For Wednesday, April 16, 2014, here are some media stories of note:
The Committee to Protect Journalists produces an annual Impunity Index, identifying where journalists are most likely to be killed and killers are most likely to run free. Atop this year's list are Iraq (on top since the Index's inception in 2008), Somalia and the Philippines. The CPJ reports that 96 per cent of victims are local journalists and that four in 10 were threatened before they were killed.
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Twitter is still trying to resolve its dispute with Turkey. For two weeks it was banned in the country, until the courts ruled the ban was unconstitutional. YouTube remains blocked. Twitter appears to have agreed to close certain accounts, but it is not prepared as yet to open an office in Turkey, where it derives about $35 million in advertising revenue annually.
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Chartbeat CEO Tony Haile, writing for the American Journalism Review, has an insightful take on the relationship between newsrooms and online performance metrics. He argues that they're needed, but that organizations have to be careful about which ones they choose and how they are applied. They shouldn't be incentives, but they should be informative. They should be "combinatorial" to ensure two or more metrics act in tandem and to ensure they do not oversimplify the impact of stories. He doesn't necessarily prescribe particular metrics, but believes that the long-term performance of content should be a prime factor.
The Committee to Protect Journalists produces an annual Impunity Index, identifying where journalists are most likely to be killed and killers are most likely to run free. Atop this year's list are Iraq (on top since the Index's inception in 2008), Somalia and the Philippines. The CPJ reports that 96 per cent of victims are local journalists and that four in 10 were threatened before they were killed.
***
Twitter is still trying to resolve its dispute with Turkey. For two weeks it was banned in the country, until the courts ruled the ban was unconstitutional. YouTube remains blocked. Twitter appears to have agreed to close certain accounts, but it is not prepared as yet to open an office in Turkey, where it derives about $35 million in advertising revenue annually.
***
Chartbeat CEO Tony Haile, writing for the American Journalism Review, has an insightful take on the relationship between newsrooms and online performance metrics. He argues that they're needed, but that organizations have to be careful about which ones they choose and how they are applied. They shouldn't be incentives, but they should be informative. They should be "combinatorial" to ensure two or more metrics act in tandem and to ensure they do not oversimplify the impact of stories. He doesn't necessarily prescribe particular metrics, but believes that the long-term performance of content should be a prime factor.
