Friday Reading S03E25

Friday Reading is a weekly series of recommended reads from journalist and designer Martin Belam covering journalism, media and technology.

“At his final press conference before the fight [his first world title shot against Sonny Liston, Muhammad Ali] told the writers, “It’s your last chance to get on the bandwagon. I’m keeping a list of all you people. After the fight is done, we’re going to have a roll call up there in the ring. . . . I’m going to have a ceremony and a lot of eating is going on — eating of words.”

“When Ali was still Clay, the old white sportswriters didn’t know what to think” — Sally Jenkins

The BBC’s Ros Atkins and Mark Frankel talking about how they have been and are planning to use Facebook live video

Behind the scenes in Buzzfeed’s London news office.

“Rather, on social media, there’s a culture emerging among journalists of derision for their own audiences. Journalists often shy away from holding themselves and each other to account, but they can’t be above accountability when they play such a vital role in shaping the political narrative of the day. In Scotland, a big problem remains in the relationship between journalists and their audiences, and audiences are right to be angry at the way they’re so flippantly labelled.”

Leaving aside the specific Scottish dimension that Angela Haggerty brings up here, she asks a valid question. When voters tune in to social media, what do they see more often — journalists talking up or talking down their audience?

The Guardian launched an experimental little chatbot sous-chef on Facebook Messenger.

My 6 year old was relentlessly polite to it.

“It took me nine months to realise it, but the only useful thing about Apple’s £479 smartwatch was the weather notifications”

Alex Hern on fine from about taking off his Apple watch for the last time.

A peek behind the scenes of CSS at scale at BBC Sport.

Difficult to read but essential. Should be put on the school curriculum.

“Here Is The Powerful Letter The Stanford Victim Read Aloud To Her Attacker”

As the Euro’s get underway tonight, they will be under the shadow of the attacks in Paris and Brussels over the previous few months. This, from Dominic Fifield on the forgotten victims of Saint-Denis is a powerful piece.

This is really great from Alberto Nardelli, looking at how the history of the European Championship reflects the history of our continent over the last sixty years. The first final — Soviet Union against Yugoslavia — is a game between two teams that now represent 22 different countries.

If you have ever tweeted about the “Tory Elections Expenses Scandal” then please read this by David Allen Green who has — SHOCK! HORROR! — taken the time to actually read electoral law instead of just photoshopping up some memes saying the election was stolen because of one misplaced £21.37p receipt for some cup-cakes.

“The law and politics of the Conservative election expense allegations” — David Allen Green

Stats god John Burn-Murdoch on the problem with the #Brexit polling industry.

Personally, I expect a narrow #Brexit vote. I think the main political parties are out of touch with how angry people are about things. Those things might not actually be the direct consequence of EU membership, but nevertheless the referendum is a chance to stick two fingers up about everything.

Peter Kellner is here trying to reassure us that there is always a late swing towards the status quo which favours #Remain.

And then there is this: “It’s a vote I didn’t want called by a Prime Minister I don’t rate about a supranational structure I don’t care enough to be that bothered about.”

“[I] also feel pity for them because they’re so bad at anti-Semitism. I recognize high-quality, handcrafted Jew-hatred when I see it, and the far-right, which has lately been gaining attention for supporting Donald Trump’s candidacy for president, is so over-the-top obvious in its deployment of anti-Semitic memes; so uncreative in the manufacturing of Judeophobic tropes ; so bad at Photoshop; and so awful at spelling, that I find them as pathetic as I find them offensive.”

“A Brief Introduction to Pro-Holocaust Twitter” — Jeffrey Goldberg

[Bonus points awarded for getting “cucks,” “cocks,” and “faggots” into the opening pars here]

While I enjoyed this very much as a long read, I must confess I find the fetishisation around the “return” of vinyl tedious in the extreme. “The return of analogue — how vinyl went mainstream” is a lovely piece by Caroline Christie on the intricate process of bringing music to life in a purely analogue process.

But two things:

1) I always argued this when I worked in record shops — you might have a rare beautifully remastered audiophile pressing of a shit Chris Rea album, but you are still listening to a shit Chris Rea album.

2) The article finishes with a Spotify playlist. Convenience and immediacy trumps precision in audio playback every single time.

If you think I’m grumpy about vinyl nostalgia, wait until you get me started on cassette nostalgia. I’m threatening to start a tape-only DJ night which will attract a group of earnest hipsters who have their evening ruined as the gradually realise I only have one moth-eaten old C90 with Duran Duran recorded on it.

“Historically, whenever young women are interested in a form of media, we like to tell them it is bad for them and that they are bad for liking it — unless the media goes mainstream, in which case it becomes no longer feminine and hence okay. Novels are dangerous and cause insanity, until they become classics worthy of being studied in college. Beatlemania is the province of ‘the dull, the idle, the failures,’ until the Beatles become a band that everyone loves.”

“Why we’re terrified of fanfiction” — Constance Grady

I find these stories fascinating, particularly what happens to the original author online when they catch someone passing off their work.

“Some books are copied word-for-word while others are tinkered with just enough to make it tough for an automated plagiarism-checker to flag them. The offending books often stay up for weeks or even months at a time before they’re detected, usually by an astute reader. For the authors, this intrusion goes beyond threatening their livelihood. Writing a novel is a form of creative expression, and having it stolen by someone else, many say, can feel like a personal violation.”

“Stealing Books in the Age of Self-Publishing” — Joy Lanzendorfer

“Something Big That Always Happens Right Before The Official Start Of A Recession Has Just Happened”

It must be fucking ace writing an entire blog devoted to impending financial collapse. I mean, eventually, almost by default, it will look like you knew what you were talking about all along :-)

I very much enjoyed Simon Schama on “Hamilton”

Sure.

Friday Reading is a weekly series of recommended reads from journalist and designer Martin Belam, covering journalism, media and technology. And frequently Doctor Who. And 80’s music. And anything else that grabbed his eye. Martin is Social & New Formats Editor for the Guardian in London.