3 to read: Trapped in a fake news conspiracy | Building a clickbait empire | Easing news burnout
By Matt Carroll <@MattCData>
Feb. 4, 2017: Cool stuff about journalism, once a week. Get notified via email? Subscribe: 3toread (at) gmail.
- Stuck at the center of a fake news conspiracy theory: Doris Truong of the Washington Post took pictures of the notes left by Rex Tillerson at his DC confirmation hearing. Wow, what a horrible person. Oh wait. She didn’t. Too late: Thousands of outraged people slammed her — for something she didn’t do, at an event she didn’t even attend. What it’s like inside the fake news whirlwind.
2. Two interesting pieces from The Backchannel Team: How thousands of college kids are powering a clickbait empire: Odyssey, a story platform you probably never heard of, is paying college kids to grow this rapidly expanding site. The issue: They’re getting paid next to nothing, while the company reaps the benefits. Good piece by Jane Porter. And Facebook Live is the Right Wing’s new Fox News: A fascinating piece about how a new generation of conservative sites are latching on to the rising tide of Facebook Live to reach the growing faithful, much like an older generation used talk radio. By Alexis Sobel Fitts.
3. Designing news for those who are burned out: Feeling a little … overwhelmed by all the news these days? Do your fear another story about Trump will drive you into a quivering, whimpering ball behind the couch? Well, Melody Kramer, writing for Poynter, feels your pain. And she has some interesting thoughts about how media sites can help their readers battle news fatigue.
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Matt Carroll is a journalism professor at Northeastern University.
