New Media Unit

"On this page you'll find notes arising from American Futures project that Deborah and James Fallows have had underway, with appearances on Marketplace radio, since 2013. Their full archive is here."

"This is the first part of a four-part series on native advertising. Part 2: "Publishers become content producers." Part 3: "How ethical is native advertising?" Part 4: "Future of native advertising""

"The following are seven essential truths about the news today that Kamarck and Gabriele explore in detail:"

"Feature raises questions about the future of links on the social network"

"At a moment when the network is poised to make a number of changes, the American Press Institute and Twitter, in collaboration with research company DB5, have produced a new study that probes the relationship between news use and the Twittersphere. The study, which involved an online survey of more than 4,700 social media users, finds that Twitter users tend to be heavier news consumers than other social media users. News, indeed, is one of the primary activities that they engage in on the network."

"In the United States, the newspaper digital audience is skyrocketing, reaching 176 million unique visitors across all platforms in March (comScore, 2015). Circulation revenue is also rising, both in the United States and around the world. According to the 2015 World Press Trends Survey, global newspaper circulation revenue exceeded advertising revenue for the first time ever. The reason? Newspapers are leveraging technology and audience data more than ever to create new content, products and services that attract audiences and advertisers. The appetite for quality content and information is insatiable, and over the last few years, we have transformed into an industry that adopts and utilizes the latest developments in social, mobile, print and video to better reach consumers with interesting and engaging content. Let's look at a few of the ways the news industry has evolved:"

"Godsey is one of a growing number of educators who are using podcasts like "Serial" to motivate their classrooms and address education requirements set by the Common Core state standards. Improving students' listening skills is one of the essential components of the new education mandates, and using audio in the classroom can be an effective way to promote listening."

"Dataminr is a stealthy tool that scours Twitter, looking for tweets that its algorithm considers important and newsworthy."

"The social media reporting platform launched six months ago and has recently developed a website, but social is still at its core"

"Call it a mobile majority. At the start of 2015, 39 of the top 50 digital news websites have more traffic to their sites and associated applications coming from mobile devices than from desktop computers, according to Pew Research Center's analysis of comScore data."

"he Pew Research Center's 12th annual State of the News Media report offers a fresh ranking of the most visited news sites that originated online, with Huffington Post leading the pack and BuzzFeed not far behind. Also in the top 10 are Bleacher Report, Mashable, Slate, Vice, Gawker and Vox. For nine of the 10 sites, mobile share of traffic now outstrips desktop.  The one exception was CNET.com. Among the broader group of Top 50, 39 now get more traffic to their site and related apps from mobile than desktop."

"Are some of the newsroom's most prized values contributing to journalism's continuing decline in credibility? What should replace these values to better reflect the complexities of modern media yet still embrace the core principles of journalism? What should be the standards of credible journalism in an age when all definitions of news are up for grabs?"

"There has never been a better time to be a storyteller. And there is no team better suited to storytelling in the social age than the Storyful team. We are a global family of technologists, journalists and social media evangelists who work with some of the biggest news and social brands in the world. Our horizons have broadened. Our ambitions have grown. And our team is getting bigger."

"ired of seeing their ink-and-paper edition ignored and eager to experiment with digital news, the staff of the Mountaineer decided over the summer to cut the print newspaper entirely and move its stories online. And Thursday, the staff of the Mountaineer took another step toward reimagining their news report when they launched Sac.media, a student publication hosted exclusively on Medium. Going forward, the newspaper will run all of its news stories on the publishing platform and broaden its coverage to include several nearby communities. The move will be accompanied by a greater emphasis on covering events on social media, and a decision to set aside space on Medium for stories that warrant greater depth and analysis, Albertson said."

"According to a report released today by Pew Research Center titled "Local News in a Digital Age," nearly nine in 10 residents across three metro areas studied (Denver, Macon, Ga., and Sioux City, Iowa) follow local news closely. However, the supply of local news and how residents consume and engage with local news varies quite a bit between cities, which vary dramatically by population size and demographics."

"That is why the Engaging News Project launched. We're a research group dedicated to helping newsrooms meet their business and journalistic goals. To do this, we test web-based strategies for informing audiences, promoting substantive discourse, and helping citizens to understand diverse views. At the same time, we analyze business outcomes, such as clicks and time on page."

"Our recent report, Political Polarization and Media Habits, finds that trust and distrust in the news media varies greatly by political ideology. Many readers asked us: Among the 36 news organizations we asked about, which one do Americans trust most? The answer is more complex than it may seem and can be measured in a number of different ways. Here's a breakdown:"

"From reading materials for students to outlines of specific products, and examples of their uses by journalists, the below information can help you get started in structuring your class material. We've also included some suggestions of assignments that may help students get experience in using the tools."

"Frank Sennett tells Romenesko readers that "even before the latest stumbles by the Atlantic and BuzzFeed with sponsored content online, I saw a need for an end to the Wild West moment we're going through." He hoped to work on some industry guidelines as a Nieman fellow, but didn't get the position. Frank Sennett "I have continued to work on them" while editing Time Out Chicago, he writes. "I haven't done an ethics project since Slipup.com back in the 90s, but this one piqued my interest." Here's what Sennett has put together: Proposed ethics guidelines for online sponsored content"

Section of native advertising articles