Industry pet peeve, now backed by data
Media statistic of the week?
Fantasy author Brandon Sanderson set out to raise $1 million on Kickstarter in 30 days to fund four new books. He blew past that goal in about 35 minutes. Within 24 hours, he had raised $15.4 million and has now broken the record for the most-funded Kickstarter recipient. Elizabeth A. Harris of The New York Times spoke with Sanderson about his goals for the project.
This past week in the media industry?
Reality becomes a crime
Russia’s war in Ukraine is also increasingly a war on news and free speech. As Anton Troianovski reported at The New York Times, Russia stepped up censorship on Friday with a new law against ‘false information.’?
In addition to blocking access to Facebook and major foreign news outlets, Putin has enacted a law that “effectively criminalizes any public opposition to or independent news reporting about the war against Ukraine,” Troianovski writes. Anyone spreading what Russia calls “false information” about its Ukraine invasion —?for example, calling the war a “war” — could now face up to 15 years in prison.?
At The Washington Post, Elahe Izadi and Sarah Ellison emphasized that with this new law, Russia’s independent media, long under siege, teeters under new Putin crackdown.
“While several Western news organizations say they have temporarily curtailed their activities in Russia while they assess the impact of Putin’s new policy, it is Russia’s homegrown media that is bearing the brunt,” they note.
“The demise of truth. Reality becomes a crime. Trying to obliterate facts on the ground, death, destruction. This must not work,” tweets Frank Sesno.
Mitchell Landsberg points out, “When authoritarian leaders lash out at the press, there’s just one reason: They don’t want their people to know the truth. Trump may wish he’d been able to do what Putin has now done - but in the long run, you can’t hide from the truth.”
Reporters Without Borders denounced the law, saying that, with it, Putin delivers the final blow to Russia’s independent media.
‘Everything that’s not propaganda is being eliminated’
In their piece, Last Vestiges of Russia’s Free Press Fall Under Kremlin Pressure, Troianovski and Valeriya Safronova of The New York Times wrote about the shuttering of TV Rain and Echo of Moscow as well as the threats to Novaya Gazeta.
“Dmitri A. Muratov, the journalist who shared the Nobel Peace Prize last year, said that his newspaper Novaya Gazeta, which survived the murders of six of its journalists, could be on the verge of shutting down as well,” they write. Muratov told them, “Everything that’s not propaganda is being eliminated.”
And then on Friday, Reuters reported that Novaya Gazeta said it would remove material on Russia’s military actions in Ukraine from its website because of censorship but that it would continue to report on the consequences that Russia is facing, including a deepening economic crisis and the persecution of dissidents.
Garrett Haake notes, “The loss of independent reporting outlets in Russia should concern anyone who wants the Russian war in Ukraine to end. If all ordinary Russians can see and know of the war being fought in their name is Kremlin propaganda, they won’t demand it be stopped.”
The retreat into darkness
Adam Satariano and Valerie Hopkins of The New York Times wrote about the digital barricade that’s now been erected between Russia and the West: Russia, Blocked From the Global Internet, Plunges Into Digital Isolation,
“After 30 years of relative (Western) sunlight, #Russia is retreating back in its traditional blind, paranoid, self-destructive darkness. Such brilliant, brave, creative people; such brutal, stupid leaders. It’s a pattern that goes back hundreds of years,” tweets Howard Fineman.
And as Kate Conger says, “The speed at which this splintering is happening is remarkable.”?
In the ‘midway media’ countries
In a new Nieman Reports feature, Ann Cooper writes about the state of the independent press in post-Soviet states like Ukraine, Moldova, Armenia, and Georgia. Fighting for A Free Press in Ukraine — and Beyond explores how journalists there are guarding their fragile press freedoms.
“Journalism in the ‘midway media’ countries,” tweets Ann Marie Lipinski. “The Russian invasion is an urgent reminder of the vital work journalists there do ‘and how precarious press freedoms are in the face of aggression from Putin and other authoritarian leaders around the world.’”
