Media Bits and Bytes – Salt in the Wounds Edition

Facebook’s fiasco; Twitter’s traps; Trump’s tricks; ESPN’s ethics; When there is no power; What’s up; Backdoor search

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What Facebook Did to American Democracy

By Alexis C. Madrigal
October 12, 2017

The Atlantic


The information systems that people use to process news have been rerouted through Facebook, and in the process, mostly broken and hidden from view. Much of the hundreds of millions of dollars that was spent during the election cycle came in the form of “dark ads.”

Twitter’s Suspension of Rose McGowan Epitomizes the Site's Most Infuriating Problem

By Aja Romano
October 12, 2017
Vox

Early Thursday, Twitter temporarily suspended the account of actor Rose McGowan, who has become a major figure in the Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment scandal. The resulting backlash from Twitter users was immediate and intense, and illustrates just how contentious Twitter, the corporation, has become for its inconsistency in protecting its users from abuse.
 

What Trump Can and Can’t Do to Bully Broadcasters Over Negative Coverage

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By Tierney Sneed
October 11, 2017
Talking Points Memo

Telecommunications law experts and veterans of the Federal Communications Commission told TPM Wednesday that Trump’s suggestion for how NBC could be punished for “Fake News” is a long shot, legally speaking, but also troubling in its implications.

Jemele Hill and the Perils of a for-Profit Fourth Estate

By Eric Levitz
October 10, 2017
New York Magazine

The conflict between journalists’ civic responsibilities and for-profit company’s fiduciary ones is not peculiar to ESPN or sports networks, but endemic to virtually all American media.
 

In Puerto Rico, No Power Means No Telecommunications

By Adam Rogers
October 10, 2017
Wired

Of 25 main central offices for wired telephone service, two are out of commission due to lack of power, which means roughly 20 of 78 remote switching units are also out of service. Of 1,600 cellular sites, at least 1,300 are out of service. Of four fiber-optic providers in Puerto Rico, one is mostly broken and one is completely down. Roughly 75 percent of fiber coverage, including cellular service, isn’t working, and neither is about 40 percent of the wired network.

Key Trends in Social and Digital News Media

By Kristen Bialik and Katerina Eva Matsa
October 4, 2017
Pew Research Center

Here are 10 key findings from recent Pew Research Center reports about today’s digital news media landscape.
 

58 Human Rights and Civil Liberties Organizations Demand an End to the Backdoor Search Loophole

By David Ruiz
October 6, 2017
Electronic Frontier Foundation

EFF and 57 organizations, including American Civil Liberties Union, R Street, and NAACP, spoke out against warrantless searches of American citizens in a joint letter this week demanding reforms of the so-called “backdoor search” loophole that exists for data collected under Section 702.