Pinboard (guardiantech)

The future of the culture wars is here, and it's Gamergate >> Deadspin

guardiantech — 2014-10-15T14:33:19+00:00

Kyle Wagner:

In many ways, Gamergate is an almost perfect closed-bottle ecosystem of bad internet tics and shoddy debating tactics. Bringing together the grievances of video game fans, self-appointed specialists in journalism ethics, and dedicated misogynists, it's captured an especially broad phylum of trolls and built the sort of structure you'd expect to see if, say, you'd asked the old Fires of Heaven message boards to swing a Senate seat. It's a fascinating glimpse of the future of grievance politics as they will be carried out by people who grew up online.

You can ignore the Gamergate-related stuff, but it's that last sentence which makes this piece worth reading.

Confessions of an ex-tech journalist >> Medium

guardiantech — 2014-03-18T21:27:21+00:00

Bekah Grant worked at Venturebeat, where she wrote nearly 1,740 articles in 20 months (an average of five per day):

Busy days were a blur of furious typing, rushed calls, and ignoring everything that wasn’t news (like food and water). There would be days with 20 funding announcements, on top of everything else we covered. VB writers could have a post up in 15 minutes if the situation demanded. Online publishing is a horse race and speed is critical.
When a story breaks, you could take a couple hours to do research, call to sources, and write a contextualized, edited piece — but by that time, 5 of your competitors will have posted on the story. You will look slow and readers will have moved onto the next thing. The reality is that original reporting and careful editing fall by the wayside in the desire to be fast.

Worth reading in full at your leisure.

How ICIJ’s project team analysed the offshore files >> International Consortium of Investigative Journalists

guardiantech — 2013-04-08T20:13:08+00:00

You've read the exposés, now find out how it was done:

The project team’s attempts to use encrypted e-mail systems such as PGP (“Pretty Good Privacy”) were abandoned because of complexity and unreliability that slowed down information sharing. Studies have shown that police and government agents – and even terrorists – also struggle to use secure e-mail systems effectively. Other complex cryptographic systems popular with computer hackers were not considered for the same reasons. While many team members had sophisticated computer knowledge and could use such tools well, many more did not.

Plus much more.

Tesla owners hit the road to prove long distance can be done >> AllThingsD

guardiantech — 2013-02-18T17:26:35+00:00

Different ambient temperatures, different levels of knowledge on the parts of the drivers (especially that the New York Times writer had had problems because the apparent mileage varied with temperature) - not surprising that they'd succeed, is it?

A most peculiar test drive >> Tesla Motors blog

guardiantech — 2013-02-14T14:01:16+00:00

To date, hundreds of journalists have test driven the Model S in every scenario you can imagine. The car has been driven through Death Valley (the hottest place on Earth) in the middle of summer and on a track of pure ice in a Minnesota winter. It has traveled over 600 miles in a day from the snowcapped peaks of Tahoe to Los Angeles, which made the very first use of the Supercharger network, and moreover by no lesser person than another reporter from The New York Times. Yet, somehow John Broder “discovered” a problem and was unavoidably left stranded on the road. Or was he?

The Tesla apparently monitored every detail of what the car was doing. The plot thickens.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk accuses New York Times of lying about Model S range anxiety >> The Verge

guardiantech — 2013-02-11T22:38:26+00:00

In a statement to CNBC moments ago, Musk reiterated that Broder hadn't followed the terms agreed upon by both sides. "We explicitly said that to do this trip, he needs to make sure he's fully charged when he starts out, that he doesn't take detours, and that he drives at a reasonable speed," he said. "I'm not talking about some ridiculously low speed, but not too far above the speed limit. Those three things weren't done."
For its part, The New York Times is standing behind Broder's story as 100 percent accurate. Further, the publication insists its writer played by the rules.

Isn't going to end well for someone.

