Links: On fake news, and an edit

Posted in Journalism, Uncategorized by prempanicker

Fake news damages public trust in news media.

Fake news undermines public confidence in our democratic discourse.

Fake news exacerbates economic pressures facing quality news organisations.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, fake news highlights issues of responsibility and regulation in our fast-evolving media ecosystem.

Excerpted from a speech by Lionel Barner, editor of the Financial Times, that is worth reading in full. Bonus: Octavius Caesar.

On a tangentially related note, I’ve been thinking about and collecting examples of clickbait journalism — which, along with fake news, is metastasizing into a major problem for a media already shorn of credibility. My growing collection includes annotated examples from various media houses (all of which I’ll bring together into a post one day soon). Here is the example I picked to annotate today — see the comments appended to the highlights, and the summary story right at the end.

Five of India’s most iconic one-day players of the last... December 5, 2014
Five of India’s most iconic one-day players of the last decade will never be seen again. That is how sunset comes: without a “farewell series”, without emotional speeches and orchestrated jamborees. Sunset comes via a televised news report. A list of names that you scan, your heart dropping by degrees as you go down the list and fail to find your name in the […]
Tomorrow makes 30 years since the day 40 tons of poisonous... December 1, 2014
Tomorrow makes 30 years since the day 40 tons of poisonous gas leaked out of a factory, killing over 20,000 and injuring or otherwise harming over 500,000 in arguably the worst industrial disaster of our age. Why have we moved on? Why is there collective amnesia, not merely in the rest of the country but in Bhopal itself? Why, asks the talented Priyanka Dube […]
He bounces a wounded cry down into the canyons of the Tigris... December 1, 2014
He bounces a wounded cry down into the canyons of the Tigris River: a blade of rusty water that saws its way through the bedrock of time. Ali’s song is a hymn to true love, which is to say, to love unrequited. It is the tale of a beautiful woman who remains blind to the longings of the singer. It is a lyric of loneliness. Of waiting. Of resignation—a form of […]
I have spent the better part of my life – or maybe it just... November 27, 2014
I have spent the better part of my life – or maybe it just seems that way; you know how it is when you are frustrated, a day seems like a year – “reporting in to” people who have never spent a day in a newsroom. I’ve spent the better part of my life – or so it seems to me; see above – shocked at how little effort there is, institutionally, to stay on top of […]
N Srinivasan is such a dude! That he went to court, claiming... November 24, 2014
N Srinivasan is such a dude! That he went to court, claiming the Mudgal Commission had vindicated him and demanding that he be reinstated as board president and further, be allowed to contest elections, was no surprise. The real kicker lay in a little codicil that went unnoticed (emphasis mine): Srinivasan also asked the court to re-instate the officials […]
I’m guessing the hardest thing to do when you stumble is... November 24, 2014
I’m guessing the hardest thing to do when you stumble is to recover your balance and gracefully move on? Which, among other things, includes refraining from cover-your-ass statements so disingenuous, it only draws additional attention to the initial stumble? Should a man against whom charges of rape (or other serious crimes, for that matter) be invited onto […]

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