Our weekly roundup of news found at the intersection of media, politics, policy and technology, from the Shorenstein Center and from around the web.
This Week at the Shorenstein Center
How Trump Owns the Media. Nicco Mele, Shorenstein Center director and Marvin Kalb, founding director of the Center, analyze the numerous factors that led to Trump’s domination of the news and the current political climate — from changes in technology, to failing news business models, to a disconnect between reporters and everyday Americans — and urgently call on the media to change its course in the face of a “looming threat to American democracy.” Read more in USA Today.
How the Media’s Coverage of Political Polarization Affects Voter Attitudes, from Journalist’s Resource.
John Oliver’s segment on the plight of the local newspaper industry received a lot of attention this week. Shorenstein Center fellows have also recently focused on the problem, as well as possible solutions. Read Stickier News: What Newspapers Don’t Know about Web Traffic Has Hurt Them Badly – But There is a Better Way, by Matthew Hindman, and The Bezos Effect: How Amazon’s Founder Is Reinventing The Washington Post – and What Lessons It Might Hold for the Beleaguered Newspaper Business, by Dan Kennedy.
Olympics and Their Economic Impact: Updated Research Roundup, from Journalist’s Resource.
News from Our Fellows
Why the Danger of a Trump Presidency Presents the Media with an Unprecedented Challenge. Dan Kennedy, spring 2016 fellow and associate professor of journalism at Northeastern University argues that while major newspapers have appropriately scrutinized Trump, radio and TV news “have too often gotten caught up in the trap of covering this like a normal campaign.”
From around the Web
Balance, Fairness and a Proudly Provocative Presidential Candidate, from The New York Times.
Why The New York Times Assigned a Foreign Correspondent to Cover the U.S. Elections, from Nieman Lab.
The “I-Team” Is Back — and It Might Help Save Local TV News, from The Washington Post.
The Washington Post Will Use Robots to Write Stories about the Rio Olympics and the November Election, from Recode.
These Are Some of the Coolest Experiments in Digital News Coverage of the 2016 Rio Olympics, from Nieman Lab.
How CNN Juggles Different Mobile Chat Apps to Cover the Olympics, from Digiday.
Inside The Guardian‘s Data Visualization Play for Rio, from Digiday.
Covering the Big Story: How the Financial Times Handled the Brexit Vote, from MediaShift.
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