Our weekly roundup of news found at the intersection of media, politics, policy and technology, from the Shorenstein Center and from around the web. Sign up to receive Media and Politics Must Reads in your inbox each week. Also connect with us on Twitter and Facebook for more updates.
News from Fellows
Ban the term ‘fake news.’ Claire Wardle, research fellow, and Hossein Derakhshan write that the term “fake news” is “self-defeating,” and “oversimplifies a very complex problem.” Wardle was recently interviewed on CNN’s Reliable Sources.
Welcome to your local library, which also happens to be a newsroom. David Beard, research fellow, profiles a C-SPAN-like news outlet based out of a library in San Antonio.
The Tech Giants Must Be Reined In. Diane Francis, fall 2005 fellow, argues that Silicon Valley has “usurped the role of traditional news media, without assuming any accompanying social responsibilities.”
News Media Performance
- The problem with the New York Times’ chummy profile of a Nazi sympathizer, from Quartz.
- How to write about Nazis, from Poynter.
- A botched sting with a phony Roy Moore ‘accuser’ was supposed to discredit the media. Like similar schemes, it did the opposite. From The Washington Post.
- The mainstream media didn’t care about Puerto Rico until it became a Trump story, from The Washington Post.
Workplace Harassment
- A Failure of the Network News Star System, from The New York Times.
- When Women Stand Up Against Harassers in the Newsroom, from Nieman Reports.
Democracy, Discourse and Technology
- Macro-Resistance: How to Detox a Polluted Public Sphere, from MediaShift.
- Supreme court cellphone case puts free speech – not just privacy – at risk, from The Guardian.
- FCC explains why public support for net neutrality won’t stop repeal, from Ars Technica.
- Slow down! Here’s how the speed and structure of Twitter have made it harder to think, from Nieman Lab.
- The Origin of Silicon Valley’s Dysfunctional Attitude Toward Hate Speech, from The New Yorker.
Media Business
- Washington feeds uncertainty in a changing media landscape, from Axios.
- Meredith Corp. Buys Time Inc. In Koch-Backed Deal, from NPR.
- Media’s complicated relationship with VC funding, from Columbia Journalism Review.
- How to Survive the Media Apocalypse, from The Atlantic.
- As Amazon’s media ambitions grow, publishers are wary, from Digiday.
