evolve, and transform the enterprise world. What expectations did your organization start 2024 with and how has that played out? Did anything hold water? Did surprises in tech emerge during the year eclipse the predictions? Is it better for organizations to not chase predictive trends or does that mean giving up a competitive edge? December 13 – The Cloud You Want vs the Cloud You Need: Are enterprises able to tailor their cloud resources to fit their operational needs? How does that compare with ambitions? Cost? Usage? Are more organizations cloud-first? Are we ever going to see an all, cloud-first world where EVERYTHING exists in the cloud? Does that dream no longer seem real?   December 20 – Cyber Threats and the Holidays: Do retailers still face high levels of cyber risk in a world fraught with ransomware attacks year-round? Do bad actors focus their attention more on targets they strike when an opportunity arises, which might not have anything to do with the holiday shopping season? Or are there still Cyber Grinches out there who are making a concerted effort to strike as transactions fly faster than reindeer? December 27 – Infrastructure Resilience: Y2K 25 Years Later. What have we learned about maintaining our infrastructure, a generation after putting in the work to correct the Y2K bug? How has computer infrastructure been rethought? What “rules” and “norms” that were part of legacy tech no longer apply in the time of cloud, edge, and all else beyond we are exploring?

20

Anodyne memos from management are rarely a good idea, but they're especially risky in a post-pandemic world where employee disgruntlement is soaring. Matthew Boyle takes a critical look at CEO staff memos and social media posts addressing the US election and concludes that those who fell back on platitudes about mission and values have misread the room in multiple ways. #election #workers #CEOs #employees #management

36

1 Comment

I recommend this post by Alexandra Smith on "total journalism reach" -- The 19th's new readership metric. It's full of insights and data wisdom. One takeaway: prioritize consistency across platforms without being overly rigid. For example, #Instagram views get counted because their posts basically republish an abridged version of the story -- an increasingly common publishing strategy -- not just because the machine needs more #data. Above all, this model is attentive to the question of *why* we measure #readership. I've always felt that digital interactions are metaphorical -- as summed up in that now quaint adage: "tweets, not endorsements." What does readership *represent*? Answering that question will help you collect quality, consistent data on #news consumption. And that will bring us closer to the readers we serve. https://lnkd.in/gxn4wmYy

3

A useful handbook for quick reference and a reminder to all journalists covering the #US elections to ensure information integrity. This is worth a look. As in absorb this before #election day #journalists #newsroom #misinformation #disinformation https://lnkd.in/g4heDxVP

4

You might see some promotional publicity in the media for a new book purportedly about public relations from what its publisher claims is a 'top operative.' Consistent with the historic tension between hacks vs. flacks, some journos will jump at the chance to platform someone especially if it provides an opportunity to position lying and manipulation as the essence of PR. Bad boys and 'high stakes' take-the-money firms might steal a few sensational headlines, but they are actually at the fringes and on the bottom of an industry where most practitioners around the world counsel candor and transparency in the public domain for clients with worthy points of view. #publicrelations #PR #ethics #propaganda https://a.co/d/0dP8eAG8 https://lnkd.in/eucAfEDU https://lnkd.in/ek2wk3Pg

13

7 Comments