✍️ Journalism Jobs and Media News Update ✍️ — October 10
Jobs and news update
Hello folks, welcome to another edition of Inside The Newsroom. A somber mood today as we follow what’s happening in the Middle East, and await Israel’s response to Hamas’ surprise attack. I’ll make today quick.
On the jobs front, we added approximately 600 new openings to the board this weekend, including 140 new internships. That takes our total to 1,400 total jobs and 180 total internships. Subscribe below for full access with plans starting at just $6/£5/€6 per month.
For our media news roundup, we looked at how to avoid misinformation about the war in Israel and Gaza; what political reporters can learn from war correspondents; Google’s search engine competition; X/Twitter removing article headlines; and the London School of Economics’ latest report on AI in journalism.
Check out Friday’s Journalism Awards, Events and Fellowship Deadlines Calendar, with new listings from the likes of Women in Journalism, PBS, Human Rights Watch, Associated Press, Columbia University, Financial Times, Google News Initiative, National Press Club, ProPublica and the Society of Professional Journalists.
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📰 Media News Roundup 📰
Israel Declares War On Hamas
We start with the devastating news in Gaza and Israel, after militant group Hamas surprised the world with its deadliest attack on Israel. This latest round of violence appears different, and Israeli Prime Minister has stated that his response will change the Middle East. It’s tricky to know what to write about the current situation, with shock and helplessness immediately setting in. That said, Poynter has published this guide on how to avoid misinformation about the war, and a timeline of the Israel-Palestine conflict to date.
What Political Reporters Can Learn from War Correspondents
An intriguing piece in the Columbia Journalism Review highlights some of the lessons political reporters can heed from war correspondents. I found this passage particularly powerful:
“Cover the conflict (or the politics)—but focus on the people. Tell their stories with compassion and sympathy. Try to understand their motivations even when you disagree. Find the best available local knowledge, and let it inform your understanding. Remember it’s your job to make people care. Recognize the limits of your role and be humble about what you can change. Never forget that your primary function is to bear witness, and never lose confidence in the value of doing so.”
Google’s Search Engine Competition
As we approach the halfway stage of Google’s antitrust court case, Nieman Lab’s Joshua Benton has been musing on the potential impacts of the case. For Google, they could be forced to sell off its dominant Chrome browser — which has around 63% of the browser market share — or to stop paying other tech companies billions to be the default search engine — Google reportedly pays Apple between $15 billion and $20 billion to be Safari’s default option — or to allow other search engines access to its mountain of search data. Judge Amit Mehta could of course also rule that Google is doing nothing wrong and not force Google to do anything.
X/Twitter Removes Article Headlines
The major changes to X keep coming, this time it is news article headlines that have been removed in an attempt to improve the aesthetics of the platform. In a move that was floated by owner Elon Musk last month, links posted on the platform will now only feature the lead image of the article, with the source appearing in the bottom left corner. Musk tweeted that the platform’s algorithm now deprioritizes links, in order to prevent users from clicking off the site and optimizing time spent on the platform. It could also be an attempt to drive more people to sign up for X’s premium service, which allows users to post up to 25,000 characters. Let’s see what Musk has in store next…
New Journalism AI Report
And lastly, a new report published by the London School of Economics on what news organisations are doing with AI has revealed some interesting insights. Based on the responses of more than 120 editors, journalists and media people across 46 countries, here are some of the key takeaways:
The social and economic benefits of AI are geographically concentrated in the Global North, which enjoy the infrastructure and resources, while many countries in the Global South grapple with the social, cultural, and economic repercussions of post- independence colonialism.
Many respondents said AI integration is changing existing roles within the newsroom through training and upskilling. Along the same lines, AI is changing the nature of a journalist’s role and sought after skills.
Around a 1/3 of respondents believe their organisations are ready to deal with the challenges of AI adoption in journalism, while almost half said they were only partially ready or not ready yet.
About 40% of respondents said their approach to AI has not changed over the past few years, either because they are still in the beginning of their AI journey or because AI integration remains limited in their newsrooms. Concurrently, around a 1/4 said their organisation’s approach to AI has evolved; they have gained hands-on experience that helps them think more realistically about AI.