A secret settlement hid an officer's misconduct. Outside Maine, it would have been different.

Erin Rhoda

December 09, 2020 |

Bangor Daily News |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Colorado

A Colorado law enacted in 2016 requires law enforcement officers to disclose their past disciplinary records when seeking a new job at a different agency. By making such disclosures automatic, the law standardizes hiring practices statewide, protects past employers from liability for making the disclosures, and most importantly prevents rogue officers from hopping from one job to the next undetected. Maine has no such requirement., and so some of its agencies might unknowingly hire an officer with a record of misconduct.

Read More

Go to Original Story

The NewsRun, a daily newsletter about Pakistan, cuts through the noise of a cluttered media market

Hanaa’ Tameez

November 24, 2020 |

Nieman Lab |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States

The NewsRun is “a daily newsletter that summarizes Pakistan’s major stories of the day." It’s helping Pakistani people stay on top of the news. Some Pakistani people who live in the country get overwhelmed with the daily news cycle, while Pakistani’s living abroad might have a language barrier or lack the context to understand the news. The clear, direct language of the newsletter makes the news accessible. "The way it’s written is clear and it highlights all the key points I need to know." The newsletter has thousands of Instagram followers and a “20 to 30 percent daily open rate.”

Read More

Go to Original Story

New Orleans actively releases videos of police shootings. Is it paying off with trust?

Christiaan Mader

November 23, 2020 |

The Current (Louisiana) |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, New Orleans, Louisiana

Once viewed as one of the nation's most brutal and corrupt police departments, New Orleans Police Department has earned steadily improving public support with a host of reforms. One reform that it took voluntarily, and in contrast with common practice in Louisiana, is to quickly release body-camera videos of police shootings and other uses of force. Though its effect is hard to untangle from other initiatives, video releases have become routine. In one case, a video prompted an official apology after proving rubber bullets were used against protesters. This helped lead to new restrictions on crowd control.

Read More

Go to Original Story

Twitter Keeps Some Measures It Says Slowed Election Misinformation

Shannon Bond

November 12, 2020 |

KALW |

Text |

Under 800 Words

Response Location: United States

To reduce the spread of disinformation, Twitter labeled about 300,000 tweets with warnings that they contained "disputed and potentially misleading" information about the election between October 27 and November 11. The tweets were from removed from recommendation algorithms, extra steps were needed to reply to or share a tweet, and almost 500 had an additional warning that users had to click past to read. Twitter says it saw a 29% reduction in quoting the tweets that had the warnings and, while several election related changes will end, users will still have to quote tweets rather than simply retweeting.

Read More

Go to Original Story

Four journalists experiment with kid-friendly podcast to inform under-12s about the news

Sophie Aristotelous

November 12, 2020 |

Journalism.co.uk |

Text |

Under 800 Words

Response Location: United Kingdom

There isn’t a lot of media outlets providing age-appropriate news for children. So, four journalists came together to create “KidNuz,” a children’s news podcast. The show has garnered thousands of listeners. “Although KidNuz's listenership is mainly between the ages of eight and 12, children as young as five, and even adults, listen in.” The podcast provides children with news about “about politics, current events, or science, with inspiring humanity stories, for example, about people doing charitable work or helping animals.”

Read More

Go to Original Story

On Election Day, Facebook and Twitter Did Better by Making Their Products Worse

Kevin Roose

November 05, 2020 |

The New York Times |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States

Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites defended against election-related disinformation campaigns by quickly identifying and removing fake accounts and putting labels and warnings on posts that made false claims of voter fraud and premature claims of victory. Instead of frictionless usability, they slowed or shut down core parts of their products such as limiting political ads, tweaking recommendation algorithms, and/or preventing sharing and comments on questionable posts. Threats will continue in the weeks ahead, but the companies have prevented widespread disinformation campaigns so far.

Read More

Go to Original Story

How to Combat Disinformation Targeting Black Communities

Amy Yee

November 03, 2020 |

Yes! Magazine |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States

Several groups are working to counter disinformation aimed at the Black community by spreading accurate information and elevating local voices as trusted messengers. Organizations have disseminated accurate information via social media, used hackathons and video game launches to get Black and other youth of color interested in voting, provided shareable content to progressive organizations, and created a guide to help people identify fake accounts and bots. Nonprofit First Draft also provides a two-week disinformation training course in English and Spanish with daily lessons sent by text.

Read More

Go to Original Story

With Talk2020, The Wall Street Journal turns an internal reporting tool into a reusable news product

Sarah Scire

November 02, 2020 |

Nieman Lab |

Text |

Under 800 Words

Response Location: United States, Washington, District of Columbia

Talk2020 is a searchable database from the Wall Street Journal with thousands of transcripts from presidential and vice-presidential candidates’ campaign speeches, media appearances, debates, and more. Users can filter by issue, date, candidate, or keyword to find quotes and facts about a candidate’s record. It began as an internal tool to help reporters and editors working in the D.C. bureau frame and inform their own journalism, but focus groups showed that news consumers also wanted to be able to quickly locate quotes and facts for their own edification and to support fact-based debates with others.

Read More

Go to Original Story

How Tracking Can Improve Gender Representation in Sourcing from J-School to the Newsroom

Holly Cabrera Meriem Chiadmi Lucie Laumonier Martin Payette Amelie Daoust-Boisvert

October 30, 2020 |

J-Source |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Canada

Based on an approach that one participant termed “what gets measured gets done,” several Canadian media watchers and news organizations are prodding journalists to quote more women in news stories by auditing sources' genders in past stories. One Montreal Gazette reporter's tally of her newsroom's stories increased how many women were quoted in stories from 29% of stories to 42%. The Gender Gap Tracker tracked Canada's seven most influential news platforms, and saw an increase in the use of female sources in stories by 4% in less than two years, nearly as big a gain as in the previous 26 years.

Read More

Go to Original Story

How They Did It: Tracking Down a Rwandan Genocide Suspect

Marthe Rubió

October 27, 2020 |

Global Investigative Journalism Network |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: France, Orléans

Years after international authorities had stopped searching for a man suspected of being an architect of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, a freelance journalist spent eight months searching data and doing on the ground reporting to find the suspect in central France. A story on the find by journalist Théo Englebert led Rwanda to issue an arrest warrant and a French prosecutor to open a counterterrorism investigation. Englebert's sleuthing provides a tutorial on "finding someone who wants to disappear."

Read More