News

Breaking the News: A Journalist's Perspective

Anna Tolette — Tue, 12 Nov 2024 20:50:53 +0000

Breaking the News: A Journalist's Perspective Anna Tolette Tue, 11/12/2024 - 13:50

Cynthia Barnes

In 2022, Allison Sandza (Jour’09) became the executive producer for the CBS News Streaming Network’s coverage for Washington, D.C. She has also served as a senior producer for Meet the Press, the longest-running show in television history, after stints at PBS and CNN. Born and raised in the capital city, Sandza is committed to reaching an audience that increasingly turns to digital devices for their news.

What led you to journalism?

I grew up in a news household: My parents met in a newsroom before my mom became a lawyer. I grew up with framed newspapers on the walls. So, to say politics and news is in my blood is probably an understatement. It is what I was meant to do.

How do you see streaming platforms evolving for political news coverage, especially in this election cycle?

We are the live and breaking news arm of CBS News. We rush toward the stories, and in this news cycle — especially this political news cycle — it’s just faster than ever.

How did your time at CU and in Boulder affect what you’re doing now and what’s happened in your career?

In my last semester at CU, I took what ended up being my all-time favorite class: a media ethics course. I still think about that class. Every day, every single day, I think, “Is this fair? Is this sourced enough?”

We try to make sure that we are explaining the context and analysis of the whole picture, all while it’s happening in real time. I learned those nuts and bolts in journalism school at CU.

How do you balance breaking timely political coverage with the desire for, as you said, more nuanced, in-depth reporting on complex issues?

Every day, it’s a conversation and an internal struggle. I do think CBS News is unique in that it’s a place that’s known for taking a beat, for taking context into account with every story. It’s the home of 60 Minutes. It’s the home of in-depth reporting and analysis. So I think we’re very careful — we admit in real time when we still don’t know something. That is really the only way to operate. And I think it’s authentic, which audiences now crave.

Any final thoughts?

It’s a privilege to be able to cover this election, to be able to really write this first draft of history. That’s such a journalism cliché, but I think it’s a cliché for a reason.

Editor’s note: This interview was conducted prior to the November 5 election.

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Photo by Hugo Ross/ CBS

In 2022, Allison Sandza (Jour’09) became the executive producer for the CBS News Streaming Network's coverage for Washington, D.C. Here's why she's committed to reaching an audience that increasingly turns to digital devices for their news.

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The Truth about Fake News

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Oct 2020 18:03:00 +0000

The Truth about Fake News Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 10/01/2020 - 12:03

Lisa Marshall

“Pope Francis shocks world, endorses Donald Trump for president!”

“WikiLeaks confirms Hillary sold weapons to ISIS!”

“Ireland now officially accepting Trump refugees from America!”

In the run-up to the 2016 presidential election, such patently false headlines spread like wildfire across social media, ignited by fake news sites or hyper-partisan blogs.

A few decades ago, such stories would have been shrugged off as satire or dismissed by discriminating journalists. But with the gatekeeping apparatus of mainstream media crumbling, trust in government on the decline and social media platforms providing a vehicle for anything to go viral, research shows such stories not only got distributed, they sometimes receive more clicks than stories in The New York Times.

“We exist in an unprecedented moment of deviant information.”

“In 2016, you started to see the weaponization of social media platforms in ways that I would characterize as dangerous to democracy,” recalled CU’s Toby Hopp, assistant professor of advertising, public relations and media design, who has made a career out of studying what he calls “countermedia” (fake news). “There seemed to be no boundaries anymore in terms of the information being communicated and the responsibility to the truth. It was really concerning.”

Fast-forward to 2020, and the “fake news” phenomenon has become more glaring. Distant “troll factories” — businesses where paid writers churn out fake social media posts intentionally designed to sow discontent among U.S. voters — are thriving in Russia, Macedonia and elsewhere. Conspiracy theories like QAnon — which posits, among other things, that the U. S. government is filled with Satan-worshiping pedophiles — circulate widely, and potentially dangerous misinformation about COVID-19 abounds.

“We exist in an unprecedented moment of deviant information,” said Pat Ferrucci, associate professor of journalism.

To get at the roots of that trend, Ferrucci, Hopp and Chris Vargo, assistant professor of advertising, have spent several years trying to unravel who shares fake news, what makes people click on it and what we can do about it.

“We have found that certain types of people are disproportionately responsible for sharing false, misleading and hyper-partisan information on social media,” said Hopp. “If we can identify those types of users, maybe we can get a grasp on why people do this and design interventions to stem the tide.”

Few Users, Big Reach

The good news: “The reality is, most people do not share fake news,” said Hopp.

In a recent study published in the journal Human Communication Research, the team analyzed posts from 783 regular Facebook and Twitter users between Aug. 1, 2015 and June 6, 2017.

Seventy-one percent of Facebook users and 95% of Twitter users did not share fake news or posts from sites identified by watchdog groups as countermedia.

The bad news: 1,152 pieces of fake news were shared via Facebook, with a single user responsible for 171. On Twitter, users shared 128 pieces of fake news.

Toby Hopp, CMCI assistant professor of advertising, public relations and media design

Patrick Ferrucci, CMCI associate professor of journalism

Chris Vargo, CMCI assistant professor of advertising

“We found that Facebook is the central conduit for the transfer of fake news,” said Hopp.

In the Facebook sample, those who had self-identified as extremely conservative accounted for more than a quarter of all fake news shared. �鶹��Ƶ a third of fake news shared on Twitter was by ultra-conservatives.

Those who self-identified as extremely liberal also played a big role in the spread, accounting for 17.5% of shares on Facebook and 16.4% on Twitter.

