On Election Day, Facebook and Twitter Did Better by Making Their Products Worse

Kevin Roose

November 05, 2020 |

The New York Times |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States

Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites defended against election-related disinformation campaigns by quickly identifying and removing fake accounts and putting labels and warnings on posts that made false claims of voter fraud and premature claims of victory. Instead of frictionless usability, they slowed or shut down core parts of their products such as limiting political ads, tweaking recommendation algorithms, and/or preventing sharing and comments on questionable posts. Threats will continue in the weeks ahead, but the companies have prevented widespread disinformation campaigns so far.

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Electronic ballots are effective, fast and used all over the world — so why aren't used in the U.S.?

Cristina Tardáguila

November 04, 2020 |

Poynter |

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Under 800 Words

Response Location: Brazil

Electronic voting, used in 25 countries, has proven safe and efficient. In Brazil, with about 150 million voters, the 2018 presidential results were announced just over two hours after polls closed. Election officials test the system regularly, which even the machine manufacturers are not allowed to do, and hacking the machines is almost impossible because of at least 30 digital barriers to overcome. The machines are not connected to the internet, which means a hacker would have to physically possess the machine to breach it. Electronic receipts for each ballot also allow for an easy recount if needed.

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Social Media Companies Survived Election Day. More Tests Loom.

Kate Conger Daisuke Wakabayashi Mike Isaac

November 04, 2020 |

The New York Times |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States

Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube implemented pre-planned measures that limited the ability to use their sites to spread election-day disinformation. Twitter quickly added warning labels to election day tweets from political figures, including the president, that falsely claimed vote fraud or victory. Sharing and commenting on the tweets was also limited. Facebook also labeled disinformation posts but did not prevent commenting, liking, or sharing them. Some election-related videos on YouTube were removed for spreading disinformation, violating the company’s policy prohibiting deceptive practices and scams.

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2020 is a curveball for civics. How Chicago classrooms are responding

Cassie Walker Burke

November 04, 2020 |

Chalkbeat |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Chicago, Illinois

Chicago-area high school teachers are approaching the mental-toll of election cycles on their students by rethinking curricula. Some teachers are approaching election anxiety by hosting empathetic dialogues by addressing students' anxieties and exploring their individual powers. Students also completed lessons that required them to have conversations with the adults in their lives regarding general voting information. Other educators are placing emphasis on exploring media literacy and understanding online propaganda with students.

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HIV/AIDS Clinical Trial Network builds Black Clevelanders' trust in COVID-19 studies

Brie Zeltner Rachel Dissell

November 04, 2020 |

FreshWater Cleveland |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Cleveland, Ohio

The HIV/AIDS clinical trial network’s 30 sites have spent years building trust among historical marginalized communities so that more clinical trial participants come from communities of color. Educational outreach, awareness-raising efforts, and one-on-one conversations are among the strategies used to make the scientific process more transparent. The engagement model is upfront about abuses from the past and uses straightforward explanations with no medical jargon. Infectious disease experts are using the trust-building model to increase the racial diversity of participants in COVID-19 vaccine trials.

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How to Combat Disinformation Targeting Black Communities

Amy Yee

November 03, 2020 |

Yes! Magazine |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States

Several groups are working to counter disinformation aimed at the Black community by spreading accurate information and elevating local voices as trusted messengers. Organizations have disseminated accurate information via social media, used hackathons and video game launches to get Black and other youth of color interested in voting, provided shareable content to progressive organizations, and created a guide to help people identify fake accounts and bots. Nonprofit First Draft also provides a two-week disinformation training course in English and Spanish with daily lessons sent by text.

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Here's how officials are keeping votes secure on Election Day

Guillermo Molero

November 02, 2020 |

The Daily Tar Heel |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, North Carolina

North Carolina takes a multipronged approach to election security. Unique serial numbers on mail-in ballots allow the voter to be removed from the system once they are processed. Hundreds of thousands of test ballots are run through voting machines and audited for accuracy. Polling sites are observed by bipartisan poll watchers and trained officials and voting machines are never connected to the internet. Paper receipts are securely stored in case of a recount or audit. Results are stored on encrypted data sticks and locked in high-security facilities operated by state and county boards of elections.

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With Talk2020, The Wall Street Journal turns an internal reporting tool into a reusable news product

Sarah Scire

November 02, 2020 |

Nieman Lab |

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Under 800 Words

Response Location: United States, Washington, District of Columbia

Talk2020 is a searchable database from the Wall Street Journal with thousands of transcripts from presidential and vice-presidential candidates’ campaign speeches, media appearances, debates, and more. Users can filter by issue, date, candidate, or keyword to find quotes and facts about a candidate’s record. It began as an internal tool to help reporters and editors working in the D.C. bureau frame and inform their own journalism, but focus groups showed that news consumers also wanted to be able to quickly locate quotes and facts for their own edification and to support fact-based debates with others.

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How Tracking Can Improve Gender Representation in Sourcing from J-School to the Newsroom

Holly Cabrera Meriem Chiadmi Lucie Laumonier Martin Payette Amelie Daoust-Boisvert

October 30, 2020 |

J-Source |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Canada

Based on an approach that one participant termed “what gets measured gets done,” several Canadian media watchers and news organizations are prodding journalists to quote more women in news stories by auditing sources' genders in past stories. One Montreal Gazette reporter's tally of her newsroom's stories increased how many women were quoted in stories from 29% of stories to 42%. The Gender Gap Tracker tracked Canada's seven most influential news platforms, and saw an increase in the use of female sources in stories by 4% in less than two years, nearly as big a gain as in the previous 26 years.

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How They Did It: Tracking Down a Rwandan Genocide Suspect

Marthe Rubió

October 27, 2020 |

Global Investigative Journalism Network |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: France, Orléans

Years after international authorities had stopped searching for a man suspected of being an architect of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, a freelance journalist spent eight months searching data and doing on the ground reporting to find the suspect in central France. A story on the find by journalist Théo Englebert led Rwanda to issue an arrest warrant and a French prosecutor to open a counterterrorism investigation. Englebert's sleuthing provides a tutorial on "finding someone who wants to disappear."

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