Reading (for Exposure) list: March 31
The end of Launcher to more AI, here's what you missed
Hello! Welcome to the first weekly Reading List, a way for me to talk about all the stories I bookmark every week but don’t have the time to write full posts about. I’m still thinking about the regularity of the official Paid in Exposure newsletter, but I’m hoping this is a way for people to keep up with what’s going on in the world of our online media dystopia.
This week was also quite busy in terms of journalism news, so it felt like the right time, especially since I’m primed to lose my very important legacy Twitter checkmark tomorrow and have to find other ways to prove myself as a notable person. From more AI scandals to other ends of eras, here’s what you missed.
Today is the final day of Launcher, the Washington Post’s video game vertical. I briefly wrote about this in my first post, but Launcher was one of the first legacy media video game verticals — maybe the first — when it launched in 2017. However, due to layoffs at the company, whose purpose still remains unclear beyond just that the newspaper had to lay off some people, the whole vertical got shut down. (As an aside, it’s worth noting that Launcher had some of the most-read stories across all verticals.) I know of three people who were reassigned to other parts of the newsroom, and I’m inclined to believe that WaPo will still cover video games. However, it’ll be to the extent that the New York Times and other legacy publications cover it: vaguely and with little expertise and care for the medium. The importance of Launcher cannot be overstated. It worked to expose audiences outside the scene to the world of video games, which is a multibillion-dollar industry with a huge impact on larger entertainment and the world of business. My fiance’s mom, a longtime subscriber to WaPo, even checked out some video games after reading about them in print! Whatever you think of video games themselves, they’re important to cover, and it’s a fucking shame WaPo didn’t see that. Either way, you can read the final article from editor Mike Hume about why Launcher was so important, and what WaPo will miss out on.
Futurism has been doing excellent work covering the proliferation of AI in journalism. I’ll be delving more into its work in my next issue (which will hopefully be up next week), but the latest involves Buzzfeed, which announced earlier this year that it would be using ChatGPT to create “AI inspired content” to enhance “the quiz experience,” among other things. However, according to a new Futurism report, Buzzfeed has actually been using it to create fully AI-generated articles. Click for the madness; stay for" “hidden gems” in travel.
Speaking of Buzzfeed, I’ve always been a fan of Buzzfeed News, which has done excellent reporting despite multiple layoffs over the years. Katie Notopoulos has always been a great resource for articles on internet culture and social media, and this week, that news is centered, of course, around Twitter. Notopolous and reporter Pranav Dixit have a great explainer on Twitter moving legacy blue checkmarks behind Elon Musk’s half-assed Twitter Blue service starting on April 1 (best April Fools Day ever) and all the outlets that are refusing to pay thousands to keep them. Of course, Twitter announced that “lol jk organizations can apply for verification using a new form.” Not saying Musk will pull back on changes once high-powered users start complaining, but he’s done it before.
Verified Organizations is a new way for organizations and their affiliates to distinguish themselves on Twitter. Rather than relying on Twitter to be the sole arbiter of truth for which accounts should be verified, vetted organizations that sign up for T.co/VerifiedOrgs… https://t.co/pbXaXTPod9If you haven’t been following the nonsense going on at The New York Times lately, here’s a recap. Thousands of staffers and other writers signed a letter sent to executives at the paper to urge them to rethink a slew of anti-trans reports that have been published over the past… few years (geez). And those execs did not take it well. Instead of thinking about how its reporting showcases an implicit bias on trans issues, The Daily Beast reported this week that editors have been calling staffers into meetings for “tongue-lashing sessions.” It also reports on written warnings sent to around 20 staffers that accused them of conspiring against the paper (???). While executives are literally putting marks on staffers’ permanent records, countless states are trying to pass what are effectively trans bans.
This is a couple weeks old, but in case you missed it, The Verge published the best e-commerce article on the whole internet. I’ve edited a few “best printers” articles in my time, and I’m hoping this will be the last one I have to read.
