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Exploring the future of journalism worldwide.
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👋 Hi! Here’s our daily roundup on journalism, with readings on AI, Twitter, obituaries and the news business:

🦤 Good-bye, Twitter. Australian public broadcaster ABC is closing most of its Twitter accounts https://bit.ly/3Yqx9rA

☠️A job to die for. A lovely piece about Damian Arnold, The Times longest-serving obituary writer. “There's no excuse for obituaries to be boring,” he says https://bit.ly/3s6DnAL

🤖 A new deal. OpenAI has reached a 2-year deal with the American Journalism Project to help fund efforts by local outlets to experiment with AI. The deal is part of a larger effort to engage with news companies https://bit.ly/3s6DuMH

💰 Interesting figures on The Atlantic in this piece: 330 employees | It aims to be profitable by 2024 | 60% of revenue from subs and 40% from ads/events | 925,000 subscribers including print and digital | 54% of new subscribers are digital-only https://bit.ly/3KupQt9

🤖 A new model? AI-generated site Local Lens aspires to be a kind of metal detector for local news – surfacing stories that might otherwise remain buried. Jon Samditis explains what the site actually does and what role it might play in New Jersey's news ecosystem https://bit.ly/3QrxSXu
☀️Good morning! Here's a daily roundup on journalism worldwide with pieces on Canada’s news ban, AI training models, new startups, and more.

🇨🇦 The news in Canada. A group of Canadian news publishers and broadcasters has called on the country’s competition regulator to stop Meta from blocking access to news as the battle between the federal government and Big Tech intensifies. https://bit.ly/3Ox4AE8

🤖 Training AI. A group of the world's biggest news media organizations called for revised regulations on the use of copyrighted material by makers of artificial intelligence technology. https://reut.rs/447OJSe

💸 More money. The media startup Puck, which covers Hollywood, Silicon Valley, Wall Street and Washington, has raised over $10 million for its expansion. https://bit.ly/3OsGk6k

🔁 What’s in a name? The Native American Journalists Association is aiming to become more inclusive as its members vote on whether to rebrand as the Indigenous Journalists Association. https://bit.ly/3Ow8r4f

🇳🇱 State of press freedom. In a country where press freedom has long been taken for granted, in today’s Netherlands, journalists covering protests have been attacked by demonstrators – and occasionally detained by police — and face a torrent of online harassment. https://bit.ly/3s9Jg0c
👋Hi! Here’s a cool reading list with 4 new pieces we’ve published this week at the Reuters Institute:

🇰🇪 An important piece. Our contributor Maurice Oniang’o takes a look at what has been called "the darkest month for Kenyan media" since the early 1990s, a time when many reporters were punched, kicked and tear-gassed by protesters and police forces https://bit.ly/3DRY3yY

🤔 The innovator’s dilemma. Earlier this week we published a paper from our Journalist Fellow Yuen-C Tham with many useful tips on how to evaluate any experiments in a newsroom https://bit.ly/449epxQ

📊 How to get good climate data. A new essay from our series on how to fix climate journalism argues that journalists should be persistent and collaborate with others to get good data about climate change. Its author is Pakistani journalist Muhammad Daud Khan https://bit.ly/3DPpdqr

🇵🇭 The good fight. This piece by our contributor Raksha Kumar profiles the year-long fight by Filipino news site Bulatlat against platform pressures and government censorship https://bit.ly/3qsAeux
👋 Hello! Here's our daily round-up of journalism worldwide including stories on a police raid in the US, journalism under the Taliban, the joy of TikTok, AI and news and more.

🇺🇸 “Gestapo tactics”. Offices of a local newspaper in Kansas were raided by police who seized equipment and documents. Co-owner Eric Meyer described the action as "gestapo tactics", and the paper blames the raid on the death of Meyer's mother and co-owner Joan over the weekend. https://bit.ly/45jcRmc

🇦🇫 Press freedom in Afghanistan. "Two years after the Taliban takeover, Afghanistan’s once vibrant free press is a ghost of its former self," writes CPJ’s Beh Lih Yi. Since August 2021, the Taliban has closed dozens of newsrooms and 100s of journalists have been forced to quit or flee https://bit.ly/459QZd6

