Category: Cnn

May 16, 2014 media notes: Abramson's firing, part 2; CNN plagiarism episode; Myanmar press freedom short-lived

5/16/2014

For Friday, May 16, 2014, some media stories of note:

Ken Auletta weighs in with a second piece in today's newyorker.com on the firing of Jill Abramson as executive editor at The New York Times. He reports extensively on her management style, on her effort to be compensated better, and on her attempt to recruit a top digital leader without fully informing Dean Baquet, who has now succeeded her. Auletta concludes that the Times is not served well by the way she was dismissed.
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The Times has had its plagiarism scandal with Jayson Blair. Now CNN has one with a news editor, Marie-Louise Gumuchian, a London bureau employee who has been dismissed after the organization determined there had been at least 50 stories and 128 examples of plagiarized work, principally from her former employer, Reuters. As it turned out, another copy editor found a passage in a story last week to be unusual, ran a Google search on the phrase, and found it elsewhere. From there, the investigation began, Erik Wemple of the Washington Post reports.
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The scrapping of censorship in Myanmar isn't enduring. The government has started again its crackdown on journalists, including lawsuits and jailing, after it perceived press freedom was going too far. Reuters' Paul Mooney reports on the situation.

April 23, 2014 media notes: Aereo and the Supreme Court; click-bait's imminent demise; data-driven journalism arrives

4/23/2014

For Wednesday, April 23, 2014, here are some media stories of note:

When the very future of television is deemed at stake, it pays to pay attention to a court case. The U.S. Supreme Court has heard the arguments involving Aereo, the service that uses tiny antennas to capture over-the-air programming, record it and stream it on the Internet. Aereo argues its service is little different than a consumer's right to use rabbit ear-style receivers to watch TV. Broadcasters, who aren't compensated by Aereo, believe their business model would be ruined unless they can ruin Aereo's. The justices expressed some skepticism about the service but also focused on the implications for cloud-based services if Aereo is sidelined, in that such services as Dropbox might face challenges. Several strong stories from the Washington Post, CNN Money and The New York Times, among others, captured the seriousness of the case, which will be settled this summer when the court rules.
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Casey Newton, writing for The Verge, examines the phenomenon of click-bait content discovery, those links that tantalize the reader to head over to related content. Newton writes that the rise of such links has propelled many firms to profitability, but that the technique is going to run its course.
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The Guardian is no shrinking violet when it comes to explanatory journalism, but James Ball writes for its Comment is Free blog that perhaps we're being overrun with data-driven journalism sites like Vox, FiveThirtyEight and The Upshot, all of which have launched in the last month. Ball says it isn't clear who is the audience and what is the point. He suggests that data alone won't illuminate.

January 30, 2014 media notes: Facebook Paper released, China expels NYT reporter, FOX most and least trusted media

1/30/2014

Here are some media notes for Thursday, January 30, 2014:

Facebook's new story curation application for the iPhone is called Paper. It pulls in stories, photos and other content and delivers it in a photo-emphasized format, somewhat like the popular Flipboard app. The company has created partnerships with several journalism firms for content and will soon hire editors to curate particular categories. Lance Ulanoff of Mashable notes that, even though Paper is a content application, Facebook does not want to be known as a media company. Josh Constine from TechCrunch says the app permits Facebook to act a little more like a startup than a legacy firm. The Daily Mail thinks paper will cannabalize Facebook itself, while The Verge says at the very least the Facebook app has been bested by the company.

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The United States has expressed deep concern about press freedom in China after the country forced a New York Times reporter to leave. Reporter Austin Ramzay indicated he has been asked to leave the country. White House spokesman Jay Carney said the move is inconsistent with principles of press freedom and incongruent with American treatment of Chinese journalists.

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The results are in, and FOX News is the most trusted media source in America. And the least trusted. The Public Policy Polling firm found that 35% of Americans trusted FOX News more than any other source and 33% said it was the least trusted source. Among Republicans, FOX polled a 69-per-cent approval. Among Democrats, PBS had a slight edge (21%) over CNN and ABC (18% each). Overall, though, of the eight sources studied, only one was consistently trusted among Republicans and Democrats: PBS, with a 57-per-cent trust level.

January 29, 2014 media notes: Al Jazeera journalists on trial, local TV news ratings up, Twitter-CNN-Dataminr deal

1/29/2014

Here are some media stories of note for January 29, 2014:

It has gotten quite serious for the 20 Al Jazeera journalists, including four foreigners, under arrest in Egypt. They have been referred to trial on charges of joining or assisting a terrorist group or for spreading false news that endangers national security. British media have joined forces today to call for their release, while other media worldwide have denounced the detentions.

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It is not exactly a full rebound, but the slumping ratings for local television news in the U.S. appear to have stabilized and inched up again. New data from Pew Center's FactTank suggest morning ratings are up six per cent, early evening ratings are up three per cent, and late-night ratings are up one per cent. Considering the previous trend lines, these are hopeful signs for the format. The reasons aren't clear, although there were several large local stories at the time the ratings were taken.

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Twitter is a wonderful platform, but wading through Tweets for the substance of news is often a tricky task for newsrooms. Twitter, CNN and Dataminr announced today a partnership that will deliver alerts into newsrooms (the rollout to news agencies starts later this year) that will essentially not disrupt workflow. An algorithm will identify and deliver the content. Twitter's head of news, Vivian Schiller, says the new tool will "help surface relevant content" more quickly and lead to a better news experience.

