Media statistic of the week

A special report from the Committee to Protect Journalists reveals that the number of journalists jailed globally because of their work hit a new high in 2020 as governments cracked down on coverage of COVID-19 or tried to suppress reporting on political unrest. “Authoritarians again took cover in anti-press rhetoric from the United States,” CPJ notes. Its annual global survey found at least 274 journalists in jail in relation to their work on December 1, 2020, exceeding the high of 272 in 2016.

This week in media history

On December 18, 1966, the animated TV special “Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas!” starring Boris Karloff and directed by Chuck Jones, first aired on CBS. 

On that note, Patrick Sauer tweets, “CALLING ALL #GRINCH FANS: Tonight @nbc airs a musical version starring ⁦@Matt_Morrison⁩ of ⁦@OfficialGLEEtv⁩ fame. Chatted w/director Max Webster, ⁦@DrSeuss⁩ biographer ⁦@brianjayjones⁩ and a🎄 movie expert to set the holiday stage.” While the NBC special aired last week, you’ll still want to read Sauer’s piece in the Smithsonian on The History of the Grinch.

This past week in the media industry 

Looking ahead

Believe it or not, this year is finally coming to an end, and as Marissa Evans of Nieman Lab reminds us, “Each year, we ask some of the smartest people in journalism and digital media what they think is coming in the next 12 months. Here’s what they had to say.” Check out Nieman Lab's Predictions for Journalism 2021.

In his piece for that feature, Bill Adair admits that he didn’t do so well with his 2020 predictions, so he says he’s going to be more realistic with his 2021 predictions. He projects that the future of fact-checking is all about structured data, which may not sound all that thrilling to you, but it is important and he argues that it will be big in 2021. And be sure to read all the way to the end for his bonus prediction for 2022

Adweek’s A.J. Katz spoke with Bloomberg Media CEO Justin Smith, who told him he sees good news ahead in 2021 and predicts growth for digital-first publishers as the pandemic subsides.

Serving forgotten communities

The class of 2021 Stanford JSK Community Impact Fellows are publishing their insights from their first quarter of remote work as they work in their home cities and regions to close the information gaps for communities of color in the United States. Follow the latest in the Medium collection here

You might start with Lyndsey Gilpin of Southerly, who writes about her project goals in Lowndes Co, Ala., and other rural Black and Indigenous communities there in her piece, The rural South deserves journalism that better serves residents. Or Brit Harley, who has launched the Newark News & Story Collaborative, which will address community information gaps by training city residents as storytellers

Penny Riordan shares, “I hope more of the @JSKstanford 2021 fellows post updates here, because the first two pieces are inspiring. Yes, there are better ways to serve forgotten communities, and it involves listening to them and involving them in your journalism.”

Telling their stories

In his final newsletter of the year, Columbia Journalism Review’s Jon Allsop writes about the characters of the vaccine story, and the risks of ‘vaccine nationalism.’

It’s also about “Margaret Keenan, William Shakespeare, and Martin Kenyon; the fact that *people* are now coming to the fore of the vaccine story; and the challenges that telling their stories pose for the press,” he tweets, adding, “All the characters in this story are just citizens of an interconnected, unequal world who share a pressing need in the face of scarcity. We don’t always cover that well.”

Looking back

As 2020 comes to a close, journalists are also reflecting back. Kathryn Kranhold of The Wall Street Journal talked with Kate Starbird, an associate professor at the University of Washington and a co-founder of the Center for an Informed Public, about a tough year for social media, Social Media in 2020: A Year of Misinformation and Disinformation

“It’s officially December, which means it’s time for the Women Photograph tally of the 2020 Year in Pictures slideshows.” Head over to Women Photograph for its 2020 Year in Pictures, “featuring images from 100 women & nonbinary photographers who together have created a poignant visual record of this... unusual year. Take a look!”

And speaking of the year in photos, Sree Sreenivasan shared, “Our guest on the #NYTReadalong is Nancy Newhouse, Fmr NYT Travel, Living / Style Editor. We'll also cover the Year in Photos and #PuzzleMania2020.” In case you missed it, you can still catch that discussion here

This disturbing trend

Misinformation has been the theme and the challenge of the year, and it’s not just coming from your standard-issue political and social media trolls. As Richard A. Friedman writes in a New York Times op-ed, “It’s bad enough when our political leaders promote quack theories about the coronavirus and its treatment. But what do we do about the doctors who enable them and use their medical authority to promote pseudoscience?” 

In that piece, What to Do About Doctors Who Push Misinformation? he argues that some have crossed the line from free speech to medical practice — or something akin to malpractice

“Disinformation sits no longer on just faceless social media accounts and YouTube rabbit holes in the disturbing trend of doctors who spread harmful conspiracies,” tweets Kurtis Reid. “If you really wanna talk about people who shouldn’t be using the title ‘Dr,’” adds Aaron Hanlon. As Damon Darlin says, “We need to talk about this more. Some doctors are quacks.”

Facebook’s future

Last week, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission took a major step toward the possible breakup of Facebook Inc. by formally filing an antitrust lawsuit against the technology giant, accusing it of abusing its monopoly powers in social networking to stifle competition. 

