Australia to make Facebook, Google pay news outlets for content

SYDNEY - Australia finalized plans on Tuesday to make Facebook Inc and Google pay its media outlets for news content, a world-first move aimed at protecting independent journalism that has been strongly opposed by the internet giants.

Under laws to go to parliament this week, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the Big Tech firms must negotiate with local publishers and broadcasters how much they pay for content that appears on their platforms. If they can't strike a deal, a government-appointed arbitrator will decide for them.

"This is a huge reform, this is a world first, and the world is watching what happens here in Australia," Frydenberg told reporters in the capital Canberra.

"Our legislation will help ensure that the rules of the digital world mirror the rules of the physical world... and ultimately sustain our media landscape."

The law amounts to the strongest check of the tech giants' market power globally, and follows three years of inquiry and consultation, ultimately spilling into a public brawl in August when the U.S. companies warned it may it may stop them offering their services in Australia. 

A representative for Google declined to comment on Tuesday, saying the company had yet to see the final version of the proposed law. Facebook was not immediately available for comment.

Until recently, most countries have stood by as advertisers redirect spending to the world's biggest social media website and search engine, starving newsrooms of their main revenue source and bringing widespread shutdowns and job losses.

But regulators are starting to test their power to rein in the two mega-corporations which take more than four-fifths of Australian online advertising spending between them, according to Frydenberg. This year, a French regulator told Google to negotiate with publishers over payment for news content, and the matter remains before the courts. 

"It's both very ambitious and very necessary," said Denis Muller, an Honorary Fellow at University of Melbourne's Centre for Advancing Journalism, referring to the Australian law.

"Taking their news content without paying for it, in exchange for a very questionable reward of 'reach', seems to be a very unfair and uneven and ultimately democratically damaging arrangement."

News Corp Australia executive chairman Michael Miller said the law was "a significant step forward in the decade-long campaign to achieve fairness in the relationship between Australian news media companies and the global tech giants". In May, News Corp stopped printing more than 100 Australian newspapers, citing declining advertising. 

In changes to draft legislation announced earlier this year that might favour the tech companies, the final version of the law would not affect news content distributed on Facebook's Instagram subsidiary or Google's Youtube.

But Frydenberg added to the list of media companies with whom the tech giants must negotiate, saying public broadcaster the Australian Broadcasting Corp and specialist public broadcaster SBS would be included, along with dominant private sector outlets like News Corp and Nine Entertainment Co Holdings Ltd.

-reuters-

Facebook offers $100-M to help virus-hit news media

Facebook said Monday it was donating $100 million to support news organizations globally hurting from the coronavirus pandemic, citing the need for reliable information about the crisis.

"The news industry is working under extraordinary conditions to keep people informed during the COVID-19 pandemic," said Facebook's news partnerships director, Campbell Brown.

"At a time when journalism is needed more than ever, ad revenues are declining due to the economic impact of the virus. Local journalists are being hit especially hard, even as people turn to them for critical information to keep their friends, families and communities safe."

The new funding includes $25 million in emergency grants for local news through the Facebook Journalism Project, and $75 million for additional marketing efforts "to move money over to news organizations around the world," according to a statement.

Facebook said it will offer grants "to publishers most in need in the hardest hit countries."

The move comes amid growing concerns of cutbacks and closures of news organizations hit by lockdowns and a massive slump in advertising resulting from the health crisis.

In recent months Facebook and Google have stepped up efforts to help news organizations, following criticism that their dominance of online advertising has made it difficult for media to profit from digital operations.

Facebook has also supported fact-checking operations with AFP and other media companies, including Reuters and the Associated Press, under which content rated false is downgraded in news feeds so that fewer people see it.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Facebook begins rollout of 'News Tab' in US

Facebook on Friday began rolling out its dedicated "News Tab" with professionally produced content, the latest move by the social network to promote journalism and shed its reputation as a platform for misinformation.

The news section will be separate from user's normal feeds and include articles from partner news organizations, with Facebook relying on both human curation and algorithmic "personalization."

Labeled Facebook News, the new tab "gives people more control over the stories they see, and the ability to explore a wider range of their news interests, directly within the Facebook app," said a Facebook statement.

The initiative is in line with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's call to promote "quality journalism" and help readers separate professional content from viral hoaxes.

"We talked to news organizations about what they'd like to see included in a news tab, how their stories should be presented and what analytics to provide," said Facebook vice president for news partnerships Campbell Brown and product manager Mona Sarantakos, Product Manager in a statement.

Earlier this week, Zuckerberg pointed to a "big announcement" on news and journalism and indicated the new feature would highlight "high quality news, not just social content."

Facebook is expected to pay some of the news organizations that will contribute to the News Tab but has yet to disclose full details.

The social network has partnered with some 200 news organizations including the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, CBS News, BuzzFeed, Fox News, the Boston Globe, Bloomberg and Vanity Fair.

Facebook said it would begin an initial test rollout which would "showcase local original reporting by surfacing local publications from the largest major metro areas across the country, beginning with New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Philadelphia, Houston, Washington DC, Miami, Atlanta and Boston."

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Facebook ‘big’ project on journalism set for this week

Facebook is set to make a "big announcement" this week aimed at supporting news and journalism, chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said Wednesday.

Zuckerberg, appearing at a congressional hearing on its digital coin Libra, said during questioning that the leading social network is moving forward on a project "supporting high-quality journalism."

The comments appeared to refer to Facebook's planned "News Tab" which will be a separate section that includes articles from professional news organizations.

"Later in this week we have a big announcement coming up on news and journalism," he told lawmakers, describing this as "a new product that is supporting high quality journalism."

This will feature "high quality news, not just social content," according to Zuckerberg.

Facebook last week confirmed that it would include content from News Corp., publisher of The Wall Street Journal.

While the hearing was focusing on the digital currency plan, Zuckerberg faced an array of questions on other topics including data protection, deepfake videos and the spread of child pornography.

Facebook is expected to pay some of the news organizations that will contribute to the News Tab but has yet to disclose full details.

