Showing posts with label 2016 at 03:45PM. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2016 at 03:45PM. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Journalism agenda: Social Media giants react to fake news phenomena after the damage already done…

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Twitter is banning multiple alt-right accounts


Following the release of new features to tackle abuse on its network yesterday, Twitter has begun suspending the accounts of users associated with the alt-right political movement, reports USA Today. That includes the one belonging to Richard Spencer, who heads up the National Policy Institute (NPI) think tank. The organization concerns itself with the identity of “people of European descent in the United States, and around the world,” and publishes related writings on its sister site, Radix Journal. Accounts for both bodies have also been suspended, along with those of well-know alt-righters Paul Town, Pax Dickinson, Ricky Vaughn and John…

Because Trump wasn’t spending as much on TV ads, it seemed like his team wasn’t investing in changing minds. But they were: they were just doing it online


Following the conclusion of the US presidential elections which saw Donald Trump emerge victorious, there’s been a lot of talk about how social networks and fake news contributed to the outcome.
Rattled by criticism, the social network has taken a positive step—but misinformation can continue to spread.

In the wake of the Trump election — a triumph of fake news — both Google and Facebook have announced that they will take countermeasures to exclude “fake news” from their services, downranking them in the case of Facebook and cutting them off from ad payments in Google’s case.

Facebook has been under fire this past week for supposedly influencing the election by not doing enough to stop the rise of fake news. In an interview at the Real Future Fair conference, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden said that while this is certai…
Despite Facebook’s arguments to the contrary, its social network helped Donald Trump win the US election… if not for the reasons you’d suspect. Wired has learned that the Trump campaign focused very heavily on its Facebook strategy, eclipsing a Cli…

As the media autopsies the various forces at play in last week’s election results, online social platforms — particularly Facebook — are coming under increased scrutiny for their role in spreading blatantly false news stories.

Can the presidential election result be blamed on failed algorithms? Facebook had taken the brunt of that claim in the days of shock following Donald Trump’s election. Then, on Monday, Google stumbled into the fray, and by the end of the day, it’s own mini-outrage produced a significant change in how Google does business.

As election results came in last Tuesday night, ProPublica started seeing a big increase in donations. In the first days after Donald Trump was elected, ProPublica’s donations were “running at about 10 times the rate that we’re used to,” said president Richard Tofel.

 

Sponsored: News publishers feared Facebook’s News Feed algorithm changes could lessen engagement, but engagement levels went up
The fake news wars go viral with Melissa’s List

There’s nothing like being authentic about fakery.

That’s what Melissa Zimdars has figured out in the past 24 hours, as her earnest attempt to separate fake news from the real stuff has gone viral.

Spurred in part by the phony 70News.com site, which itself spurred an overnight change in how Google and Facebook are doing business, Zimdars, an assistant professor of communication and media at Massachusetts’ Merrimack College, published her own tally of questionable news sites. Her list of about 130 problematic “news” sites includes those she considers to be “false, misleading, clickbait-y, and satirical ‘news’ sources.”

 

In the last week, Facebook’s been battling the accusation that fake, often inflammatory stories showing up in users’ Newsfeeds influenced how people voted in the presidential election. The social media giant vowed it is currently taking the issue ser…
Google made headlines recently about the top search result for ‘final election numbers’ being patently false. Now the company is going to keep fake-news sites from using its nigh-ubiquitous AdSense program according to the Wall Street Journal.
Ever since America opted to elect that guy to its highest office, a lot of accusatory fingers have been pointed toward Facebook. After all, the social network has the attention of hundreds of millions of voters and has a reputation for proliferating…

I spent yesterday in Bogota, Colombia, as the invited guest of the Premio Nacional de Periodismo Simón Bolívar, offering a speech on the future of civics and the future of journalism. It’s a wonderful event – roughly 1100 people came to celebrate Colombia’s equivalent of the Pulitzer prize. I had a great time meeting the amazing Colombian journalists who served as the jury for the award as well as the team behind the event.

The modern newsroom is facing growing challenges for how to cover conflicts around the world.

