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.
This Week at the Shorenstein Center
The Atlantic’s Vann R. Newkirk II on Race and Media in 2017. Vann R. Newkirk II, staff writer for The Atlantic, discussed Charlottesville, Jemele Hill’s remarks about President Trump, and the media’s shortcomings in its coverage of racial issues, among other topics, during a visit to the Shorenstein Center.
News from Fellows
Rap star LL Cool J, Democratic strategist Donna Brazile to be honored with Du Bois medal at Harvard. Congratulations to Donna Brazile, current Joan Shorenstein Fellow, who will receive the W.E.B. Du Bois Medal at the Hutchins Center Honors event in October. The award honors individuals who have made significant contributions to African and African American history and culture.
Too close for comfort: How social media changed how we talk to (and about) each other in America. Garance Franke-Ruta, fall 2006 fellow, writes that technological changes have “decreased perceived freedom of speech at the same time that they have magnified once marginal positions to create a novel public speech environment that can seem at once stiflingly conformist and shockingly extreme.”
How to Fight ‘Fake News’ (Warning: It Isn’t Easy). Kathleen Hall Jamieson, current Joan Shorenstein Fellow, says “If you have to repeat a lie, it’s best to limit the description of it,” in a New York Times article about one of her recent studies.
Honey, I Shrunk the Oval Office: Donald Trump’s not-so-imperial presidency. Zachary Karabell, fall 1997 fellow, writes: “The theoretical powers of the presidency may be vast, but the actual powers now appear to be far more constrained than they appeared. The question now is whether that is simply due to the ineptitude of the Trump administration or because the presidency was never quite as powerful as it appeared.”
NBC News Will Launch Coverage of Media Industry. John Huey, spring 2013 fellow, will contribute to digital and broadcast for the network’s new show.
Tech and Politics
- DC eyes tighter regulations on Facebook and Google as concern grows, from The Guardian.
- The rush — and risks — to regulating online political ads, from Axios.
- Facebook Knows More About Russia’s Election Meddling. Shouldn’t We? From The New York Times.
- Trump Is Using Targeted Facebook Ads To Reassure Supporters He Will Build The Border Wall, from BuzzFeed News.
- The Political Awakening of Silicon Valley: What happens when tech leaders, like Y Combinator’s Sam Altman, believe our system is broken? They treat it like a startup. From The California Sunday Magazine.
Conservative Media
GOP governors launch ‘news’ site critics call propaganda, from the Associated Press.
Media Diversity
- The fight over Jemele Hill’s tweets won’t go away. It’s about truth and race in the Trump era. From The Washington Post.
- Women dominate journalism schools, but newsrooms are still a different story, from Poynter.
Racism and Social Media
- Facebook Enabled Advertisers to Reach ‘Jew Haters,’ from ProPublica.
- Facebook to tighten ad targeting after antisemitic ‘fail’, says Sheryl Sandberg, from The Guardian.
- Google Allowed Advertisers To Target People Searching Racist Phrases, from BuzzFeed News.
- Twitter Says It Fixed ‘Bug’ That Let Marketers Target People Who Use the N-Word, from The Daily Beast.
- Blame the Minder, Not the Machine: Facebook’s ad network lent itself to abuse by Russian hackers and racists. The problem has nothing to do with algorithms. From Slate.
Public Records and FOIA
- This search engine makes finding public records less painful, from Poynter.
- Governments turn tables by suing public records requesters, from the Associated Press.
- Request denied: States try to block access to public records, from the Associated Press.
- Lawmakers say they value open government. But not for themselves. From Columbia Journalism Review.
Local News
- Report for America aims to get 1,000 journalists in local newsrooms in next 5 years, from Poynter.
- To Philly and beyond: The Lenfest Institute announces $2 million in funding for local news projects, from Nieman Lab.
Media Business
- How Amazon is becoming the third force in advertising, making the duopoly an oligopoly, from The Drum.
- Amazon Is Hungry and It’s Coming for Your Cable Channels, from NBC News.
- Facebook gives, but continues to take more from publishers, from Digiday.
- Publishers continue to see monetization problems with Apple News, from Digiday.
- FCC Seeks More Evidence For Sinclair-Tribune Deal Claims, from Multichannel News.
International
- Fake news probably won’t affect the outcome of Germany’s election. Here’s why. From Poynter.
- Media in the Middle East: A new study shows how the Arab world gets and shares digital news, from Nieman Lab.
- Facebook Faces a New World as Officials Rein In a Wild Web, from The New York Times.
