What We’ve Been Reading and Sharing Oct. 1–15
Each day Sourcefabric shares on social media a wide range of stories affecting the converging worlds of journalism and technology. If you haven’t had the opportunity, be sure to follow us on Twitter (@Sourcefabric), Facebook (Sourcefabric), YouTube (Sourcefabric), Instagram (@sourcefabric_org), LinkedIn (sourcefabric) and, of course, here on Medium.
With so many new developments and changes taking place in the industry, we want to help you keep track with a bi-weekly roundup of the most popular stories we are reading and sharing with the community.
Sourcefabric News:
We are happy to announce that @Agenzia_Ansa has started production with Superdesk. The top Italian news agency and one of the top-ranking news agencies in the world, ANSA continues to be a media pioneer with its choice of our open-source, headless CMS. http://bit.ly/2nyi0Y5
Air October — Want to start an internet radio station? Now is the time! Take advantage of our special October discount and have your internet station up and running in no time — Get 30% off all our Airtime Pro annual plans. http://bit.ly/2OsjxKo
Friday October 4 was #WorldCollegeRadioDay. To help celebrate, we are offering an additional 15% off our already reduced educational rates on @AirtimePro our internet radio streaming software — until the end of October! http://bit.ly/2oREhjM @collegeradioday
See what’s new with Live Blog: Sporting event coverage has never looked better with our new custom posts. http://bit.ly/33kv2b8
Our latest interview is with @Columbia journalism professor Thomas Kent: “Robots in the newsroom: The good, the bad and the (un)ethical” http://bit.ly/2MApRNw
Subscriptions, Membership, Metrics
A new report out from @lenfestinst notes a significant shift from advertising-based models to digital subscriptions, and looks at how publishers can use data, best practices, and test-and-learn tactics to build better paywalls. http://bit.ly/2oQmIRJ
Publishers are getting better at harvesting rich behavioural, subscriber and social data. How they leverage that first-party data to drive engagement, conversions and better ad targeting could be the key to the future. http://bit.ly/35iDSrk by @faisalkalim via @WNIP
Understanding metrics can help journalists and news organizations operate their businesses better. @mskibinski answers questions like, “Is it better for my article to get lots of page views or for it to attract digital subscribers?” http://bit.ly/2p3vb3y via @lenfestinstitute
Open Source, Tech, Tools
Python is a popular programming language used in a wide variety of journalism-related practices, from data cleaning and data analysis to web scraping. Here’s how to set up this open-source tool on your computer and get started. http://bit.ly/35wdUkh by @JE_Gordon via @rji
Blogging is 25 years old! Despite being overshadowed as social media exploded, the blogosphere continues to be one of our greatest news resources. http://bit.ly/2q7Sx8M
Newsrooms around the world make extensive use of Google’s G-Suite, which is not end-to-end encrypted, to get their work done. But what data is potentially exposed when using @gsuite and who can see it?http://bit.ly/2MpnWuY by @mshelton via @FreedomofPress
Need to find an expert at the last minute? SciLine is a free, philanthropically supported resource for journalists searching for the best science and technology experts to source their stories. @RealSciLine @aaas http://bit.ly/2MpLnnU
Journalists should take their own digital security more seriously, and a good place to start is by doxxing themselves. http://bit.ly/2oST9i1 by @emmacarew via @source
Newsroom Collaboration
News industry collaborations between rival newsrooms are more important than ever. @dawnmcmullan looks at three recent projects that show the potential of what we can do when we work together. http://bit.ly/30OPVcx
“In working together, we can do more powerful journalism, reach wider audiences and have more impact.” ProPublica thrives on collaborative data journalism, and they’ve recently published a how-to guide so your newsroom can, too. https://buff.ly/2n069Sq
Politics
Singapore’s ‘fake news’ law goes into effect today. Media platforms that violate the law could face hefty fines, while individuals who the government believes have maliciously spread false information could face up to 10 years in jail. https://reut.rs/2pyBQ69
Excellent @nytimes piece on the Philippines and the brave reporting that @mariaressa’s @rapplerdotcom is doing to investigate President Duterte’s war on drugs and extrajudicial killing campaigns. https://nyti.ms/2MG7HtC
Trust and Transparency in Journalism
Oct. 18 is the last day for public comment on the #JournalismTrustInitiative launched by @RSF_inter, @EBU_HQ, @GENinnovate and @AFP. JTI is an effort to self-regulate and establish transparency standards for media outlets, advertisers and readers. http://bit.ly/35BUECg
A recent @CJR study finds that citizens who have developed an understanding of how news is constructed and how mainstream media operate are better able to detect disinformation and untruths online. http://bit.ly/2pgyg0s
Big Media and Super Platforms
Instead of thinking about platform companies as the next generation of newspapers, radio stations, or TV channels, we should see them as entirely new entities that shapeshift constantly but are at heart advertising firms. says @ananny via @NiemanLab http://bit.ly/2VwYJmk
Facebook will be subject to tougher controls over online content after the EU’s highest court ruled the social media company can be ordered by member states to remove defamatory material worldwide. http://bit.ly/30TT3nq via @guardian @EUCourtPress
Podcasting
Need a home for your podcasts? @iTechPost writes that our Airtime Pro online radio platform is the perfect solution for getting your podcasts out to the widest audience possible. http://bit.ly/2IwLE7o
Podcasting as extreme narrative: The literary journalism movement unleashed by Capote, Didion, Mailer and Wolfe in the 1960s is reinventing itself online in a remarkably powerful way. http://bit.ly/33jvdDc by @mchughsiobhan via @niemanstory
