Hello from Vientiane! 🇱🇦

I’m here this week to speak at Fojo's annual partner meeting where they bring together their network of journalism training institutions. Much of the conversation focused on the craft of journalism — how do we create better journalism? — but I think we need a better conversation in this industry: what do we as citizens—not media professionals—want from journalists?

I want journalists to inform me, and hold governments and businesses accountable. I want them to address problems and things that I need to get done every day, and help me make better decisions, like: how do I invest my time and attention in what matters to me? Journalism, if it’s to survive, needs to function as a service; relevance and utility go hand-in-hand. 

I presented our views on media trends, stressing the point that we badly need a rethink of how we’re defining media, journalism, and training. Want the deck? Hit reply and I’ll be happy to send it over.

In the meantime, a warm Splice welcome to our new subscribers from the U.S. State Department and Apolitical.

Here’s your weekly intelligence report on the biggest trends, threats, and tools in media. 

— Alan Soon

PLATFORMS

Content moderation may be the most important job of this social media age. Moderators function as editors and censors in deciding what you see and what you don’t. It’s also a thankless task performed by low-paid contractors who work in tragic environments. Casey Newton, who’s done some stunning reporting on this problem, takes another look at the conditions in which Facebook’s contracted moderators work. It’s grim. The situation is so bad that several of these moderators decided to break their NDAs to get the word out. Read Casey’s reporting here (it’s human, compassionate, and fair, and I think it deserves a Pulitzer). And/or watch the video story. 

Twitter is getting rid of precise geo-tagging because it says people aren’t using it. This feature was opt-in anyway, and wasn’t obvious to many. Frankly, it was horribly inaccurate in this region. But it was an important feature for researchers and journalists, as well as tools like Dataminr. How are we going to verify tweets if we don’t have a hint of where they’re coming from?

In another blow to researchers and journalists, Facebook decided to turn off Graph Search this month — a tool that’s incredibly powerful in surfacing evidence. The community of open source investigators is enraged. “Suddenly they are pulling the rug out from under us, hindering our ability to protect human rights.”

Advertisers on Facebook and Instagram can’t run ads with “the brandishing of firearms.” That’s why gun companies have started using lingerie-clad, gun-loving influencers to get the word across. “They’ve done something that the companies in the firearm industry cannot do on their own: make the gun lifestyle as attractive and aspirational as all the others on Instagram.”

YouTube is reportedly deciding whether to move all children’s content off the main platform. Instead, it’ll run them off the standalone YouTube Kids app where children will be safer — limited targeting, no autoplaying, and definitely no extremist content. I’m all for it. Never leave your kid unsupervised on YouTube.

TikTok has half a billion active users worldwide. In the U.S., most of its users are between 16-24, making it a powerful platform for publishers to reach younger audiences. Here’s how the Washington Post, NBC News, and the Dallas Morning News are using it. “Creatively, we’re trying to figure out what sticks. We thought two minutes was short on Snap, but now we have to get to 20 seconds.”

Game-video streamer Twitch bought Bebo, once the biggest social network in the UK, after a bidding war with Discord and Facebook. The sale price wasn’t announced, but it’s reportedly under $25 million. The acquisition is meant to help drive Twitch’s esports business, especially around its Rivals product.

SPONSORED BY REUTERS

Subscription fatigue is setting in for developed markets. So what’s competing for people’s subscription budgets? Netflix and Spotify — not news. Read Reuters Institute’s global survey of news consumption trends here.

GOVERNMENTS

A New Zealand man was sentenced to 21 months in jail for sharing a video of the Christchurch terror attack. He pled guilty to two charges of distributing objectionable material. 


TRANSFORMATIONS

Seven West Media’s The West Australian rolled out a digital subscription for thewest.com.au. It’s a leaky paywall — a mix of free articles, as well as the option to subscribe for A$1 a day.

Washington Post launched By The Way, a travel site and newsletter. They put their journos across 50 locations to uncover “true local experience in the world’s most popular destinations”. Now you can get drunk like a foreign correspondent.

Yes, you’re probably producing too much content. The Guardian apparently cut its weekly story output by a third, yet traffic went up.


STARTUPS

The origin of The Malaysian Insider has always been a bit of a mystery. Its investors were never made public. And it was a big surprise when The Edge Group acquired the news site in 2014 (only to shut it down two years later). As it turns out, one of the shareholders was Jho Low, who invested US$9 million. The Edge says it had no idea. Hmm.

Les Jours is a 3-year-old startup created by ex-journos at the French daily Libération. When they started, they consulted journalists and screenwriters. The idea: If news is a saga, why not serialize it?


TOOLS

Check out Mojo. It’s an app (iOS for now) to help you edit vertical videos for Instagram Stories, Facebook Stories, and Snapchat.

Chartbeat now tracks Apple News traffic. You can see what your readers are engaging with in real-time.


PODCASTS

Advertisers can now target ads on Spotify based on the kind of podcasts that people listen to. Previously, targeting was limited to the free-tier listeners based on genre or playlist.


TALENT

e27 is looking to hire. Co-founder Mohan Belani is expanding his content team and wants to find people keen on covering the tech ecosystem in Southeast Asia. Email him here.

DealStreetAsia needs journos in Bangkok and Yangon. They’re also expanding their Jakarta team. Apply here if you have at least 3 or more years as a business reporter.


NOTABLES

Hong Kong’s protesters deserve the Nobel Peace Prize. “...These days have made history. Such a turnout should be recognized.” Yes.

Singapore’s state-directed newspaper The Straits Times is running a US$475 workshop to teach you how to spot misinformation. “Be equipped with the skills to spot fake news and analyse arguments in the media.” 🤮🤮🤮

Influencers get a lot of attention. Some of them are even made of pixels.

FROM OUR PARTNERS

Google News Initiative’s Newsroom Leadership Program aims to build on leadership skills and decision-making capabilities of emerging newsroom leaders in Asia. It focuses on applied technology, audience-centric behaviors, design thinking, data applications, emerging business models, and editorial innovation. The deadline is June 26. Application details here.

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