“It’s not just Republicans or just Democrats, but rather, people who are — left or right — more ideologically extreme,” said Hopp.

Previous studies have shown that Facebook users 65 and older post seven times as many articles from fake news sites as those under 29 years old, and contrary to popular belief, those who are fairly media literate also spread fake news.

Interestingly, the CU team found those with high levels of trust in their fellow humans are significantly less likely to spread fake news.

“People with high levels of social trust are more likely to compile online social networks comprised of diverse individuals,” said Hopp, noting that the spread of fake news can be slowed when users question a post’s accuracy.

Fear and Anger Drive Clicks

In the study they published in March, Hopp and Vargo examined 2,500 posts crafted and paid for by the infamous Internet Research Agency (IRA), a troll farm in St. Petersburg, Russia, which flooded Facebook with fake content in the run-up to the 2016 election.

According to U.S. government documents, the IRA had been creating fake U.S. personas on social media, setting up fake pages and posts and using targeted advertising to “sow discord” among U.S. residents.

Users flipping through their feeds that fall faced a minefield of incendiary ads, pitting Blacks against police, Southern whites against immigrants, gun owners against Obama supporters and the LGBTQ community against the conservative right — all coming from the same source thousands of miles away.

“This wasn’t necessarily about electing one candidate or another,” said Vargo. “It was essentially a make-Americans-hate-each-other campaign.”

In terms of return on investment, the campaign was remarkably effective.

The IRA spent about $75,000 to garner 41 million impressions reaching 4 million users and generating a 9.2% clickthrough rate — a rate exponentially higher than a typical digital ad.

Ads using inflammatory words (such as “sissy,” “idiot,” “psychopath” and “terrorist”) or that were designed to frighten or anger people did the best.

“The takeaway here was that fear and anger appeals work really well in getting people to engage with content on social media,” said Vargo.

When Everything Is True, Nothing Is

Fake ads and patent falsities aside, Ferrucci stresses that the term “fake news” itself can be misleading.

“When people think of fake news, they think of news that is completely made up from whole cloth. But that is only the tip of the iceberg,” he said.

Countermedia encapsulates a broader array of content, he said: “We believe that the most potentially negative information is that which has a kernel of truth in it but is slanted in a way that is completely deceiving.”

In decades past, he argued, conspiracy theories and deviant information certainly existed in the public sphere, but journalists generally ignored it. On the other end of the spectrum some things were unequivocally agreed upon as true — and free from debate. This left what Ferrucci calls “the sphere of legitimate debate.”

“There is nothing true anymore and everything is subject to debate. That’s the problem.”

The battle against fake news will require a united front, including government, industry, journalists and social media users.

Here We Go Again

On the eve of another election, with a global pandemic raging, the misinformation machine appears to be ratcheting up again.

Public health agencies have warned of a “massive infodemic” amid circulating rumors suggesting that injecting disinfectant or consuming a dietary supplement called colloidal silver can cure COVID-19, or that wearing a mask can somehow boost susceptibility to it.

According to news reports, troll farms in Russia, Macedonia and elsewhere have refined their tactics and are again using social media to try to influence U.S. elections.

Some platforms have taken notice.

This summer, Twitter began adding fact-checking labels to tweets, including some originating from President Donald Trump. It also suspended thousands of accounts associated with QAnon.

Facebook now removes coronavirus news deemed inaccurate and sends a warning to those who have liked or shared it.

Such steps are helpful, Hopp said.

In the end, the battle against fake news will require a united front, including government, industry, journalists and, of course, social media users, the researchers say.

Ferrucci believes reporters should stop giving precious column inches or airtime to conspiracy theories like QAnon and instead focus on the sphere of legitimate debate.

Vargo suggests users become leery of ads and posts scrolling across their feed and look into where they came from — especially those that make your blood boil.

If you see something on social media that you know is false, the researchers agree, don’t be afraid to say so.

“We can disagree here and there about things,” said Hopp, “but when we as a society have fundamentally different views about what is true and what is not, democracy becomes very hard to maintain.”

Illustration by Doug Chayka

Those on the ideological fringes spread most of it, but in the end it hurts us all.

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Coloradan Updates Its Circulation Policy

Anonymous — Tue, 01 Oct 2019 06:00:00 +0000

Coloradan Updates Its Circulation Policy Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 10/01/2019 - 00:00

The Coloradan occasionally reviews and updates its print circulation policy to ensure we’re producing the optimal number of copies. The latest review has led to several changes, described below, that allow us to remain responsible stewards of natural and financial resources. Please review them, as action may be required.

Henceforth, Coloradan magazine will publish in print three times annually instead of four: in fall, winter and spring/summer. It will continue to publish online year-round and will continue to be provided free of charge. Many, but not all, alumni will continue to receive it automatically. Details below.

Undergraduate Alumni

No action is required for undergraduate alumni.

All undergraduate alumni will automatically receive the magazine starting in the sixth year following their CU Boulder commencement (after the fifth anniversary of their commencement). As of today, all undergraduate alumni in class years 2014 and earlier will receive the magazine automatically, provided we have a current postal address. A one-time student fee paid by all undergraduates supports a variety of alumni programs, including career services and the Coloradan.

Graduate and Professional School Alumni

Graduate and professional school alumni must take action to renew their free subscription.

All graduate alumni are invited to register for a free subscription in the sixth year after their commencement (after the fifth anniversary of their commencement). As of today, all graduate and professional school alumni in class years 2014 and earlier are eligible.

To continue receiving the Coloradan, please complete the short webform.

All alumni of all class years will continue to have full, free access to the Coloradan, plus bonus features and a complete PDF of the print magazine online.

Illustration by Edel Rodriguez

Changes affect recent undergraduate alumni and graduate alumni of all years.

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