The bot also helped AJ+ distribute its videos in a new way, allowing people to search for specific topics

Journalism and environmental defense: two hazardous activities in Latin America

“Until comprehensive measures are taken to sever the ties between crime and State structures, certain groups will remain vulnerable and the violence directed at them will persist.” Interview. Español

An environmental activist holds a poster that reads in Spanish “No to deforestation” to protest an open-pit gold mining project in Costa Rica. AP Photo/Kent Gilbert. All rights reserved.

Vía Erkan’s Field Diary http://ift.tt/2f4a4qr


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Sunday, February 21, 2016

Cyberculture agenda: “The YouTube Women: Delivering Hard-Hitting Digital Video Activism…”Free Bitcoin textbook from Princeton…

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Free Bitcoin textbook from Princeton

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The Princeton Bitcoin Book by Arvind Narayanan, Joseph Bonneau, Edward Felten, Andrew Miller and Steven Goldfeder is a free download — it’s over 300 pages and is intended for people “looking to truly understand how Bitcoin works at a technical level and have a basic familiarity with computer science and programming.” (more…)

The YouTube Women: Delivering Hard-Hitting Digital Video Activism

Foto tomada de la galería de recursos gratuitos de la organización de derechos humanos Witness.

Image taken from gallery of free resources of Witness (witness.org), an organisation that works for human rights through visual media.

What the FBI vs Apple contest is really about

Wired nails it

But this isn’t about unlocking a phone; rather, it’s about ordering Apple to create a new software tool to eliminate specific security protections the company built into its phone software to protect customer data. Opponents of the court’s decision say this is no different than the controversial backdoor the FBI has been trying to force Apple and other companies to build into their software—except in this case, it’s an after-market backdoor to be used selectively on phones the government is investigating.

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In a big win for Google’s driverless car program, Reuters reports that a previously unreleased letter from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says the AI Google’s high-tech vehicles can be classified as a driver — a distinction only previously given to humans. “We agree with Google its [self-driving car] will not have a ‘driver’ in the traditional sense that vehicles have had drivers during the last more than one hundred years,” the letter said. This win could cut through tons of red tape for Google and other companies eagerly pursuing our driverless futures, as it would acknowledge AI as having the

KAT Adds Torrent Streaming: Expect Bloodshed, Tech Devs Warn

katLast week saw the launch of Torrents-Time, software for Windows and Mac that allows people to view torrents embedded in a webpage and without need for an external torrent client.

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Quitting the 9-to-5 and setting off to explore the world, while working remotely from a laptop in order to pay for the train tickets and street food, was seen just a few years ago as the path of only the most intrepid, solitary adventurers. Now, as it gets harder to pay the rent in big cities like London and New York, and easier to do all kinds of work online, it’s increasingly becoming a sensible way to live. There are also a whole host of new solutions popping up to make it easier to divide the year between San Diego…
Screen Shot 2016-02-10 at 12.06.11 PM
That’s right, YouTube is taking on the likes of Netflix and Hulu with its own original content. Last year the company launched YouTube Red, a subscription service for $9.99 a month that removes ads but also delivers exclusive content. YouTube Red is only available in the US right now, but its first original content is coming online today. Here are the first three we can watch: Lazer Team This comedy comes from the creators of the ever popular Red vs. Blue show and follows a bunch of dudes who put on an alien spacesuit. Scare PewDiePie You probably know exactly who PewDiePie…

Travelers who have recently booked short trips (two to four days) likely did so using multiple devices, applications and mobile sites, according to a study byGfK commissioned by Facebook IQ.

GfK analyzed the purchase paths of some 2,000 adults 18 and over in the Netherlands and Sweden who had recently booked short trips, and its findings included:

What You Need to Know About Twitter’s Algorithmic Timeline

Twitter, playing all the hits since 2016.

Twitter announced an update Wednesday morning that could signal the eventual death of the reverse-chronological timeline.

Now, users can choose to have an experience that surfaces “the best Tweets” that they’ve missed, regardless of time, atop timeline. Twitter has been testing anon-chronological timeline, with mixed reviews from users. This is the official rollout for iOS, Android and Web.

5 B2B Website Design Trends for 2016

We know from research that nearly everyone considering doing business with you will first look at your website. And nothing deters a prospect faster than a website that looks outdated. Thankfully, even small tweaks to your design can help you to keep pace with design trends can make a big difference. Let’s take a look at the latest trends.

Vía Erkan’s Field Diary http://ift.tt/1Q9jvBe


Filed under: Uncategorized