For Time Magazine,? Lisa Abend interviewed Ukrainian journalists Olga Tokariuk, Olga Rudenko of The Kyiv Independent and Veronika Melkozerova of The New Voice of Ukraine for her story, What It's Like for Ukrainian Journalists Reporting on the War in Their Country.
The reporters covering Russia’s war
For the first installment of The Washington Post series “Behind the Story, Kanyakrit Vongkiatkajorn spoke with Isabelle Khurshudyan, Whitney Leaming and Salwan Georges about how they’re covering Ukraine on the ground. “I learned a lot editing it, and I think you will too,” says Neema Roshania Patel.
Charlotte Klein of Vanity Fair talked with news organizations including ABC News, the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, NPR and The Washington Post, about how they’re managing their journalists in Ukraine and Russia and the logistical challenges they face. Check out her story, “We’re In Uncharted Territory”: Every Day Brings New Risk for Reporters Covering Russia’s War.
With the clampdown in Russia, though, “Reporters are fleeing Moscow as the walls close in,” Miriam Elder notes. On Twitter, Julia Ioffe shared, “Friend after friend fleeing Russia. Five today alone. The best and the brightest, the journalists who were telling people the truth about their country—gone. Emigres, like the white Russians of a century ago. Putin is destroying two countries at once.”
The propaganda machine
Oliver Darcy of CNN broke the news last week that RT America had ceased productions and laid off most of its staff. In a memo to the staff, the general manager added, “Unfortunately, we anticipate this layoff will be permanent.”
In other words, “The news would mean an effective end to RT America,” Darcy writes. “The network, one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s main mouthpieces in the US, was dropped earlier this week by DirecTV, dealing a major financial blow to it.”
Meanwhile, WZHF, a former Spanish-language station 11 miles east of the White House in Maryland’s Capitol Heights, is the flagship of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s effort to harness America’s radio airwaves to sell the Kremlin’s point of view.?
Paul Farhi of The Washington Post wrote about the tiny radio station broadcasting Russian propaganda in D.C. and how the Kremlin found a middleman who found a Beltway home for Radio Sputnik, known for spreading Russian spin.
A wholly false perception of the world
For just one example of how “Russia’s state-controlled media is brainwashing much of its population,” Julia Davis links to the story by Maria Korenyuk and Jack Goodman of the BBC World Service Disinformation Team, ‘My city is being shelled, but my mum in Russia won’t believe me.’?
“The awful power of propaganda,” tweets Gulliver Cragg, who notices, “Further evinced by the use of the expression ‘rebel-held’ in this article, which shows up journalists’ own vulnerability to false narratives, even when writing about this very topic.”
Valerie Hopkins of The New York Times also wrote about the frustrating backlash many Ukranians are experiencing, Ukrainians Finding That Relatives in Russia Don’t Believe It’s a War.?
Dana Nuccitelli says, “It’s amazing how effective state-owned media propaganda can be at giving people a wholly false perception of the world. Russia is like @FoxNews on steroids.”
The debate over the MBS profile
For his cover story for the April issue of The Atlantic, Graeme Wood takes us Inside the Palace With Mohammed bin Salman. Adrienne LaFrance praised the “Astonishing reporting in our just-published cover story. When @gcaw and @JeffreyGoldberg interviewed MBS at his palace, he said Khashoggi was not even in ‘the top 1,000’ people he would kill. He says outrage over the journalist’s murder hurt his feelings.”
But not everyone was full of praise for the piece.?
Marc Lynch said, “This Atlantic profile of MBS couldn’t be more sympathetic if his own press team had written it,” and Kelsey Atherton tweeted, “It’s neat that, as the danger of personalist rule by autocrats has never been more apparent, The Atlantic is giving a flattering profile to a Saudi leader who claims he didn’t order the death of a Saudi journalist but if he had it would have been cleaner.”
The story caught Karen Attiah’s attention, too. In her Washington Post column, she argues that The Atlantic’s elevation of MBS is an insult to journalism.