January 8, 2015 media notes: NYT redesigns, Washington Post reader rep resigns, Taiwan and India and media challenges

1/8/2014

Here are some media stories of note for Wednesday, January 8, 2014:

When The New York Times in any way touches journalism, the rest of the world takes note, tries to take hold, and on some occasions takes umbrage. Its significant online redesign unfurled Wednesday demonstrates a more reader-friendly and advertiser-friendly format, particularly if you're a tablet or smartphone consumer. Page breaks on articles are finished.

Mashable reviews the approach, former Times writer Brian Stelter looks at it for CNN Money, and Times public editor Margaret Sullivan notes that tweaks might follow as users weigh in.

Along for the ride in no small way is the Times' entry into native advertising, the sleeper of the package of reforms. Lucia Moses has a look at it for AdWeek.

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Less than a year ago, the Washington Post eliminated the role of the ombudsman and replaced it with a far tamer reader representative role. Now that role is in question, says Media Matters, following the early departure of Doug Feaver, a former editor at the paper who has left for personal reasons.

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It is an election year in the world's largest democracy, but the Committee to Protect Journalists isn't convinced that India is committed to journalistic independence. Another large, fledgling democracy in Taiwan is also striving for independence, reports Deutsche Weille.

media notes 22.04.13

4/22/2013

Some media stories of note for Monday, April 22, 2013:

There is a thread of commentary in recent days about the intersection of social media with last week's events in Massachusetts.

Ali Velshi, the recently departed CNN anchor for Al Jazeera, writes about the pain that comes with making a mistake in this environment of merciless social media criticism. His former employer was often criticized last week for its hasty coverage, and as David Carr notes in his latest Media Equation column, the impact left some nasty marks. Velshi notes the pressure to be first, or at least not to be last, but also that reporters understand the importance of being correct. CBC anchor Peter Mansbridge notes the same in his recent column, but stresses the need for accuracy over speed.

Andy Carvin, the National Public Radio journalist who has been at the forefront of using social media, reflects on the value of the new platforms in a speech to the International Symposium for Online Journalism. He calls on journalists to use social media in a different way, in particular to slow down in their breathlessness about reporting and to be transparent with the audience about what is known and not.

Felix Salmon's latest blog for Reuters examines the phenomenon last week of how mainstream media integrated social media's coverage of the Boston Marathon bombings and the manhunt. Salmon notes the indiscretion of many mainstream outlets in reporting whatever information appeared to surface without verification. He worries the social media tail is wagging the mainstream dog. Media transparency is good, he notes, but: "Just because your readers can peer behind the curtain, doesn't mean you have any responsibility to yank it open yourself."

Some random notes from Monday

6/21/2010

Without any really large story online --- yet --- there are several headlines worth discussing:

1. Facebook is going to launch location-based service soon. Loopt is also going to upgrade its location-based offerings to permit multitasking and location updating.The implications are significant for news organizations aiming to use Facebook for crowdsourcing and storytelling.
2. Apple has issued its new operating system for the iPhone, tailored for the iPhone4 but still applicable to iPhone3.
3. Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post and CNN writes on how non-profit organizations are filling some of the gaps left when newsrooms de-emphasize investigative work.
4. The New York Times announced former editor and publisher Arthur Brisbane as its new public editor. He succeeds Clark Hoyt. The implications of his appointment: As goes the Times in identifying standards for the craft, so can go the craft.

The CNN wire service decision coming within weeks

12/8/2008

Earlier this month CNN invited about three dozen print editors to Atlanta to discuss the viability of a new news service that would be a lower-cost version of Associated Press. About 100 U.S. newspapers have served the required two-year notice to leave AP, principally because of rates.
The results of the Atlanta gathering were seemingly mixed. A number of smaller papers appear interested, but the larger markets don't appear publicly convinced ---- although it should be noted they haven't seen a service yet and also know the economics of their business are so challenged that dropping AP may be a necessity in years to come.
The San Francisco Chronicle has an update on the CNN option. CNN is saying a decision on whether to proceed will be made within weeks, not months.

CNN and its wire service to rival AP

11/30/2008

In truth, few can offer the breadth of service of Associated Press. In truth, few need it.
The dispute at the moment involving about 100 newspapers and AP focuses on rates, on tiers of service and how they're defined, on ownership of content and how it can be shared, and on a general upset among papers that in their darkest moments AP isn't bending sufficiently to help them weather what looks like a protracted storm.
In a few isolated cases --- by no means common in the industry --- some papers are beginning to form regional alliances to share copy and serve notice they'll live without AP some time in the future (AP requires a two-year severance notice, so the revenue will keep arriving until 2010).
But CNN has sensed an opening and stepped in with an offer to provide a text service to complement the extensive audio/video elements it now sells to television, radio and online media. It has invited papers to come see the proposed expansion this week in Atlanta, and the New York Times provides an overview.

CNN as the new wire service

11/15/2008

Ken Doctor has a very thorough look at the issues involving CNN's proposal to enter the wire-service business as a supplier to newspapers of multi-platform content. Last month CNN indicated it has assembled the machinery to provide national and international content to papers in competition with Associated Press, the standard-bearer under some stress for its rate structure from its cash-strapped member news organizations.
He evaluates the pitch CNN will make in a couple of weeks to the papers (it has invited reps to Atlanta for an unveiling) and poses nine good, if circuitous, questions about the strategic and tactical challenges in the plan.

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