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
In Search of Unbiased Reporting in Light of Brexit, Trump and Other Reporting Challenges in the UK and US. A new paper by Helen Boaden, Joan Shorenstein Fellow (spring 2017), and former BBC News and BBC Radio director, compares the BBC’s value of impartiality to the American value of objectivity in journalism, and the pressures placed on both in their respective environments. Boaden explains how although the BBC receives funding from a license fee and is not subject to the commercial pressures that American news outlets face, political pressures can still affect its survival and independence. Beyond money and politics, the nature of the modern news cycle can subvert journalists’ values. Boaden reviews election coverage in the US, touches on the BBC’s coverage during the Brexit referendum, and looks at the challenges arising from the spread of disinformation and fake news.
News from Faculty and Fellows
Young and old are voting very differently in the U.K. and U.S. That’s a big deal. Pippa Norris, Paul F. McGuire Lecturer in Comparative Politics, writes that the “cleavage between younger and older voters seems to have replaced social class, which has been a long-standing cleavage in British politics.”
5 Things The Media Gets Wrong About White Supremacist Hate. Farai Chideya, spring 2017 fellow, explains why white supremacist hate is not rare or fringe – and how the media can do a better job covering it. “Reporters need to become more adept at tracking not just extremist white nationalism, but also when it enters the mainstream,” she says.
Finally, Something Isn’t the Matter With Kansas. Michael Tomasky, spring 2003 fellow, writes that “the most momentous political news of the past week” wasn’t Comey’s testimony, but rather “the Kansas Legislature’s decision to defy the governor and raise income taxes.”
Press Access
- Limits On Press Access In Congress Spark Uproar, from Huffington Post.
- Anxiety of the Capitol Hill Press Mob, from Slate.
UK Election
- How we report elections: time for a new agenda for political journalism after the 2017 shock? From The London School of Economics and Political Science.
- Want to understand the British election? Look online and listen to grime, from The Conversation.
TV
- How TV cultivates authoritarianism – and helped elect Trump, from The Conversation.
- Cable News Wars: Inside the Unprecedented Battle for Viewers in Trump Era, from
- Fox News Is Dropping Its ‘Fair & Balanced’ Slogan, from New York Magazine.
Social Media and Mobile
- Growth in mobile news use driven by older adults, from Pew Research.
- Understanding Snapchat: Media, Politics and the 2016 Election, from Knight Foundation.
- Is Facebook serious about helping publishers find subscribers? Industry leaders are watching carefully, from Poynter.
- The Covfefe Act Has A Silly Name — But It Addresses A Real Quandary, from NPR.
Fake News
- A Pro-Trump Conspiracy Theorist, a False Tweet and a Runaway Story, from The New York Times.
- Our problem isn’t ‘fake news.’ Our problems are trust and manipulation. From Jeff Jarvis.
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