On Twitter, she shares, “Last week, @TheAtlantic published a 12,000 word piece on MBS and Saudi Arabia, claiming that it wanted to find out if he was a reformer, a killer or --- both. All we found out is that D.C. media elites are willing to both-sides murder, repression +war.”
As Mike Wise says, “This by @KarenAttiah destroys The Atlantic for giving Mohammed bin Salman, whom CIA says ordered to capture/kill journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a forum to sanitize MBS’s brutal regime. We use to check power in journalism; now we thank killers for interviews.”
Wood responded to the criticism with: Of Course Journalists Should Interview Autocrats. He tweeted, “I invite you to read my follow-up from yesterday, about the reception of my article in Saudi Arabia and in certain confused sections of the rest of the world. The last few paragraphs are relevant to her critique.”
“And the counter. A part of journalism and foreign policy is talking to people we find morally objectionable. I thought MBS comes off in his own words as a sociopath in the article -- but I understand that others disagree. A good debate to have…” tweets Greg Jaffe.
‘The Batman’ soars
Opening weekend box office numbers for “The Batman” were no joke. As Pamela McClintock reports at The Hollywood Reporter, ‘The Batman’ Flies to $57M Friday for $120M-Plus Opening, making it just the second film since December 2019 to open to more than $100M domestically.
It followed up the big weekend by charting the third best first Monday during the pandemic. Anthony D’Alessandro of Deadline Hollywood has those numbers.
Meanwhile, Movie Theaters Charged More for ‘The Batman.’ Are Price Hikes Here to Stay? Variety’s Rebecca Rubin talked to some box office analysts who believe incrementally increasing prices may be the new normal, at least when it comes to big blockbusters.
As Deadline’s D’Alessandro says, “If the circuits raised tickets on the No. 1 expected movie this past weekend, yes, they’ll do so again down the road.”
#Themoreyouknow
As Sarah Scire points out, this is probably not what you were going for with your Twitter bio: A survey in the U.S. found the public associates “storytellers” with liars and making things up.?
Scire wrote about the survey, conducted by researchers at the University of Cincinnati, for Nieman Lab, “Sounds like a well-trained liar”: Journalists lose some credibility by calling themselves “storytellers.’”?
Laura Hazard Owen is one of many who are happy to see their own irritation validated. She shares, “you know how some people viscerally hate the word ‘moist,’ well i hate when journalists/startups call themselves ‘storytellers’ and i am so thrilled to be proven correct, by science.”
Or as Sophie Downes puts it, “my industry pet peeve is now backed by data!”
In an interview for Reuters Institute ahead of her 2022 Reuters Memorial Lecture, Reuters editor-in-chief Alessandra Galloni talked about war coverage, journalism and impartiality. The headline quote: “In a world of cultural warriors, playing it down the middle is a journalistic imperative but also a huge commercial opportunity.”
"A disturbing sentiment, the myth of a middle,” says Jeff Jarvis.
Also check out the Reuters Institute Q&A with the Guardian’s Head of Editorial Innovation Chris Moran, who offers tips on live-blogging and covering breaking news on Ukraine.
Be proud of what you do
Last up, Elizabeth Spiers takes on “This week’s intra-mural media kerfluffle” with her piece, Do Journalists Need to Be Brands? Spoiler alert: “You already are one, whether you want to be or not,” she says.?
Stephen Fowler says, “This is a really good piece from @espiers that resonates with me on a lot of levels. A good deal is journalism inside baseball but I think it’s also a good lens to view a lot of generational conflict we’re seeing in work/politics/social life right now.”
And Josh Constine reminds you: “Your work DOES NOT speak for itself. Journalists, creators, investors, whoever -- be proud of what you do. Talk about it. Build an audience that follows you. @TaylorLorenz & @espiers are right. Those who already have power & reach don't want to share it.”
A few more
From the Muck Rack Team
Muck Rack recently had the opportunity to chat with Olivia Harrison, a freelance writer currently working with Netflix on their editorial site, Tudum, creating lifestyle content. To learn more about Olivia, her work and her process, head over to the blog for 6 questions with Olivia Harrison.
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3 年Thanks for sharing