Kurt Wagner and Sarah Frier of Bloomberg take a look at how a Facebook Breakup Would Demolish Zuckerberg’s Social Media Empire. “Facebook is going to fight a breakup with everything it’s got. Because losing Instagram and WhatsApp would be terrible for Facebook’s future,” Frier notes

The formidable TikTok

Meanwhile, Sarah Perez of TechCrunch reported last week that Instagram is launching shopping in Reels, its TikTok rival. Abram Brown points out that it’s “Crucial for Reels to keep adding features like this. If it offers more ways to make money than TikTok, it’s more possible to begin luring away creators and brands.” “Livestreaming Commerce has taken over in the East and now it's rapidly coming West,” tweets Jason Goldberg.

Julia Boorstin of CNBC spoke with Instagram chief Adam Mosseri, who says TikTok is the most formidable competitor the company has ever seen. Dan Whateley quotes Mosseri from that interview, “They are very focused, they’re determined, they execute incredibly well,” and points out, “Snap’s Evan Spiegel basically said the same thing about TikTok back in May

On that note, or as Scott Nover puts it, “Today in unexpected industry deals,” Reddit is buying Dubmash in a bid to compete with TikTok. As Nover writes at Adweek, “Reddit’s past had little to do with video, but its future may depend on it.”

And now, Twitter has entered the chat. Andrew Hutchinson of Social Media Today reports that Twitter has officially acquired multi-participant video chat app Squad, which could pave the way for new video streaming features in the app. Jeanne Sager is “Curious how folks feel about video chatting with other Twitter users. I’d be down for it with certain folks TBH.”

Adds to the narrative

Back to Facebook, at Protocol, Issie Lapowsky explains how right-wing websites are getting around Facebook’s political ad ban. “Right-wing sites like Daily Wire and PragerU have been running political ads during Facebook’s political ad ban. Meanwhile, left-wing sites like Courier have had ads about even healthcare enrollment deadlines blocked and lost 50% traffic since the ban.”

“Good luck, @JaneLytv. @issielapowsky’s piece in @protocol adds to the narrative, especially as it relates to @facebook’s role in trying to skew the U.S. Senate runoff in GA,” tweets Peter Himler. Lapowsky notes that “This whole thing underscores a flaw. FB gives news exemptions to outlets that don’t have political ties (ie. funding, leadership, shared accounts/data etc). But that just penalizes companies that are transparent about those ties. Lots aren’t.”

The growing set of conflicts-of-interest

In his latest New York Times column, Ben Smith reveals that Apple TV Was Making a Show About Gawker. Then Tim Cook Found Out. “Tech is firmly in control of what you watch now ... juicy bits here,” tweets Edmund Lee. 

John Hudson calls it a “smart piece on the growing set of conflicts-of-interest in the media/tech/entertainment space. ‘The two things we will never do are hard-core nudity and China,’ said senior Apple executive Eddy Cue, reports @benyt.”

“Interesting story on how @Apple wants to keep a strict tab on AppleTV+ shows,” adds Nimish Sawant. “Given Apple's history with @Gawker it’s hardly surprising that show was nixed. But other aspects such as the portrayal of China, not destroying phones in shows, etc are wacky.”

Just about sums it up

Two people who have been contacted by Newsmax tell Axios’s Alayna Treene that the network is working to pull ahead of conservative rival Fox News, including trying to lure away its vital booking agents with promises of higher salaries. 

And speaking of Newsmax, Charles Cooper thinks, “This just about sums it up.” In case you missed it, and with apologies to Jets fans, here’s SNL’s rendering of Sportsmax. As Dante Chinni says, “Every once in a while @nbcsnl has a sketch that really works on a lot of levels, where it’s not just funny, it really drives home points across a range of topics. This was one of those.”

A few more

• Masthead has details on the launch of Press Forward, a new national association that aims to unify, elevate and advocate for independent journalism organizations across Canada. Founding members include The Sprawl, La Converse, the West End Phoenix, The Discourse, The Tyee, The Narwhal, the National Observer, The Coast and Village Media.
• AT&T announced that it has agreed to sell its Crunchyroll anime business to Sony’s Funimation Global Group.
• In October, the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy launched the Media Manipulation Casebook, a digital research platform linking together theory, methods and practice for mapping media manipulation and disinformation campaigns. Research Director Joan Donovan, PhD, describes it as “a new resource for those working in the field of Critical Internet Studies. We have created a custom theory/methods package for detecting, documenting, and debunking media manipulation and disinformation campaigns.”

From the Muck Rack Team

As communications professionals, we understand the importance of growing our networks and keeping an eye out for new trends and tactics that our peers might be using. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of some of the most influential Chief Communications Officers (CCOs) in the industry. Head over to the Muck Rack Blog to see the top 15 CCOs to follow on Twitter in 2021. 

Don’t miss our third episode of #MuckRackLive, where Muck Rack CEO, Greg Galant will discuss all things media with CNN’s Media Reporter, Kerry Flynn! Come with questions and tune in live on 12/17 at 3pm ET on our Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or LinkedIn pages.