The company has said a human team will select relevant, reliable breaking and top news stories for the tab and the number of publishers involved will grow over time.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Journalists urge action against Google over EU copyright dispute

PARIS — Hundreds of journalists called Wednesday for European officials to take action against Google over its refusal to pay media companies for displaying their content in defiance of a strict new EU copyright law.

France was the first country to ratify the law, which was passed this year and comes into force on Thursday to ensure publishers are compensated when their work is displayed online.

But Google said last month that articles, pictures and videos would be shown in search results only if media firms consent to let the tech giant use it for free.

If they refuse, only a headline and a bare link to the content will appear, Google said, almost certainly resulting in a loss of visibility and potential ad revenue for the publisher.

Around 800 journalists as well as photographers, filmmakers and media CEOs signed an open letter published in newspapers across Europe urging governments to ensure that Google and other tech firms comply with the new EU rule.

"The law risks being stripped of all meaning before it even comes into force," the letter said, calling Google's move "a fresh insult to national and European sovereignty".

"The existing situation, in which Google enjoys most of the advertising revenue generated by the news that it rakes in without any payment, is untenable and has plunged the media into a crisis that is deepening each year," it said.

The presidents of the European Alliance of News Agencies and the European Newspaper Publishers' Association also signed the letter.

'CATASTROPHE' 

Google has countered that it benefits news publishers by sending more than 8 billion visits to their websites each month in Europe alone.

"We don't pay for links to be included in search results" because "it would undermine the trust of users," Richard Gingras, Google's vice president in charge of news, said in Paris last month.

But news publishers, including AFP, say such links to their websites are unable to help them cope with plummeting revenues as readers migrate online from traditional media outlets.

French President Emmanuel Macron has said Google will have to comply with the law, and the European Commission said it stands ready to assist member states, which must translate into domestic legislation by June 2021.

The new rules create so-called neighboring rights to ensure a form of copyright protection -- and compensation -- for media firms when their content is used on websites such as search engines or social media platforms.

"Now that disinformation campaigns are infecting the internet and social networks, and independent journalism is under attack in several countries within the European Union, surrendering would be a catastrophe," said the open letter.

"We call on the public decision-makers to fight back."

source: news.abs-cbn.com

What does Facebook's plan to hire journalists mean for media industry?

NEW YORK -- Facebook's plan to hire professional journalists instead of relying solely on algorithms to deliver news is a positive step but is unlikely to shake up an embattled media industry, analysts say.

The social media giant said Tuesday it would build a small team of journalists to select the top national news of the day "to ensure we're highlighting the right stories."

It comes as the US media landscape is plagued by job losses and newspaper closures, with organizations trying to figure out how to record profits in the age of free news.

Stories will appear in a section called the "news tab," which will be separate from the traditional news feed that displays updates and content from users' friends and relatives.

"In theory I see this as a really positive development. It is something quite promising," Danna Young, a communications professor at the University of Delaware, told AFP.

Facebook's journalists will be curating stories from news sites and won't be editing headlines or writing content.

The California-based company has consistently said it does not want to be considered a media organization that makes major editorial decisions, and this announcement does little to change that, experts add.

"It's not transformative because it's not going to change necessarily the behavior of individuals who are referencing stories on their feeds," said Young.

"That's where the power comes from -- individuals you know and trust putting their tacit stamp of approval on stories by sharing them," she added.

'PERSONALIZED'

The tab will be the site's first news feature using human moderators since it shut down its ill-fated "trending topics" section last year after a scandal over allegations workers had suppressed stories about conservative issues.

Articles not deemed top news stories will still be collated using algorithms based on the user's history, such as pages they follow, publications they subscribe to and news they have already interacted with.

"Our goal with the news tab is to provide a personalized, highly relevant experience for people," Facebook head of news partnerships Campbell Brown told AFP in San Francisco Tuesday.

The news tab feature comes as Facebook embarks on a series of initiatives to boost journalism, with traditional media organizations accusing it of benefiting financially from their hard work.

Internet platforms are dominating the internet advertising space making it difficult for established news organizations to transition what were very profitable print advertisements online.

Facebook announced in January that it would invest $300 million over 3 years to support journalism, particularly local news organizations.

It has also funded fact-checking projects around the world, including one in partnership with AFP.

Facebook will reportedly pay some publishers to license news content for the tab but Mathew Ingram, who writes about digital media for the Columbia Journalism Review, doesn't expect that to trickle down to hard-up organizations that need it the most.

"The companies they are going to choose are ones already doing well I assume. It might give them a little extra cash but I don't see it driving a huge amount of traffic," he told AFP.

'DESTRUCTIVE'

Print journalism in the US is in free-fall as social media overtakes newspapers as the main news source for Americans.

Around 2,000 American newspapers closed in the past 15 years, according to the University of North Carolina, leaving millions of residents without reporters keeping track of what their local authorities are up to.

"The death of local news has such destructive effects for democracy. It's a complex issue that Facebook alone cannot fix," said Young.

The number of journalists working at US newspapers slumped by 47 percent from 2008 to 2018, according to a Pew Research Center survey released last year.

The total number of journalists in newsrooms fell by 25 percent, the group found, while consultancy firm Challenger Gray & Christmas says this is going to be the worst year for layoffs since 2009.

It's a difficult time for Stephen Groves, who recently earned a master's in journalism at New York University, to be looking for work. When he heard about Facebook's plans, he was skeptical.

"Facebook is not a journalism company and so before working for Facebook I would want to see their commitment to ethical, robust journalism," the 30-year-old told AFP.

The digital sector is also in trouble.

When Buzzfeed cut 200 jobs in January, 29-year-old Emily Tamkin was let go from a position she had held for just a few months.

"I'm personally not cheered by the fact that Facebook is swooping in and hiring journalists. If that's the silver lining then we have a very big cloud here," she told AFP.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Media sector seeks new powers to challenge Big Tech

WASHINGTON -- Big Tech firms are clobbering traditional news organizations, media representatives told lawmakers Tuesday, asking for new authority to allow the struggling sector to team up against online platforms.

The comments came as the House Judiciary Committee opened the first in what is expected to be a series of hearings examining the dominance of Big Tech in several economic sectors.

Tuesday's hearing sought to focus on the plight of news organizations, which have struggled to keep up with the dominance of Facebook and Google in online advertising.