New HTC M7 leaked photos show the device is pretty much just a DNA >> Android Authority

guardiantech — 2013-01-21T09:21:10+00:00

Stefan Constantinescu has had enough and he ain't gonna take it any more:

Depending on the type of person you are, product leaks are either the best thing in the world or they’re the worst type of journalism. I happen to fall into the latter camp. Every new awesome smartphone is just around the corner. Why buy a smartphone today when X device is two months away, Y smartphone is three months away, and Z smartphone, the one you really want, is four months away? Leaked images, renders, press shots, specs, screenshots, whatever you want to call them, they just confuse people, make the press speculate on things they don’t really know about, and in the end we all lose.

Why you should be skeptical of Chitika's market-share reports >> ZDNet

guardiantech — 2013-01-06T22:49:33+00:00

Ed Bott:

In my investigation, half of the web sites that Chitika promotes as success stories either don't exist or exist exclusively to serve ads. The remaining 50% appeared generally weak and sad. Several sites hadn't been updated in months or years, and only a handful looked like they represented serious ongoing businesses.
As a potential advertiser, I would not be impressed. As a journalist, I wonder whether the same sloppiness exhibited on this promotional page extends to the company's research.
And then there's this FTC news release from March 14, 2011:

The FTC reached a settlement with online advertising company Chitika, Inc. that ends the company’s allegedly deceptive practice of tracking consumers’ online activities even after they have chosen to opt out of online tracking on Chitika’s website.

Chitika certainly isn't what you'd call cooperative about where its data comes from. But none of the data-pimping sources is. Nor do companies themselves provide all the numbers you want. Essentially, you have to triangulate on the most reliable and repeatable data.

Anatomy of a Hoax: The Sony Nexus X >> Unknown

guardiantech — 2012-10-19T21:40:34+00:00

As far as I know, nothing of any notable significance occurred on Monday, October 15, 2012. The social web was still abuzz from the spectacular achievement in human ingenuity from the night before, brought to you by Red Bull and science. People continued to predictably politick and Rainn Wilson did an AMA. However, for an infinitesimal segment of the human population, October 15th was marked by a frenetic search for answers fueled by an anxiety that can only come from leaked photos of an up-and-coming piece of shiny new tech.
I faked the Sony Nexus X. Truly sorry. But I did come away from the experience with a few observations. I will share these musings, along with how and why I created these fakes.

Ended up with more than 500 articles saying "IS THIS THE NEW SONY EXPERIA NEXUS X???" As the anonymous author points out, not a single person tried to contact the actual Picasa account owner (him) where the photos were originally posted.

The Data Journalism Handbook >> European Journalism Centre and Open Knowledge Foundation

guardiantech — 2012-09-17T09:59:52+00:00

Available on a CC-ShareAlike licence. Includes contributions from The Guardian, New York Times and many others. (Thanks @sputnikkers for the link.)

Real tech journalists love Gojee >> brian s hall

guardiantech — 2012-09-05T20:55:44+00:00

I've said it many times. I will say it again. Venture capitalists do not fund tech blogs because they expect to get a 10X or greater return on that investment. Never gonna happen.
Nope. Rather, they fund tech blogs - deliberately, explicitly - because the tech blogs then serve as their PR. The "journalists" at these sites are essentially public relations, re-writing the stories they are given.
Want serious coverage of your app, business, technology in the big tech blogs? Then you better sell off a piece of yourself to the VCs. They then get the tech blogs to write about you. Oh, say, on a completely different topic, there's still another food/recipe app. Out today. Called Gojee!

Do let us know after reading his post whether you feel the need for more coverage of Gojee.

The Yahoo board was very careful to keep the Marissa Mayer news away from Kara Swisher >> Business Insider

guardiantech — 2012-07-18T16:19:11+00:00

The story is about as long as the headline. Swisher is AllThingsD's executive editor; she's had a hotline, it seemed, to Yahoo's board. But now the mole "within management" has been found - which is why the Mayer news had its bombshell impact.

The head of Google News on the future of news >> MIT Center for Civic Media

guardiantech — 2012-05-13T21:57:24+00:00

Richard [Gringras, head of news at Google] doesn't believe the vertical model of a newspaper makes sense going forward. He compares the metropolitan newspapers' all-things to all-people product to content portals for specific communities. This strategy doesn't make sense given the possibilities. Yahoo!'s initial success was as a portal. But portals have disappeared online as consumers have learned to navigate the web on their own and found the niche sites they love.
Paywalls are not a panacea. Richard's not against experimentation with paywall models. The New York Times was smart, he says, in designing its paywall with many levers to adjust revenue vs. traffic flow. It's not there yet, but they can experiment and find what works. He appreciates those who are looking at paywalls in a more nuanced way. Some publishers say, "They bought it before, they'll buy it again," or "We need to get people back into the habit of paying for news." But consumers never did pay the true costs.