📱 TikTok. "As a journalist who writes about society and the internet, I’m the first to admit that TikTok has its faults. I also think it's the most marvellous app I’ve ever had the good fortune to click on." Amelia Tait writes in defence of the video-sharing app https://bit.ly/3DUgd3b

⚙️ A disunited front. The New York Times has declined to join a 'united front' of publishing groups set up by businessman Barry Diller to jointly challenge Google and Microsoft's use of their content to train AI models, reports Max Tani https://bit.ly/442GTcI

📉 The promise of AI. Despite News Corp profits falling 75%, chief exec Robert Thomson says he remains positive thanks to AI's "remarkable opportunity to create a new stream of revenues, while allowing us to reduce costs across the business" https://bit.ly/3DVrala
☀️Good morning! Here's a daily roundup on journalism worldwide with pieces on El Salvador’s influencers, Vice’s relationship with Saudi Arabia, CNN’s new programming, and more.

🇸🇻 Pro-government trolls. The Bukele government is using influencers to harness pro-Bukele content on social media, as journalism is being drowned out by the flood of disinformation and crackdowns on press freedom. https://bit.ly/3OVH8BZ

🙊 Vice self-censorship. An exclusive from Jim Waterson about how Vice has repeatedly blocked news stories that could offend the Saudi government as the company recently signed lucrative deal with MBC Group, a media group controlled by the Saudi government. https://bit.ly/3YDAELs

📺 New programming. CNN, which has battled sagging ratings this year, has unveiled a substantial remaking of its morning and evening programming in an effort to stabilise the network. https://nyti.ms/3sifOov

🇯🇴 Online hate speech bill. The King of Jordan approved a bill to punish online speech deemed harmful to national unity. The bill has drawn accusations from human rights groups that it is a tool to crackdown on free speech. https://bit.ly/44cxAa9

🇭🇰 Charges minimized. A Hong Kong court has quashed two charges against publishing tycoon Jimmy Lai, the founder and publisher of Apple Daily, and six former opposition lawmakers for their roles in a banned march during the 2019 anti-government protests. https://bit.ly/3OU921i
👋 Hello! Here's our daily round-up on journalism worldwide including stories on X, poisoned Russian journalists, a Ugandan climate outlet, a new appointment and a collaboration.

🐌 A throttling effect. The Washington Post has found Twitter/X slowed the speed that users could open websites of several news organisations via the app. After the story was first published, the 'throttling' effect was removed on some sites https://bit.ly/3KJBctr

💧 Inspiring a continent. Uganda's Last Drop Africa aims to inspire the continent's future generations "to value and protect their planet through creative storytelling, community engagements, media campaigns, and spotlighting" writes founder Alex Taremwa https://bit.ly/3OYc4BH

🗽 A senior appointment. “We have one of the best newsrooms in the country. The Herald has done a lot of great work in the past, and we have so much more to accomplish.” The Miami Herald has hired its first immigrant executive editor Alex Mena https://bit.ly/44aMbD0

🇷🇺 Journalists poisoned. Three Russian journalists opposed to the Kremlin were poisoned in separate locations across Europe, according to a new report by The Insider https://bit.ly/3QDkOhF

🤝🏽 A reporting partnership. A collaboration with an academic investigating the dark web marked the Conversation US's first move into investigations. “The steep decline in investigative and local journalism drove our decision to make this a priority,” Beth Daley tells Sophie Culpepper https://bit.ly/3QHSsmG
☀️Good morning! Here's a daily roundup on journalism worldwide with pieces on a newspaper raid, journalists in Afghanistan, media crackdown in Russia, and more.

🚨Media solidarity. After a police raid of a Kansas newspaper, over 30 major news organisations wrote a letter to the police department saying there "appears to be no justification for the breadth and intrusiveness of the search." https://bit.ly/3OwADnO

Arrests made. Nine journalists have been arbitrarily arrested by Taliban security forces in the past ten days in Afghanistan in a crackdown against media workers. https://bit.ly/3QJh6Dk

🇷🇺 Journalist expelled. As Putin escalates crackdown on foreign media, longtime POLITICO correspondent Eva Hartog is forced out by the Kremlin after 10 years reporting in the country. https://politi.co/3OGYcKy

🇺🇦 Financing digital media. A look at how the Russian invasion of Ukraine has impacted advertising for Ukraine’s digital news publishers, a year and a half into the war. https://bit.ly/3KLYa2Z

💸Out of business. A US news site reporting on Wisconsin local affairs reported that a businessman had uttered a homophobic slur, he sued, claiming defamation. https://nyti.ms/3KKTrOS
🌧Good morning from a rainy Oxford! Here's a thread with some of the things we've published and promoted in the past few days.