"In effect, a couple of dominant tech platforms are acting as regulators of the digital news industry," said David Chavern of the News Media Alliance, previously known as the Newspaper Association of America.

"The result of the tech platforms' regulation of the news industry has been to siphon revenue away from news organizations."

But Chavern said that rather than push for a breakup, Congress should pass a law giving the media sector its own antitrust exemption to better compete with Big Tech.

He cited the proposed Journalism Competition and Preservation Act as "an innovative, market-oriented solution" to the problem.

"Markets work best when different parties can negotiate with one another on reasonably even footing -- and where both parties have some leverage to credibly withdraw from negotiations if the other side demands unreasonable or exploitative terms," he said.

The bill "helps remedy this imbalance by allowing news organizations to bargain collectively against dominant tech platforms."

David Pitofsky, general counsel at News Corp, which publishes the Wall Street Journal, offered similar remarks.

"If publishers could band together they might be able to use their collective leverage to bring the platforms to the negotiating table. But doing so is made impossible by the antitrust laws," Pitofsky said.

Pitofsky said he was hopeful for "reinvigorated antitrust enforcement" but noted that this would "require years of investigation and litigation."

"In the interim, news publishers need a fighting chance. The Journalism Competition and Preservation Act is well-designed to help restore the proper balance between content generators and content distributors."

Gene Kimmelman of the consumer group Public Knowledge said the news sector's woes were deep but should be resolved through market forces.

"We do not believe this problem will be solved by allowing more consolidation of power, whether among platforms or media," Kimmelman said.

"And we believe exceptions to the antitrust laws should be a tool of last resort, if they are ever used. Enabling excess market power to challenge the existing dominant platforms does nothing to address the long term need to develop market forces that promote strong local journalism."

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Robo-journalism gains traction in shifting media landscape

WASHINGTON -- A text-generating "bot" nicknamed Tobi produced nearly 40,000 news stories about the results of the November 2018 elections in Switzerland for the media giant Tamedia -- in just five minutes.

These kinds of artificial intelligence programs -- available for nearly a decade -- are becoming more widespread as news organizations turn to them to produce stories, personalize news delivery and in some cases sift through data to find important news.

Tobi wrote on vote results for each of Switzerland's 2,222 municipalities, in both French and German, for the country's largest media group, according to a paper presented last month at the Computation + Journalism conference in Miami.

A similar automated program called Heliograf has enabled The Washington Post daily to cover some 500 election races, along with local sports and business, since 2014.

"We've seen a greater acceptance of the potential for artificial intelligence, or robo-journalism, in newsrooms around the world," said Damian Radcliffe, a University of Oregon professor who follows consumer trends and business models for journalism.

"These systems can offer speed and accuracy and potentially support the realities of smaller newsrooms and the time pressures of journalists."

News organizations say the bots are not intended to displace human reporters or editors but rather to help free them from the most monotonous tasks, such as sports results and earnings reports.

Jeremy Gilbert, director of strategic initiatives at The Washington Post, said Heliograf was developed as a tool to help the newspaper's editorial team.

"The Post has an incredible team of reporters and editors and we didn't want to replace them," Gilbert told AFP.

'IS THIS SOMETHING WE CAN AUTOMATE?'

Gilbert said the bot can deliver and update stories more quickly as they develop, allowing reporters to concentrate on other tasks, and that reaction has been generally positive.

"The surprise was that a lot of people came up and said, 'I do this story every week; is this something we can automate?'" Gilbert said.

"These weren't stories that anyone wanted to do."

Similar conversations are going on in newsrooms around the world. The Norwegian news agency NTB automated sports reports to get match results delivered within 30 seconds.

The Los Angeles Times developed a "quakebot" that quickly distributes news articles on temblors in the region and also uses an automated system as part of its Homicide Report.

The Associated Press has been automating quarterly earnings reports for some 3,000 listed companies, allowing the news agency to expand from what had been just a few hundred, and this year announced plans with its partner Automated Insights to deliver computer-generated previews of college basketball games.

Rival news agency Reuters last year announced the launch of Lynx Insight, which uses automated data analysis to identify trends and anomalies and to suggest stories reporters should write.

Bloomberg's computerized system called Cyborg "dissects a company's earnings the moment they appear" and produces within seconds a "mini-wrap with all the numbers and a lot of context," editor-in-chief John Micklethwait wrote last year, noting that one-fourth of the agency's content "has some degree of automation."

France's Le Monde and its partner Syllabs deployed a computer program that generated 150,000 web pages covering 36,000 municipalities in the 2015 elections.

One advantage of using algorithmically generated stories is that they can also be "personalized," or delivered to the relevant localities, which can be useful for elections and sports coverage.

INVESTIGATIVE ROBO-REPORTER?

While news professionals acknowledge the limits of computer programs, they also note that automated systems can sometimes accomplish things humans can't.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution used a data journalism team to uncover 450 cases of doctors who were brought before medical regulators or courts for sexual misconduct, finding that nearly half remained licensed to practice medicine.

The newspaper used machine learning, an artificial intelligence tool, to analyze each case and assign a "probability rating" on sexual misconduct, which was then reviewed by a team of journalists.

Studies appear to indicate consumers accept computer-generated stories, which are mostly labeled as such.

A report prepared by researcher Andreas Graefe for Columbia University's Tow Center said one study of Dutch readers found that the label of computer-generated "had no effect on people's perceptions of quality."

A second study of German readers, Graefe said, found that "automated articles were rated as more credible," although human-written news scored higher for "readability."

ROBOT APOCALYPSE

Even though journalists and robots appear to be helping each other, fears persist about artificial intelligence spinning out of control and costing journalists' jobs.

In February, researchers at the nonprofit center OpenAI announced they had developed an automatic text generator so good that it is keeping details private for now.

The researchers said the program could be used for nefarious purposes, including to generate fake news articles, impersonating others online, and automate fake content on social media.

But Meredith Broussard, a professor of data journalism at New York University, said she does not see any immediate threats of robots taking over newsrooms.

She said there are many positive applications of AI in the newsroom, but that for now, most programs handle "the most boring" stories.

