Can ❤️s change minds? How social media influences public opinion and news circulation

[Nieman Lab: The Daily Digest] Monday, September 11, 2023 [Can ❤️s change minds? How social media influences public opinion and news circulation]( Does seeing that a social post has a ton of likes make you more likely to agree with it? No — except for the heaviest social media users. By Juan S. Morales. [How scientists can help reporters cover disasters]( “Journalists and scientists have a lot in common — we both like to chase, we both like to investigate, and we like to write up what we find, and do it in a clever way, that people leave nourished.” By Dan Falk. What We’re Reading BleepingComputer / Lawrence Abrams [The AP Stylebook got hacked (really) →]( “This week, the Associated Press warned that an old third-party-managed AP Stylebook site that was no longer in use was hacked between July 16 and July 22, 2023, allowing the data for 224 customers to be stolen. The stolen information includes a customer’s name, email address, street address, city, state, zip code, phone number, and User ID. For customers who entered tax-exempt IDs, such as a Social Security Number or Employer Identification Number, those IDs were stolen as well.” The Guardian / Deepa Parent and Katie McQue [“I log into a torture chamber each day”: The strain of moderating social media →]( “Content moderators in Hyderabad say the work has left them emotionally distressed, depressed and struggling to sleep…Harun, 22, was one of eight moderators who agreed to speak to the Guardian on condition of anonymity. Their average pay was less than £8 a day.” The Clayton Crescent / Robin Kemp [R.I.P. The Clayton Crescent →]( “For three years and four months, I have singlehandedly provided high-quality, professional news coverage to, for, and about this community. This began out of necessity because I knew no one else would do it if I didn’t…But I was overworked to the point of endangering my health. It wasn’t unusual that, less than 24 hours out of cancer surgery, I was writing about the Mitzi Bickers verdict from my sickbed. That’s what the job required because we were not properly staffed.” Semafor / Max Tani [It appears Twitter is throttling access to New York Times stories →]( “Since late July, engagement on X posts linking to the New York Times has dropped dramatically. The drop in shares and other engagement on tweets with Times links is abrupt, and is not reflected in links to similar news organizations including CNN, the Washington Post, and the BBC, according to NewsWhip’s data on 300,000 influential users of X.” TechCrunch / Sarah Perez [X, formerly Twitter, caught running unlabeled ads in users’ Following feeds →]( “It’s unclear if the issue is a glitch with X’s advertising platform or a deliberate change intended to deceive consumers into believing some ads are regular posts from accounts they follow.” Poynter / Omar Gallaga [A journalist’s very personal project helps guide family members who’ve lost loved ones to violence →]( “‘I was put in the right place with the right folks,’ Baxley said. ‘The thing with journalism is, unfortunately, we have a mindset of, “We’ve always done things a certain way, so that’s how we should continue to do it.” This is hundreds of years of a practice that is traumatizing to victims’ families. We shouldn’t be doing it this way.'” Twitter / Niala Boodhoo [Axios’ daily podcast will become a weekly podcast →]( “I’ve loved not just our Axios Today team (past and present) but also our deeply loyal listeners who have created our community for the past three and a half years.” The Guardian / Josh Taylor [Bots on X (a.k.a. Twitter) are worse than ever, according to an analysis of 1 million tweets during the first Republican primary debate →]( “Graham and FitzGerald identified more than 1,200 X accounts that were spreading the false and disproven claim that Trump won the 2020 election during the debate and interview, as well as a sprawling bot network of 1,305 accounts. Conspiratorial content spread during the debate attracted more than 3m views.” Press Gazette / Dominic Ponsford [Ten major trends in news consumption publishers need to be thinking about →]( “Part of the problem is that we are optimizing on sites for the super users.” New Statesman / Evgeny Morozov [The lessons of Chile’s struggle against Big Tech →]( “Salvador Allende’s greatest legacy is his attempt to democratize technology.” The Wall Street Journal / Amrith Ramkumar and Keach Hagey [Trump’s Truth Social challenge now is to get a deal done →]( “Digital World Acquisition Corp., the SPAC that has agreed to buy Trump Media, has pushed back its deadline for taking the company public multiple times, as the shell company faced federal investigations into insider trading and premature discussions about the merger that weren’t disclosed to investors.” The New York Times / John Koblin [Jimmy Fallon apologizes to staff after article on workplace environment at The Tonight Show →]( “If I ever mistreated anybody, or made you feel bad, that was not my goal…I want this show to be fun. It should be inclusive for everybody. It should be funny. It should be the best show, the best people. I just wanted to say I miss you guys.” Bloomberg / Joel Rosenblatt [Musk’s X sues to block California anti-hate speech law →]( “Elon Musk’s X Corp. sued California to undo the state’s law aimed at exposing sources of hate speech and disinformation by requiring social media companies to explain how they moderate their content.” AP / Hillel Italie [Amazon to require some authors to disclose the use of AI material →]( “The Authors Guild praised the new regulations, which were posted Wednesday, as a ‘welcome first step’ toward deterring the proliferation of computer-generated books on the online retailer’s site.” Poynter / Amaris Castillo [How a former TV reporter brings his journalism skills to a government-run true crime series →]( “We’re obviously coming at it from the government side.” The Wall Street Journal / David Marcelis and Joe Flint [Disney’s fight marks cable TV’s final stand →]( “The decades-long alliance between programmers and distributors that has been the foundation of the roughly $200 billion TV industry is starting to crumble as each side looks to protect its interests in a media landscape centered on streaming…The entertainment companies are striking a delicate balance. They need to make sure the legacy cable-TV industry survives. It is providing the profits to support their streaming apps, which are seen as the future but are losing billions of dollars a year, collectively.” Nieman Reports / Jim Friedlich [The Press Forward multiplier effect →]( “The launch of Press Forward is both worth celebrating and keeping in perspective. A half-billion dollars for local news sounds like a lot of money, but it is not — at least not relative to the scope of the problem or the powerful forces arrayed against independent journalism.” The Guardian / Jeanne Warren, Theo Stickley, and Owen Fraser [ChatGPT can’t be trusted. The Guardian is right to block its web crawler. →]( “Mixing Guardian content into the training material for ChatGPT would be like putting some healthy food into a poisonous batch of baby food in the hope that it will become safe to eat. The only solution is to get rid of the poison.” The Guardian / Mark Sweney [People who want to own The Telegraph keep turning to the Middle East for cash →]( “Sean Walsh, a spokesperson for DMGT, said: ‘Over the past few years we have been approached and have had talks with a number of Middle Eastern investors who have shown an interest in participating in a bid for the Daily Telegraph. To date, we do not have a formal relationship with any investors.'” Press Gazette / Charlotte Tobitt [Government-led task force launched to protect U.K. journalism from SLAPPs →]( “But these baseless lawsuits currently rig justice systems in favor of those with the deepest pockets. These individuals and businesses have the financial muscle to exhaust journalists and publishers in lengthy court proceedings. SLAPPs have led to journalists having to crowdfund their legal fees, and some have even been forced to sell their homes.” [Nieman Lab]( / [Fuego]( [Twitter]( / [Facebook]( [View email in browser]( [Unsubscribe]( You are receiving this daily newsletter because you signed up for for it at www.niemanlab.org. Nieman Journalism Lab Harvard University 1 Francis Ave.Cambridge, MA 02138 [Add us to your address book](