🎙On Tuesday we published this piece by Maurice Oniang’o on the thriving podcasting space in Africa. The medium is growing in popularity and giving voice to underrepresented groups despite facing structural issues. https://bit.ly/47Ex7k4

🇿🇲 We also published a paper by our Journalist Fellow Laida Kaoma Chongo on how to rid Zambian journalism of ‘blalizo’, a practice that interferes with the impartiality of news. https://bit.ly/3KNxu1P

🇬🇧 On Thursday we republished this piece by Dr Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, Dr Anne Schulz, Dr Richard Fletcher and Dr Craig T. Robertson on what research tells us about the role of the BBC in the UK. https://bit.ly/3Fyyf9G

🌍On Friday we published the latest instalment of our 'How to fix climate journalism' essay series. This week's essay, authored by Hellen Shikanda, looks at the importance of fellowships and grants to fund climate journalism. https://bit.ly/3P2uNMw
👋 Hello! Here’s our round-up of journalism worldwide with pieces on Meta's news ban, the Economist's social media strategy, a new documentary and a journalist detention in Egypt.

🍁 Meta in Canada. "Residents of the [Canadian city of Yellowknife] have said the lack of news links on Facebook and Instagram means accurate information about the wildfires and evacuation is hard to access on social media." Hibaq Farah explains the impact of Meta's news ban https://bit.ly/47IoWTG

📺 A portrait. "'The Price of Truth' serves as both a stirring portrait of an extraordinary man and a vital testament to the value of a dissenting press that represents millions." Dan Einav on new Channel 4 documentary on the work of Dmitry Muratov https://bit.ly/3E3htB1

✈️ Press freedom in Egypt. Egyptian journalist Karim Asaad, working for fact-checking org matsda2sh, was briefly detained following coverage of a mysterious plane loaded with cash and minerals that had stopped in Cairo and was later seized in Zambia https://bit.ly/3OLRt2c

📱 A social strategy. Instagram and short-form video have become vital for The Economist in reaching new audiences, and social media referrals account for a fifth of website traffic. Wan-Ifra’s Neha Gupta looks at their strategy https://bit.ly/3OFRt3H
☀️Good morning! Here's a daily roundup on journalism worldwide with pieces on news on Twitter, Somali social media ban, news on Facebook, and more.

✖️News in X. X (fka Twitter) is planning a major change in how news articles appear on the service by stripping out the headline and other text so that tweets with links display only an article’s lead image, according to Fortune Magazine. https://bit.ly/3P7a8Ha

🇸🇴 Social media ban. Somalia has banned video platform TikTok and messaging app Telegram to limit the spread of “horrific images and misinformation to the public” by “terrorists and immoral groups.” https://bit.ly/3P4tvAC

📉Traffic down. Facebook has quietly made changes in recent months that have dramatically reduced referral traffic to media outlets, particularly among those who publish more hard news content, according to
reporting by Oliver Darcy. https://cnn.it/3P63mBe

🇮🇳 Outlet blackout. Independent Kashmiri news outlet The Kashmir Walla says its website and social platforms, including its X and Facebook accounts, were blocked "in response to a legal demand." https://bit.ly/3Pgpfy9

🇨🇦 Canadian news. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau blasted Facebook for “putting corporate profits ahead of people’s safety” as the social media platform continues to block news content while wildfires rage in Canada’s Northwest Territories and British Columbia. https://cnn.it/44iXOYC
☀️Good morning!
Here's a daily roundup on journalism worldwide with pieces on the targeting of Russian journalists abroad, a new tech site, TikTok news and more.