"There are some jobs that are going to be automated, but overall, I'm not worried about the robot apocalypse in the newsroom," she said.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Apple eyes starpower for launch of new news, video streaming service

SAN FRANCISCO - Is it Hollywood time for Apple?

The iPhone maker appeared set to launch its streaming television service next month, calling on celebrities such as Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon and "Star Wars" director J.J. Abrams to join an event at its Silicon Valley headquarters.

Apple remained customarily tight-lipped about its plans amid reports of a March 25 event at its Cupertino headquarters focusing on services, including video and a likely subscription news service aimed at shaking up the world of journalism.

The news comes with Apple under pressure to emphasize subscription-based services to diversify its revenues amid sluggish growth in smartphones, which have delivered the bulk of Apple's profits for the past decade.

With news and streaming video, Apple could potentially disrupt 2 sectors and move toward reinventing itself once again.

Apple transformed the digital music scene with deals to sell songs through its iTunes store launched in 2003.

An Apple streaming music service launched in mid-2015 now boasts more than 50 million subscribers.

Apple is believed to be investing at least $1 billion in content and has acquired the rights to a new series starring and co-produced by American actresses Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon. 

The 2 actresses were expected to join chief executive Tim Cook in Cupertino, with Jennifer Garner also present, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

The potential for an Apple service streaming movies or television shows has been a question since the company added the Apple TV set-top device to its lineup 12 years ago.

Bloomberg News reported the video service would compete with rivals like Netflix and Amazon Prime, although details of the service had not been finalized.

Apple for news?

The Wall Street Journal reported this week that some news organizations were balking at Apple's plan to take a 50 percent cut of revenues as it beefs up its mobile app to offer newspaper as well as magazine subscriptions.

The disclosure appears to be "attempts to negotiate through the media," according to tech analyst Ben Thompson on his Stratechery blog, who added that if Apple succeeds, "having one place to get all of the best journalism would be amazing."

Some analysts remained skeptical about Apple's plans to disrupt journalism.

"It's hard to justify a 50 percent cut," Creative Strategies analyst Carolina Milanesi said in a tweet on the subject.

Apple, known for having music stars perform at its media events, is looking to build momentum for its Apple TV service, with deals to have it installed on television models coming out this year.

During a recent earnings call, Cook confirmed that Apple plans to produce its own shows in a move that could challenge streaming television giants Netflix and Amazon Prime, which have invested heavily in original content.

"We will participate in the original content world," Cook said while discussing Apple's plans for video content including a partnership with Oprah Winfrey.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Times Square ball drop in New York pays tribute to press freedom

NEW YORK -- Thousands of hardy merrymakers, many in plastic ponchos, watched on Monday as the shimmering New Year's Eve ball was raised high above a rainy Times Square, hours ahead of its annual midnight descent, a New York City tradition for more than a century.

This year, the Times Square Alliance, the business association that organizes the event, is paying a special tribute to press freedom as part of the festivities, after a year in which journalists have come under attack around the world, including in the United States.

A minute before midnight, journalists, including from ABC News, NBC News, the Washington Post, Reuters and other outlets, will join Mayor Bill de Blasio in pushing the button to initiate the ball drop.

Rappler CEO Maria Ressa, whose news website has drawn the ire of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, will be among the select group of journalists, according to a Time Magazine report which she posted on her Twitter feed. Ressa is among the publication's "Persons of the Year."

Christina Aguilera, New Kids on the Block and Sting were among the musical performers slated to entertain the throngs filling the plaza formed by the intersection of Broadway and Seventh Avenue in midtown Manhattan.

A steady rain, forecast to last for the rest of the evening, failed to dampen the spirits of the assembled multitudes, many of whom donned colorful, oversized top hats handed out by organizers.

"It was a bucket-list thing," said Daniela Ramous, a 34-year-old sales manager from McAllen, Texas. "You grow up watching it on TV, you see all the excitement. There's something magical about New York during this time of year."

Visitors began gathering inside penned-off enclosures in the morning, starting an hours-long marathon of standing in one place, with no access to public restrooms.

Belying the idea that New Yorkers themselves eschew the Times Square festivities, Eskie Garcia, a 59-year-old city worker living in Brooklyn, said she has come every year for about a decade.

"You have to come here in person," she said before applying lipstick and asking a stranger to take her picture on her cellphone. "Especially when you live by yourself. You come, you meet people."

Janette Masson, 29, said she preferred this year's rain to last year's bone-chilling cold. Masson, who works in retail in Boston, had been in her pen since 9:30 a.m., eating granola bars for lunch and dinner.

"I can deal with it," said Masson's 61-year-old mother, Judy Masson, as she stood in the rain with many hours of waiting still to come. "You make the best of a bad thing."

Umbrellas were banned as part of the tight security plan, police said, reflecting concern over the possibility of random attacks. That did not faze the huddled masses in Times Square.

"My boyfriend's coming and he's bringing us garbage bags, so we'll put those over ourselves," said 21-year-old Annika Clary, a dancer from Vancouver, Canada, who was counting down to 2019 with her sister. Plastic ponchos were allowed, with street vendors selling them for $5 on nearby avenues.

The tradition of watching a giant ball drop from a pole on top of the narrow building at the head of Times Square in midtown Manhattan began in 1907.

The current ball, in use since 2008, is a glittering, LED-studded sphere made by Waterford Crystal and Philips Lighting. Weighing 11,875 pounds (5,386 kg) and measuring 12 feet (3.7 meters) in diameter, it sits year-round on the roof of One Times Square, the one-time headquarters of the New York Times.


SHARPSHOOTERS AND DETECTORS

The New York Police Department screened people entering the corrals, deployed sharpshooters on rooftops and used radiation detectors throughout the event.

It also had planned to use an aerial drone for the first time to monitor the crowds, but canceled the effort on Monday evening given the wind and rain.

The organizers chose to honor press freedom and the contribution of journalists partly because of the deadly hostility that some reporters have faced this year.

Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi columnist for the Washington Post and US resident, was killed inside a Saudi Arabian consulate in Turkey. In June, a gunman shot dead five employees of The Capital, a newspaper in Annapolis, Maryland.

This month also marked the first anniversary of the imprisonment in Myanmar of Reuters reporters Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo for investigating how the country's security forces killed members of its Muslim Rohingya minority.