Gringras essentially goes around giving much the same talk. This doesn't make it wrong.

Hit men, click whores, and paid apologists: Welcome to the Silicon Cesspool >> Real Dan Lyons Web Site

guardiantech — 2012-02-14T13:39:50+00:00

Lyons weaves together the Silicon Valley tech journalism imbroglio. Must read.

PandoDaily >> the site-of-record for silicon valley

guardiantech — 2012-01-17T07:25:08+00:00

Sarah Lacy, former TechCruncher and author, launches the newest technology news site on the blog. It already has its accusers. (Hello, Gawker.)

How journalists are using the iPad to enhance their reporting >> Poynter.

guardiantech — 2011-09-22T20:51:09+00:00

"I’ve found mobile devices to be especially effective for on-the-street interviews. When New York City brought in a new system of letter grades for restaurant health inspections last year, the WNYC newsroom asked me to get reaction from New Yorkers. Using my iPad, I asked people on the street where they liked to eat and then looked up the restaurant’s inspection report online. I was able to capture their reactions when they heard the details — things like evidence of live vermin at their favorite restaurants. It was tape I could not have gotten in the moment without an iPad."

“Don’t be a dick” - the golden rule of news website comment threads >> Martin Belam

guardiantech — 2011-09-02T11:22:15+00:00

Martin Belam, writing in a purely personal capacity (you understand): "[if you're moderated] ask yourself, “Was I being a bit of a dick?”.
"I’d define dick-ish behaviour on a news site as including, but not restricted to: personal attacks, using 'amusing' clichés like EUSSR and Tony Bliar, making the same off-topic point day after day, being rude and grumpy and unwelcoming to newcomers, mocking other people’s spelling, bullying and hectoring staff and journalists appearing in the comment threads, asking 'is this news?' on a story you are not interested in and which nobody forced you to read, hate speech, 'ironic' hate speech, anything that might now or in the future potentially land the publisher in legal hot water, and any comment which includes the phrase 'I don’t suppose the moderators will publish this but...'"

Software 'journalists' pump out stories in seconds >> New Scientist

guardiantech — 2011-08-24T21:43:57+00:00

"The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) receives thousands of financial documents every day detailing the ins and outs of various publicly traded companies and publishes them on its website. Financial reporters who trawl through these SEC filings can often land a scoop, but it's a tedious and time-consuming task. Now, MarketBrief, a new start-up based in Mountain View, California, promises to publish over 1000 stories per day thanks to its software journalists.
"It's easier than it sounds."

Philip K Dick must be laughing somewhere; he coined the "homeopapes", self-driven journalist robots, which would do the interviews by doorstepping people too.

Seven things human editors do that algorithms don't (yet) >> Harvard Business Review

guardiantech — 2011-07-03T17:27:32+00:00

Eli Pariser (of the Filter Bubble) on stuff that machines still lag at doing when it comes to offering you news.

Five great examples of data journalism using Google Fusion Tables >> Journalism.co.uk

guardiantech — 2011-06-06T14:20:54+00:00

"Google Fusion Tables allows you to create data visualisations including maps, graphs and timelines. It is currently in beta but is already being used by many journalists, including some from key news sites leading the way in data journalism."

Neat, and not just because two of them involve The Guardian.

Anatomy of a Fake Quotation >> The Atlantic

guardiantech — 2011-05-04T05:43:54+00:00

"Yesterday, I saw a quote from Martin Luther King Jr. fly across my Twitter feed: "I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy." - Martin Luther King, Jr". I was about to retweet it, but I hesitated. It didn't sound right. After some Googling, I determined that it was probably fake, which I blogged about last night.
"Here's the story of how that quote was created."

Send three and fourpence, we're going to a dance.