🖊An attempted assassination. Russian journalist Elena Kostyuchenko, who reported on the war in Ukraine for Novaya Gazeta before it was forced to shut down in Russia, shares the story of how she suffered a suspected poisoning attempt in Germany after learning of a Russian plot to assassinate her while reporting in Ukraine. https://bit.ly/47Indhe


🧑🏻‍💻A new tech publication. Following Vice Media's bankruptcy, a group of four journalists from its tech brand Motherboard decided to set up their own publication, 404 Media. https://bit.ly/47GCkrv


📱New TikTok ads. TikTok announced it will allow advertisers to buy ads that appear in its search results, Sarah Perez reports for TechCrunch. https://bit.ly/3YSyebW


💸An acquisition. Global subscription and revenue management company Mather Economics has bought AI-based content curation and analytics platform Sophi from the Globe and Mail. https://bit.ly/3P7hqdT


🇮🇸 Media in Iceland. BBC World shared a media guide to Iceland, outlining media ownership, press freedom and news consumption in the country. https://bit.ly/45DLGT1
☁️Good morning! Here's a daily roundup on journalism worldwide with pieces on news on Evan Gershkovich, news deserts, media investments, and more.

Stuck in Russia. Russian authorities have requested an extension of the pretrial detention of Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter deemed by the U.S. to be wrongfully held in Russia. https://on.wsj.com/3EaV9Ws

🏜️News deserts. A look into how newsrooms from Brazil, Indonesia, Romania, and Portugal have succeeded in starting up and fulfilling unmet information needs in their regions’ news deserts. https://bit.ly/44i2ZrT

💸 Funding buzzy startups. Inside the roof industrial company investing in several buzzy media start-ups like digital newsletter Air Mail, podcasting network Pushkin Industries, magazine Cabana, book publisher Spiegel & Grau, and digital publication Puck. https://nyti.ms/3KTgZS6

📰 More media layoffs. Driven by unsteady economic conditions and changes in the media industry, The Texas Tribune executed layoffs for the first time in its 14-year history without disclosing how many employees got laid off. https://bit.ly/45H6Ob3
👋 Hello from sunny Oxford! Today’s Telegram post showcases some pieces we've published during the past seven days.

🏳️‍🌈 Transgender coverage. "The media's role in transforming perceptions and fostering acceptance of transgender individuals in Jordan remains a work in progress." Manar Hafez explored coverage of trans issues in her fellowship project
https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/elephant-room-missing-transgender-news-coverage-jordan

🤬 TikTok and hate speech. On Monday, we published this interview by Raksha Kumar with Nuurrianti Jalli from Oklahoma State University on how and why hate speech on TikTok in Malaysia and Indonesia rises during election periods.
https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/news/hate-speech-can-be-found-tiktok-any-time-its-frequency-spikes-elections

🔓 RTI laws. On Tuesday, we published a project by Journalist Fellow Tarjei Leer-Salvesen looking at Right To Information laws, including an interactive global map with associated coverage and costs for each country.
https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/bypassing-secrecy-new-tools-facilitate-more-cross-border-investigations-rti

🛑 Press freedom in Kashmir. After the Kashmir Walla's website and social media accounts were shut down last weekend, Raksha Kumar spoke to Anuradha Bhasin of the Kashmir Times, for this interview we are sharing today on the closure and perilous state of journalism in the region.
https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/news/it-wont-stop-kashmir-says-senior-editor-about-key-news-site-being-blocked

🧊 Indigenous voices and climate journalism. And today we are also publishing the latest essay in our series from our climate network. Jennifer Verma writes on how climate journalism should draw more on the expertise and perspectives of Indigenous people to improve its coverage.
https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/news/report-fully-climate-change-journalists-need-integrate-indigenous-knowledge-their-coverage
👋 Hello. Here is our round-up of pieces about journalism worldwide including Africa’s podcast scene, philanthropy, a rebuke of US political journalism and a profile of a brave Peruvian reporter.