-- with ABS-CBN News

source: news.abs-cbn.com

YouTube to invest $25 million to boost 'trusted' news sources

YouTube unveiled plans to invest $25 million in news organizations as part of an effort to boosted trusted journalism and combat misinformation.

The Google-owned online video service said it would offer funding "across approximately 20 global markets to support news organizations in building sustainable video operations."

The grants "will enable our partners to build key capabilities, train staff on video best practices, enhance production facilities and develop formats optimized for online video," YouTube said in a statement late Monday.

The latest move is part of a $300 million Google News Initiative announced earlier this year by YouTube's parent to help curb manipulation and misinformation, which can spread easily online.

The YouTube effort comes as Google and Facebook -- companies that drew heavy criticism following the 2016 US election for failing to prevent the propagation of false news -- have been taking a series of steps to promote verifiable journalism.

"The work of trusted journalistic organizations is as critical as ever, especially when it comes to seeking information about current events online," YouTube said.

In addition to helping news organizations with video, YouTube said it was stepping up efforts to help its users identify "authoritative" news sources.

"Authoritativeness is essential to viewers, especially during fast-moving, breaking news events, so we've been investing in new product features to prominently surface authoritative sources," the statement said.

This will include short previews of news articles in YouTube search results on key breaking stories.

"After a breaking news event, it takes time to verify, produce and publish high-quality videos," according to the YouTube statement.

"Journalists often write articles first to break the news rather than produce videos. That's why in the coming weeks in the US we will start providing a short preview of news articles in search results on YouTube that link to the full article during the initial hours of a major news event, along with a reminder that breaking and developing news can rapidly change."

Additionally, YouTube said it was creating a working group with news organizations and advisers from around the globe to "improve the news experience on YouTube and tackle emerging challenges."

The first partners in the program will be U.S.-based Vox Media, Jovem Pan of Brazil and India Today.

"We're looking forward to having more join as we convene the group in the coming weeks," the online giant said.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

'Bonfire of the Vanities' author Tom Wolfe dead at 88

Tom Wolfe, an early practitioner of "new journalism" who captured the mood and culture of America across five decades with books including "The Bonfire of the Vanities," "The Right Stuff," and "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test," has died at the age of 88, his agent said.

Wolfe, who had a knack for coining phrases such as "radical chic" and "the me decade," died on Monday of an unspecified infection in a New York City hospital, his agent, Lynn Nesbit, said in a phone interview on Tuesday.

Wolfe's works -- fiction and non-fiction alike -- looked at realms ranging from the art world to Wall Street to 1960s hippie culture and touched on the issues of class, power, race, corruption and sex.

"I think every living moment of a human being's life, unless the person is starving or in immediate danger of death in some other way, is controlled by a concern for status," Wolfe said in a Wall Street Journal interview.

Wolfe came up with "radical chic" to brand pretentious liberals, the "me decade" to sum up the self-indulgence of the 1970s and the "right stuff" to quantify intangible characteristics of the first U.S. astronauts and their test pilot predecessors.

He was never deterred by the fact that he often did not fit in with his research subjects, partly because he was such a sartorial dandy, known for his white suits.

Wolfe was in his mid-70s while hanging out with college kids and working on the novel "I Am Charlotte Simmons," and was a fairly conservative drug-free observer in a coat and tie while traveling with Ken Kesey and his LSD-dropping hippie tribe known as The Merry Pranksters for "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" in the '60s. By looking so out of place, he figured people would be more prone to explain things to him.

'New journalism'

Wolfe started his writing career at the Springfield, Massachusetts, Union newspaper and also worked for the Washington Post, New York Herald-Tribune and New York magazine.

He was present at the birth of what was known as "new journalism," a loose style that featured lots of dialogue and detail and allowed reporters to narrate and develop characters in a way more often associated with fiction.

One of the genre's defining moments came when Wolfe was having trouble meeting a deadline for a 1964 magazine story on the hot-rod car culture. In frustration, he sent his editor a letter with his thoughts and reportage. The magazine ran it verbatim as "There Goes (Varoom! Varoom!) That Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby."

That led to a compilation of Wolfe's magazine pieces, followed by "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test," which captured the spirit of the psychedelic era during his time with Kesey, author of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," and his band of pranksters who helped spread the popularity of LSD in California. Written in a wild free-association style that disregarded rules of punctuation, it was filled with sentence fragments and used words like "skakkkkkkkkkkkkkk" and "wowwwwwww."

Wolfe's style was not for everyone. "The question is not only whether Tom Wolfe can be taken seriously but whether he can be taken at all," a Time magazine critic wrote in 1968. "He is irritating, but he did develop a new journalistic idiom that has brought relief from standard Middle-High Journalese."

Wolfe became fascinated with astronauts after Rolling Stone magazine assigned him to cover an Apollo program launch in 1972. Nine years later and in a more restrained style than some of his earlier works, he wrote "The Right Stuff" about the first seven U.S. astronauts and test pilot Chuck Yeager who came before them.

His first try at fiction was "The Bonfire of the Vanities" in 1987, which captured the cultural feel of free-wheeling Wall Street "masters of the universe" as well as his non-fiction books did. "Bonfire," a best-seller that was a much-revised version of a serial he wrote for Rolling Stone, portrayed class struggles in New York City against a backdrop of Wall Street ambition, racial stress and yellow journalism.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Tuesday that Wolfe's "wry wit and sharp observations defined an era of life in New York."

Wolfe followed with more novels -- "A Man in Full" about race, big money and high society in Atlanta; "I Am Charlotte Simmons," a tale of college high life, and "Back to Blood" about immigrants in Florida in 2012.

Wolfe complained that novelists did not bring enough reality to their books, and while bemoaning the state of American literature, offered himself as an exemplar of what it should be. That kindled rivalries with contemporaries Norman Mailer and John Updike, who Wolfe referred to as "two old piles of bones." John Irving angrily denounced Wolfe by saying, "I can't read him because he's such a bad writer."

Wolfe's trademark was the white suit, often accessorized with a white hat and two-tone shoes. He admitted he liked the attention they brought him.

