Zoom has become our new nervous system

Media statistic of the week 

You probably don’t need a poll to tell you this, but as a new Pew Research Center Election News Pathways survey shows, Americans are immersed in coronavirus news. About half of U.S. adults (51%) are following news about it very closely, with another 38% following it fairly closely. 

Fully 70% of Americans think the media are doing very (30%) or somewhat (40%) well in their coverage of the virus. But 48% report having come across at least some news and information about the virus that seemed completely made up.

This week in media history 

On March 24, 1853, anti-slavery newspaper “The Provincial Freeman” was first published in Windsor, Ontario. The paper was co-edited by Samuel Ringgold Ward and Mary Ann Shadd Cary, the first black woman publisher in North America and the first woman publisher in Canada.

This week in the media industry

Journalism in a time of crisis

We’re in unprecedented times, and newsrooms are stepping up to the challenge. Over the last week, we’ve seen some remarkable reporting on the coronavirus pandemic, and one newsroom in particular has been at the center of it from the beginning: The Seattle Times. 

At The New York Times, Rachel C. Abrams tells the story of how “The whole newsroom just snapped into gear,” as Seattle Times journalist Sydney Brownstone put it, soon after the news broke on Feb. 29 that someone had died at the Life Care Center of Kirkland, and more people were sick with the coronavirus. 

As Mike Baker notes, “Local newspapers like The Seattle Times have made their coronavirus coverage free, even as they dedicate massive resources to keep their communities informed in the middle of a crisis. ‘We’re built for this.’ Support them.” “In sum,” adds Abrams, “The Seattle Times is an example of how a community relies on local journalism in a time of crisis.” 

The story behind the story

“Did you see that great WashPost graphic with all the dots changing colors to explain why social distancing is important? Amazing right? Here’s the story of how it came to be.” Kelly McBride links to the piece by Alex Mahadevan of Poynter on how a blockbuster Washington Post story made ‘social distancing’ easy to understand.  

Mahadevan spoke with Washington Post graphics reporter Harry Stevens about that “wonky visual explainer.” Matt Barbet calls it “The story behind the newspaper story of the year,” especially considering it might be one of the most-read articles on the news site — ever. As John Voelcker says, “A smart, thoughtfully built infographic on a newsworthy topic can make millions sit up and pay attention ... including @BarackObama. And the president of Venezuela. And you and me.” 

In case you missed it, or if you want to take another look now that you have the backstory, here’s Stevens’ Washington Post explainer on why outbreaks like coronavirus spread exponentially, and how to “flatten the curve.” 

Meanwhile, The Guardian’s readers’ editor Elisabeth Ribbans explores how the Guardian is facing the challenges of covering coronavirus, emphasizing the “high-stakes responsibility of getting it right” as millions visit the live blog daily. “Interesting from @eribbans, global readers' editor, on Guardian’s approach to #COVID-19: - Three daily news meetings to discuss virus - Editors caution against words like ‘surge’ - Coronavirus explainer is the most read Guardian piece *ever*,” Ben Whitelaw highlights. 

Resources for journalists

ProPublica launched a tool that allows journalists to look up how the number of patients with COVID-19 could affect hospitals in their area under various scenarios. In his new piece, The Five Questions Reporters Need to Ask Hospitals and Local Officials About Coronavirus, Charles Ornstein explains how to write a local accountability story with the data. Ornstein describes it as “My reporting recipe for our new data app on hospital capacity.”

If you’re a podcaster or radio reporter, you’ll want to check out the new guide from Jeff Towne at Transom on Recording During The Coronavirus Pandemic. He shares some best practices for in-person recording, along with a lot of alternate options for recording remotely. As Mariana Dale says, “Audio peeps, this is very helpful!!”

Remote work strategies

Speaking of working remotely, Max Willens of Digiday takes a look at how remote work is affecting newsrooms, with safety concerns quickly creating a new normal for media workers. Center for Communication highlights, “Daily Zoom chats, extensive Slack use and rotating trips to the mailroom are helping newsrooms work remotely amid coronavirus precautions.”

Our remote team at Muck Rack can vouch for the usefulness of Slack, and now the company is offering free upgrades to paid plans for teams working on coronavirus research, response or mitigation. Paayal Zaveri of Business Insider reports that interested teams can email a special address, [email protected], to get set up.