🎧 Africa’s podcast boom. "Whether you are in West Africa, South Africa or Central Africa, young people are attracted to stories that are very personal and authentic." Lucinda Jordan of Wan-Ifra hears from some of the key figures harnessing the podcast boom across Africa
https://wan-ifra.org/2023/08/africas-storytelling-evolution-how-podcasting-boosts-minority-voices-and-can-reinvigorate-newsrooms/

💰 Philanthropy. Philanthropic spending on US journalism has seen a 'substantial' increase in the past five years according to a study by the University of Chicago, but the authors urge greater transparency in sources of funding and conflicts of interest.
https://mediaimpactfunders.org/philanthropys-growing-role-in-american-journalism-a-new-study-reveals-increased-funding-and-ethical-considerations/

🏇 Horse race journalism. "We need to hear from more experts on authoritarian movements and fewer pollsters and political strategists. We need journalists who’ll talk a lot less about who’s up or down and a lot more about the stakes," writes Will Bunch of the Philadelphia Inquirer
https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/commentary/media-2020-election-trump-authoritarianism-20230827.html

🗒 A brave reporter. "The pressure against me is very strong, but this is where I want to be," Manuel Calloquispe tells CPJ about his reporting on the environmental destruction, particularly from illegal gold mining, in the Peruvian Amazon
https://cpj.org/2023/08/perus-manuel-calloquispe-faces-threats-and-assaults-to-expose-environmental-damage-from-illegal-amazon-mining/

📬 Plus, our newsletter is out today with a piece on crypto journalism in the Global South, a fellowship project on transparency in journalism and much more. Read it here: https://mailchi.mp/politics.ox.ac.uk/why-transparency-wont-save-journalism
👋 Hello. Here is our round-up of pieces about journalism worldwide including tech layoffs, local news in the UK and Spain, AI and true crime, and a disinformation campaign.

😔 Layoffs. The Washington Post is laying off staff at its in house publishing tool and software business Arc XP, reports Max Tani. A union statement said the cuts "have been shown again and again to erode morale and productivity without actually saving money"
https://www.semafor.com/article/08/29/2023/washington-post-lays-off-staff-from-arc-xp

🐂 News via WhatsApp. "It’s a journalistic experiment because we are making a different product with a different narrative on a less conventional platform for digital media." Juan Andrés Muñoz, founder of Pamplonews, a WhatsApp-based local newsletter, speaks to Hanaa’ Tameez
https://www.niemanlab.org/2023/08/a-local-whatsapp-newsletter-is-helping-people-make-the-most-of-a-spanish-city/

🚔 AI and true crime. "At VGTV, we cultivate journalists with a diverse skill set involving filming, editing, directing, reporting, crime research, and journalism." Creators of a Norwegian true crime series share how they utilised AI and voices of criminals to relive the cases
https://www.inma.org/blogs/video-innovations/post.cfm/vg-launches-true-crime-series-uses-ai-to-animate-re-enactments-of-actual-events

🏭 Local news success. Local news site Manchester Mill's founder Joshi Hermann says they plan to expand to several other UK cities, including Birmingham and Glasgow, after a £1.75m valuation.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/aug/30/manchester-mill-prepares-for-uk-expansion-after-valuation

🇨🇳 “Spamouflage”. "This operation was large and noisy, but it struggled to reach beyond its own fake echo chamber." Meta said it shut down a largely ineffective "Spamouflage" disinformation campaign linked to Chinese law enforcement, removing 7,700 accounts and groups across its platforms.
https://www.reuters.com/technology/meta-pins-spamouflage-influence-campaign-chinese-law-enforcement-2023-08-29/
🌦️Good morning! Here is our round-up of pieces about journalism worldwide including stories on the new CNN chief, the push for hybrid work, press freedom in Kashmir, and more.

📺 New boss. Mark Thompson, the former chief executive of The New York Times and director-general of the BBC, will be the next leader of CNN, taking the reins of the news organisation amidst a period of falling ratings and profit. https://cnn.it/45HQp6i

🏠 Hybrid work. As the fall approaches, some media companies are beginning to push employees to work from the office more regularly, reigniting media unions’ efforts to keep hybrid work in place. https://bit.ly/3OWt5eo

Press in Kashmir. “The decimation of the press in Kashmir is one the biggest tragedies of our times, and no one is willing even to utter a word as if we don’t exist,” Raqib Naik told Suchitra Vijayan about the threat to press freedom in Kashmir. https://bit.ly/3szox60

🇰🇭 Social media suspension. Meta is rejecting a recommendation made by its own Oversight Board to suspend Cambodian leader Hun Sen’s Facebook account for inciting violence. https://wapo.st/45OSnSd

📕A battle against ‘woke’. “Any journalist … would feel challenged to work in a place where the line between the edit side and the business side is as eroded as it’s become this year,” departing deputy editor of Atlanta Magazine wrote in his resignation letter this month amidst trouble at the magazine. https://wapo.st/3PkuNYn
👋Good morning from Oxford. Here's a short thread on some pieces we've published this week.