Wolfe was born March 2, 1930 and grew up in Richmond, Virginia, the son of an agronomist father and an arts-oriented mother. He was a star pitcher in high school and in college at Washington and Lee and unsuccessfully tried out for the New York Giants.

Wolfe lived in New York with his wife, Sheila. He had two children.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Cybercrime case vs Rappler weak: IT law expert

MANILA - An information technology law expert on Saturday said online news publication Rappler may not be cited for an alleged violation of the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 for an incident that happened months before it was signed into law.

Lawyer JJ Disini, a University of the Philippines College of Law professor, said a law may not apply on an alleged crime committed before it took effect.

"Ang hirap kasi d'yan, parang gumagawa sila ng batas para may kaso silang mai-file sa Rappler," said Disini said.

"Parang gumagawa sila ng bagong teorya ng batas para ma-filan nila ng case 'yung Rappler. Hindi ganun ka-solid 'yung case nila," said Disini.


On Thursday, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) summoned Rappler CEO Maria Ressa and the site's former justice beat reporter Reynaldo Santos Jr. to appear before its Cybercrime Division on Monday.

This as the NBI investigated a complaint filed by Century Peak president Wilfredo Keng against Rappler for an article published in May 2012.

In that article, Rappler reported that Keng allegedly lent a car to the late former Chief Justice Renato Corona. Corona allegedly used the car even while one of Keng's companies supposedly had a pending case in a lower court, the news site reported.

Keng had denied that Corona was using his car.

The complaint invoked provisions of the Cybercrime Prevention Act, which was signed into law on September 22, 2012, months after the publication of the Rappler report that Keng had found offensive.

Disini also cited the prescription period in filing criminal cases.

"Dapat one year lang, di ba? Dapat 2013 siya nag-file," Disini said.

The NBI meanwhile cited the theory of "continuous publication," making Rappler still liable for the crime.

The NBI investigation of Keng's complaint came shortly after the Securities and Exchange Commission revoked Rappler's incorporation papers, citing its alleged violation of foreign ownership regulations under the 1987 Constitution.

Rappler has asserted that it "remains 100-percent Filipino-owned" despite having foreign investors and slammed the SEC ruling as an assault on press freedom.


--With report from Michael Delizo, ABS-CBN News

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Atom Araullo leaves ABS-CBN

MANILA – Atom Araullo is leaving ABS-CBN after working for the network for over a decade.

While he considers his time with the organization an "amazing adventure," Araullo said the time has come for him to explore emerging opportunities and challenges.

"Although I am taking a new path, I have nothing but respect and gratitude for the company that helped me become the journalist I am today," he said in a statement. "To all the hardworking men and women of ABS-CBN, maraming maraming salamat.”

In a statement, ABS-CBN wishes Araullo the best in his future endeavors.

"ABS-CBN has allowed journalist Atom Araullo to explore new interests in film, broadcast and digital media outside of the company," the network said in a statement.

"Atom says the training and exposure he got from the network as reporter and TV host have equipped him to try out other opportunities in the media industry here and abroad," it added.

Despite his decision to leave, ABS-CBN said Araullo will always remain a Kapamilya.

During his stay at ABS-CBN, Araullo earned several accolades including a bronze world medal at the New York Festivals Awards for his documentary “Warmer” in April this year.

The same documentary earned a nod at the 38th Catholic Mass Media Awards.

In May 2017, he was also hailed by the University of the Philippines Los Baños community as the Best Public Service Program Host for his show “Red Alert.”

In 2014, Araullo was proclaimed as one of the winners in the SUPER (Salute to Unparalled People, Endeavours and Resources) Awards for risking their lives while covering the wrath of super typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) in November 2013.

 Just recently, Araullo tried his hand at acting for the upcoming film "Citizen Jake.”

The movie, billed as the comeback movie of acclaimed auteur Mike de Leon, will be Araullo’s acting debut.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Journalists are not enemies, US says

Journalists should not be treated as enemies of the state but rather as allies in fighting terrorism, the US ambassador to the United Nations said Wednesday, in remarks seen as a swipe at Egypt.

Ambassador Samantha Power told the Security Council that counter-terrorism measures "should never be used as an excuse to suppress political dissent" and that jailing journalists was "counter-productive."

The 15-member council was holding a special debate on confronting terrorism ideologies chaired by Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, whose country holds the council presidency this month.

Egypt's journalists' union this month accused the regime of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of being "at war" with the media after two reporters were accused of incitement.

A total of 29 journalists are behind bars in Egypt, some of whom have been held in custody for nearly three years, according to the journalists' union.

Without referring specifically to Egypt, Power told the council that "arresting journalists, sentencing reporters to death; treating media as an enemy of the state - such actions are thoroughly counterproductive."

"The media is an ally when it comes to showing the truth about terrorist groups," she added.

Asked about the statement, Shoukry told reporters that Power's remarks were not directed at Egypt but he added that the US ambassador was off-topic.

"I think it is important that we keep a focus and that we send a clear message and not confuse issues related to the battle against terrorism with other issues," said the foreign minister.

Human rights activists accuse Sisi of running an ultra-authoritarian regime that has violently suppressed all opposition since toppling Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

Shoukry denied there had been arbitrary arrest of journalists in Egypt.

"We believe that journalism is an important contributor to the development of Egypt," he said.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

YouTube launches eyewitness video 'newswire'

WASHINGTON - YouTube announced plans Thursday for a "newswire" of eyewitness videos and a separate project on videos related to social justice and human rights.

In partnership with the social news group Storyful, the YouTube Newswire will be "a curated feed of the most newsworthy eyewitness videos of the day, which have been verified by Storyful's team of editors," a blog post from the Google-owned video sharing service said.

"With the Newswire, we hope to provide journalists with an invaluable resource to discover news video around major events, and to highlight eyewitness video that offers new perspectives on important news stories."

The initiative will draw on user-contributed videos on YouTube such as those which have been important sources for events such as the Arab Spring uprisings and protests in Ferguson, Missouri.

"It's almost impossible to turn on the news during a breaking event without seeing raw video uploaded by a YouTube user somewhere across the globe," Google News Lab's Olivia Ma said in the blog post.