Meanwhile, as you’ve no doubt noticed, “zoom is having a moment. dive in to the wide world of creative uses of the streaming video service w/ @TaylorLorenz @eringriffith and me.” Mike Isaac links to his piece with Taylor Lorenz and Erin Griffith at The New York Times, From Zoom University to the Zoom Party. Don Clark says it’s a “Nice NYT wrapup of how Zoom has become our new nervous system. ‘We finally figured out what Z stands for in Gen Z,’ a college student in the Zoom meme group joked.”

Threats to a delicate ecosystem

Sure, the Zoom parties are entertaining, but you’re probably also spending some time in front of the television set during your self-isolation free time. So it seems like this would be good news for the TV business. 

Not exactly. As Edmund Lee explains, “Staying home will not mean a big boon to TV profits. In fact, media giants are staring down the disappearance of the delicate ecosystem that protects their business: live events. Now, the very structure of the industry is now in doubt.” To understand why, read his piece with John Koblin at The New York Times, Glued to TV for now, but when programming thins and bills mount … 

Exactly what we don’t need right now

Last week, China announced that it would expel American journalists working for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. As Marc Tracy reports at The New York Times, the country has also demanded that those outlets, as well as the Voice of America and Time magazine, provide the Chinese government with detailed information about their operations. 

Nicholas Thompson points out that “This is exactly what we don’t need right now. Countries need to collaborate, and the public worldwide deserves the best reporting.” “Terrible news, for anyone who cares about news and information. Atrocious,” adds Damien Cave.

Social media round-up

Last week, the Facebook Journalism Project announced a partnership with the Lenfest Institute for Journalism and the Local Media Association (LMA) to offer a total of $1 million in grants to support US and Canadian local news organizations covering the coronavirus.  

TechCrunch’s Manish Singh reports that Facebook-owned instant messaging app WhatsApp has unveiled a $1 million grant and information hub to fight coronavirus rumors. Also at TechCrunch, Catherine Shu and Jonathan Shieber write about the “unprecedented move” by social media companies to reassure customers and flag the potential for misinformation about COVID-19 on their platforms, as Facebook, Reddit, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Twitter and YouTube issued a joint statement on misinformation.

As Paige Leskin reports at Business Insider, YouTube is warning that more videos than usual could be removed as content moderation is automated amid the coronavirus outbreak—including some that may not violate policies. Meanwhile, you may have noticed that Facebook was marking legitimate news articles about the coronavirus as spam. Jay Peters of The Verge did some digging and found out that it was due to a software bug. “Just what we need, another bug,” as Jane Tyska says.

A few more

Adriana Lacy, audience engagement editor at the Los Angeles Times, is directing readers to the LA Times’ coronavirus pop-account on Instagram, tweeting, “Follow us for trusted news on #COVID19 from our journalists in California and around the world.”

The BBC is making some changes during the coronavirus pandemic, including turning the nightly magazine-style show “One Show” into a consumer health program offering health advice for “all aspects of the crisis.”

KCUR.org, the website for Kansas City’s public media station, made an effort to expand its arts coverage, but web traffic suggested readers weren’t all that interested, so the editorial team developed a new strategy. Michael O’Connell of the Better News podcast spoke with KCUR digital editor CJ Janovy about the station’s new approach. Listen in to find out, Is it time to rethink your arts coverage?

In their Byers Market newsletter, Dylan Byers and Ahiza Garcia-Hodges of NBC News bring us the scoop that Axios is partnering with Malcolm Gladwell’s Pushkin podcast studio to create a new daily news podcast modeled after Mike Allen’s Axios AM morning newsletter. Launching this summer, the podcast will be a 50-50 joint venture, with the two sides splitting revenues.

From the Muck Rack Team

Join Aaron Strout, CMO of W2O, Jennifer Choi, Managing Director, News Integrity Initiative at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY, and me on April 9th for a live webinar analyzing findings from Muck Rack’s 2020 State of Journalism report. We’ll explore how the media landscape is changing in 2020 and reporters' outlooks on the future of journalism; where journalists are getting the most value on social media; tips for pitching journalists and landing coverage; and how to best collaborate and build relationships with journalists Sign up here!

Over on the Muck Rack Blog, it’s the coronavirus edition of This month in bad PR pitches. 

Working from home? Here are some great tips from the Muck Rack community.

Question of the week

How is your local newsroom covering the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on your community? We’d love to share your examples of some of the great local journalism that’s happening around the world.