Embarrassing to admit: I avoid (some) news

I’m part of a worldwide trend, with women and men showing different tendencies James Breiner It’s a big event in journalism when the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism releases its annual Digital News Report. This year’s edition had loads of data on “news avoidance,” or people actively avoiding news. (Survey methodology here.) A […]

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News avoidance: endless crises wear people out

Media consumers look in vain for help and solutions amid rampant misinformation As a journalist, I am somewhat ashamed to say that I actively avoid reading the news—some of the news, anyway. I can’t bear to read anything that mentions the name of the previous president or his political party or voter fraud or any […]

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Why I’m optimistic about local news

Publishers can fill a big void in coverage, but they need the right people A media entrepreneur asked me recently if I was optimistic about the future of local news organizations. Actually, I am. Let me run through some of the reasons and end with some caveats. First of all, there is a shortage of […]

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Periodismo de calidad y cercanía para combatir la infodemia

En España, consumidores de noticias regresan a las marcas tradicionales Mis colegas en la Universidad de Navarra han elaborado una magnífica serie de análisis del comportamiento de los internautas españoles como parte del Reuters Digital News Report 2021. Los datos y los análisis deben ser sumamente útiles para la industria mediática. El gran desafío es […]

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In a crisis, people seek trusted news brands

Latest Reuters report highlights importance of trust, user payments, shift to digital Several insights from the latest Reuters Digital News Report caught my attention. I want to share them from the executive summary, followed by my comments. Digital News Report 2021: “This [coronavirus] crisis has also shown the value of accurate and reliable information at […]

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The voice is mightier than the pen: podcast power

During 10 weeks of quarantine, I have been getting a lot more of my information and entertainment from podcasts. My interests in news, the arts, and business lead me to programs like Hidden Brain, How I Built This, The Indicator, Fresh Air, Planet Money, SER Historia, Radio Ambulante, El Hilo, Freakonomics Radio, Against the Rules, […]

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Frustrated fact-checkers: the lies keep being told

Lies have a life of their own, and people want to believe them, especially when they are about people they don’t like, “the other”. Facts don’t sway people. As Laura Hazard Owen recently reported in Nieman Lab, three leading fact-checking organizations have said their work needs to go beyond simply calling out the lies of […]

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