"Today, more than five million hours of news video is watched on YouTube every day, and the role of the eyewitness has never had a more vital place in the newsgathering process."

YouTube also said it was launching a team to work on verification of videos contributed to the platform called The First Draft Coalition.

It will includes experts from Eyewitness Media Hub, Storyful, Bellingcat, First Look Media and others and "will develop and program a new site for verification and ethics training, tools, research, and, most importantly, case studies around the biggest news stories of the moment," according to the statement.

A separate announcement said YouTube would team up with the Witness Media Lab on "a series of in-depth projects that focus on human rights struggles as seen from the perspective of those who live, witness, and experience them."

The first project will explore the impact of bystander videos in bringing about justice in police brutality cases in the United States.

The Witness Media Lab developed out of the YouTube Human Rights Channel launched in 2012 and its predecessor, The Hub.

On its own site, Witness said that "the next stage of human rights documentation and advocacy will be powered by videos created and shared by eyewitnesses."

Every few months, the lab will highlight a different human rights struggle through the lens of eyewitness video.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

When fake news goes viral, blame the media - study

WASHINGTON - It's true. Don't believe everything you read on the Internet.

In fact, according to a study by media researchers, many news organizations fail to do enough to separate fact from fiction, and often help unverified rumors and reports to go viral online.

"Rather than acting as a source of accurate information, online media frequently promote misinformation in an attempt to drive traffic and social engagement," said the study led by Craig Silverman, a research fellow at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University.

While news organizations have always dealt with unverified information, practices at some websites may accelerate the dissemination of fake news, said the report, "Lies, Damn Lies and Viral Content."

"Many news sites apply little or no basic verification to the claims they pass on. Instead, they rely on linking-out to other media reports, which themselves often only cite other media reports as well," the study concluded.

Fake stories are often sexier or more interesting than the real ones, and as such get wider dissemination, Silverman said.

"The extent to which a fake news article can get traction was surprising to me," Silverman told AFP.

Examples cited in the study were rumors spread on Facebook and Twitter that an Ebola patient had been identified in Britain, and another that the disease had been found in Richmond, Virginia. Both reports were untrue.

'Rehana, ISIS slayer'

In another case, a story about a Kurdish woman dubbed "Rehana the ISIS slayer," or the "Angel of Kobane" purported to have killed 100 Islamic fighters, turned out to have no basis in fact even though reports about her spread for weeks last October.

The researchers traced the story to a tweet from Indian journalist and activist Pawan Durani, who published the woman's picture on Twitter and asked people to retweet it.

Stories of her exploits -- and reports of her death -- were picked up widely by news outlets "but seemed entirely based on falsities," Silverman's report said.

"The simple story of the attractive Kurd who killed dozens of ISIS fighters is a powerful wish rumor. Add in a compelling image and it’s perfect for propagation on social networks. The result is that most of us will never know the woman's true story -- and the press bears a level of responsibility for that."

Silverman said that even if much of the fake news is spread by "new media" or tabloid journals, the traditional or "quality" journalism outlets often sit by, allowing rumors to gain traction.

"When (fake) information is out there and websites are covering it, there is an imperative on the part of news organizations to look at it, flag it for readers and tell them what we know and what we don't know," Silverman said.

"If we remain silent, the ones who win are the mindless propagators."

And many news organizations fail to follow up when a false report is debunked, the report said: "The explosive claim that ISIS fighters had been apprehended at the US-Mexico border was refuted within 24 hours and yet only 20 percent of news organizations that wrote an initial story came back to it."

A 'disturbing trend'

The findings show "a very disturbing trend," said Bill Adair, a Duke University journalism professor who in 2007 founded the fact-checking website PolitiFact.

"It's particularly disturbing when journalists pass along things without knowing whether they are true or not."

Because of the fast-moving nature of Twitter and other social media, Adair said that "many people including journalists feel that if it's tweeted, it's out there and it's fair game. But news organizations have always had an obligation to check out what they pass on."

Sometimes the sheer number of repetitions of false information makes people believe something is true, the researchers said.

One example of this is the oft-repeated claim that the Obamacare health plan includes "death panels" which decide whether a person can receive treatment.

"Anyone who repeated it -- even when trying to debunk it -- further implanted it and its negative connotations in people's minds," the report said.

Nikki Usher, a George Washington University professor specializing in new media, said previous research has shown that repeating false information makes it more believable, "but what is different now is the speed with which rumors can unfold."

The Internet's "crowdsourcing" ability can often bring the truth out, but cannot entirely correct the problem, said Silverman, who also operates the @emergentdotinfo Twitter feed that tracks online rumors.

"Over time the truth emerges, but the corrections don't tend to be as viral or get as widely distributed. And they don't always reach the same people," he said.

"I am a believer in the value of the crowd, but the truth is often far less interesting and shareable than the lie."

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Philippines no longer among deadliest for journalists?

BAGUIO CITY , Philippines – The Philippines is no longer listed among countries tagged as the most deadly places for journalists, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said in its yearend report.

Syria has remained as the most deadly place for journalists in 2013, while Iraq and Egypt each saw a spike in fatal violence, the CPJ said.

At least 70 journalists were killed for their work this year, slightly lower than the 74 deaths in 2012. The killings were mostly in the Middle East, which accounts for two-thirds of the cases.

The long-standing conflict in Syria has claimed the lives of at least 29 journalists in 2013, bringing the number of journalists killed while covering the conflict to 63.

In Iraq, violence returned to levels not seen since 2011 with 10 journalists killed on the job.

Egypt also experienced an increase in deaths in 2013, with six journalists killed for their work.

“The Middle East has become a killing field for journalists. While the number of journalists killed for their work has declined in some places, the civil war in Syria and a renewal of sectarian attacks in Iraq have taken an agonizing toll,” said CPJ Deputy Director Robert Mahoney in the report.

“The international community must prevail on all governments and armed groups to respect the civilian status of reporters and to prosecute the killers of journalists,” he added.

But the CPJ said that even with the continuing dangers to journalists in Pakistan and Somalia, the number of confirmed work-related deaths in these countries declined in 2013 to five and four, respectively.

Brazil and Russia, the host countries of next year’s World Cup and Olympics, saw three and two journalists killed, respectively.

