3 to read: What if social doesn’t like news? | Making long-form work | Verifying, as a community

By Matt Carroll <@MattatMIT>

July 14, 2015: A trio of stories, videos, and data viz compiled once a week about the news media. Get notified via email? Email 3toread (at) gmail.com.

1. What if social doesn’t “like” news?: Media professionals are arguing about how newsrooms should interact with social platforms, with some urging news organizations to “build bridges” to Facebook. But Mathew Ingram of Fortune responds: What if FB isn’t interested in bridges? What if they don’t care about news and are only interested in building value for their shareholders? A riveting, important discussion that will not be resolved soon, folks.
2. How to make long-form work: Conventional wisdom states that long-form doesn’t work well on the Web. So how did Bloomberg’s staggeringly massive (38,000 words) piece “What is code?” became the site’s biggest hit ever? (Spoiler alert: Crossover communities, beautiful writing, wonderful interactivity.) An interesting take on how to do long form well.
3. Verifying the news — as a community: Verification as an issue has exploded with the proliferation of user-generated content. Josh Stearns, a member of the First Draft coalition, an organization formed around verification, argues that news organizations should train their communities about verification and eyewitness media.

Bonus: 13 cool new news hacks to help your newsroom: The Data Science Hackathon, held at the Washington Post this past weekend. See what cool tools 100 journalists, technologists and students can make over two days.

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Matt Carroll runs the Future of News initiative at the MIT Media Lab.