🎙On Monday we published this piece by Ramaa Sharma with seven takeaways from our podcast series on authentic leadership she hosted earlier this year. https://bit.ly/3sMB4TX

🤖On Tuesday we published this interview by Gretel Kahn with Garance Burke from AP looking at how she led the development of the AI chapter in the latest edition of the AP Stylebook. https://bit.ly/484rqfn

👵🏾On Thursday we published this piece by Marina Adami looking at how a course by MediaWise and Newtral is teaching older Spaniards to identify online misinformation. https://bit.ly/3LbjEXl

🗣On Friday we published this piece by Marina Adami featuring contributions from editors around the world to a global media summit convened by Siddharth Varadarajan with a focus on press freedom. https://bit.ly/3LhdpkF

📗We also published the latest instalment in our essay series 'How to fix climate journalism.' This week's essay, by Sahana Ghosh, looks at the importance of climate literacy within the newsroom. https://bit.ly/3PvtZQk
👋Good morning from Oxford. Here's a short thread on some pieces we've published this week.

🤝Journalism fellowship. Our 40-year Fellowship reunion was last weekend. These are a few highlights of our panel discussions on AI, mental health, newsroom diversity, reader revenue and foreign news. https://bit.ly/48igkDO

🇳🇬 Nigerian elections. Our contributor Patrick Egwu wrote about how fact-checking organisations in Nigeria formed a united coalition to verify statements from politicians and false narratives being shared online amidst the country’s elections earlier this year. https://bit.ly/3Zlxv3h

⚽️ Women’s World Cup. Our Head of Editorial Eduardo Suárez profiled Relevo, a young Spanish sports news site that published a crucial scoop that brought down Spain's football chief Luis Rubiales. https://bit.ly/3ZgpuMR

⛰️Climate journalism. In the latest essay of our climate journalism series, American journalist Rob Chaney argues that journalists must convey the irreversible changes in our environment due to climate change, rather than focusing solely on recovery and rebuilding after climate events. https://bit.ly/3rdYNMa
👋 Good morning from Oxford. Here's a short thread on some pieces we've published this week.

📣 Russia’s influence. What is behind Kremlin propaganda in Africa? A new piece by Gretel Kahn looks into how the Russian government uses local media outlets to push their agenda in the continent. https://bit.ly/45ZOomA

🤖 Next for AI. Expert David Caswell explains why generative AI will transform the news ecosystem and how news companies should adapt to these changes. https://bit.ly/3t17nyl

📰 Trust in news. Our new research report looks into what news organisations can do to be more trusted based on new survey data from Brazil, India, UK, and the US. https://bit.ly/48tePm3
It's been a busy week at the Institute. Here are some of the things we've published and promoted this week

On Monday we welcomed Mexican editor Tania Montalvo to our leadership development team https://bit.ly/3tnvnMx

On Tuesday we published this interview with Pakistani editor Raza Rumi by our contributor Raksha Kumar. Rumi explains how the country's media regulator has become an instrument of censorship in the last few years https://bit.ly/3rD4Xpr

On Tuesday we also welcomed 10 talented journalists to our Fellowship. Explore their names, bios and projects https://bit.ly/3PKT8FB

Today we published the latest essay from our series on how to fix climate journalism. To beat greenwashing, journalists should go back to basics, argues Alexandre Karghoo from Mauritius https://bit.ly/3LRgrfJ

🕵🏾‍♀️ Finally a chart from one of our latest reports. Do news orgs put the public’s interest first? Very few in Brazil (16%), the UK (13%), or the US (16%) think they do. Full report here https://bit.ly/46Ba0p8