The CPJ also reported that about 60 journalists were abducted during the year and about 30 are missing.

Different findings

The CPJ report, however, is contradictory to the findings of Paris-based press freedom watchdog Reporters sans frontires (Reporters Without Borders).

In its annual roundup released earlier, RSF said the Philippines is fifth among the “worst five deadliest countries for media in 2013.”

Last November, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines said the country has also maintained its tag as the “third worst country for working journalists” by the International Federation of Journalists.

However, RSF also tagged Syria, Somalia, Pakistan and India as deadly places for journalism.

RSF said India and the Philippines have replaced Mexico and Brazil on the list, although the number of journalists killed in Brazil, which is five, is the same as last year.

In Mexico, two journalists were killed while three others disappeared.

The RSF Annual Index also said that the regions with the largest numbers of journalists killed in connection with their work are Asia (24) and the Middle East and North Africa (23).

Of the 71 journalists killed in 2013, 37 percent worked for the print media, 30 percent for radio, 30 percent for TV, and three percent for news websites.

A majority of the victims or 96 percent were men.

Although the number of journalists killed in connection with their work in 2013 fell by 20 percent compared with last year’s figures, 2012 was an “exceptionally deadly” year with 88 journalists killed.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

EBay founder's 'next adventure in journalism'

SAN FRANCISCO - EBay Inc founder Pierre Omidyar has become the latest self-made tech baron to plunge into the struggling news industry - hot on the heels of Amazon.com Inc founder Jeff Bezos, who just paid $250 million for the Washington Post.

But unlike Bezos, the French-born Iranian American says he aims to build a new "mass media organization" from the ground up, and his first recruits are the journalists who exposed the U.S. government's surveillance programs, using documents leaked by former spy agency contractor Edward Snowden.

The new venture puts Omidyar, 46, in the public eye after many years of relatively low-profile philanthropic and investment activities. While he has long supported efforts to promote transparency and accountability in government, including a local news website in his home state of Hawaii, Omidyar suggested that he is prepared to spend as much as Bezos did in buying the Post to take those efforts to a new level.

"I want to find ways to convert mainstream readers into engaged citizens," Omidyar wrote in a blog post on Wednesday.

Omidyar's new endeavor, as yet unnamed, will face myriad challenges. Established news organizations are struggling to find a viable financial model as print advertising and circulation plummet while online advertising dollars migrate to Google Inc GOOG.O and to automated ad exchanges that drive prices down. He has yet to offer any clues about his business strategy.

Media investments generally do not make good investments, said David Cowan, a partner at Bessemer Ventures. "I'm pretty sure Pierre doesn't think that a news startup is the best way to get richer," he said.

Born in France to Iranian parents, Omidyar grew up largely in the Washington, D.C. area, with a stint in Hawaii. He graduated from Tufts University near Boston in 1988 with a degree in computer science, and moved to Silicon Valley.

While working as a software engineer at then-hot personal-communications company General Magic, Omidyar came up with the idea for eBay in 1995 and worked on it as a hobby until it became big enough for him to quit his day job.

When eBay went public three years later, the then 31-year-old Omidyar's stake was valued at $611 million by the end of the trading day. He still owns almost 9 percent of the $70 billion company today, making him eBay's top shareholder. Forbes pegs his wealth at $8.5 billion.

Omidyar serves as eBay's chairman, but has not been involved in its day-to-day operations for years.

During the summer, Omidyar considered purchasing the Washington Post, he wrote in his blog. While the Post eventually sold to Bezos in August, the process "got me thinking about what kind of social impact could be created if a similar investment was made in something entirely new, built from the ground up," he wrote.

Those musings led to his latest project, which he is billing as "My Next Adventure in Journalism."

'PASSIONATE' ABOUT JOURNALISM

Omidyar Network, the investment firm founded by Omidyar and his wife, Pam, in 2004, has backed some 25 organizations dealing with news and government transparency, including News Trust, a news-discovery site run by the nonprofit journalism center the Poynter Institute; the Sunlight Foundation, a government-transparency nonprofit; and Transparency & Accountability Initiative, a London based organization.

"Pierre gets journalism," said John Temple, founding editor of Honolulu Civil Beat, the news site launched by Omidyar in 2010. "He's passionate about it and knows how to create an environment and culture where journalists feel energized and empowered."

Omidyar's comments on Twitter in recent months show an increasing discomfort with the workings of the U.S. government.

"There goes freedom of association," he tweeted earlier this week, linking to an article in the Washington Post about the National Security Agency collecting email address books.

But in his Wednesday blog post, Omidyar emphasized his new endeavor would go beyond investigative reporting, and would "cover general interest news, with a core mission around supporting and empowering independent journalists across many sectors and beats."

That broad approach makes sense, said Arianna Huffington, creator of the Huffington Post, which started an edition in Hawaii earlier this year through a partnership with Omidyar's Civil Beat.

"He wants this to be a business, and that's not possible without having a site that's about general news and everything that people are interested in," Huffington said in an interview.

"And for the conclusions of investigative journalism to have impact – and he wants to have impact – you have to capture the public imagination. If you have people coming to the site for other reasons they are more likely to engage."

To some extent, Omidyar seems to be shifting what he has been trying with Honolulu Civil Beat to a broader stage.

Civil Beat aimed to create a new online journalism model with paid subscriptions and respectful comment threads. Patti Epler, current editor of Civil Beat, said a policy of requiring people to log in via Facebook before they post a comment has encouraged a less strident tone than at many news organizations. She declined to comment on the site's finances.

Her boss has championed projects that might lead to more government transparency, Epler said. When her reporters ran up against a law exempting police from releasing internal disciplinary records, Omidyar created the Civil Beat Law Center, which is working to secure the release of those records.

Another impetus for starting the center was the demise of Hawaii's shield law, which protects journalists from having to reveal anonymous sources, Epler said. It expired earlier this year.

Omidyar frequently drops by the newsroom, where he edits the occasional article, plays foosball, and chats with staff.

"He loves to talk stories," Epler said. "And journalistic principles and ethics."

To read a column for Reuters.com by a reporter who has worked for Omidyar, click on http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2013/10/17/the-omidyar-way/

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com