Study: Even ‘benevolent bots’ fight, sometimes for years Oxford Internet Institute – News by David Sutcliffe 23 February 2017 UPI An analysis of bot behavior over the course of a decades shows even “benevolent” bots bicker. In fact, researchers found evidence of bot-versus-bot fights lasting several years. Editing bots are more like humans Oxford Internet Institute … Read more
The Washington Post’s new slogan is movie-poster worthy Mashable! by Jason Abbruzzese The Washington Post has a new slogan: Democracy Dies in Darkness. That’s not just something for its press materials. The words are now right there below the paper’s name on the front page of its website. Judy Asks: Is Social Media Replacing Journalism? Carnegie … Read more
Data Mining Reveals the Rise of ISIS Propaganda on Twitter MIT Technology Review Twitter has closed 25,000 accounts that supported the terrorist organisation ISIS. An analysis of these tweets shows how ISIS emerged with a message of extreme violence. How to find out what Trump’s favorite big data machine knows about you Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow … Read more
Code-Dependent: Pros and Cons of the Algorithm Age Pew Internet Rss Feed: Reports by Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech (filistimlyanin/iStock.com)Algorithms are instructions for solving a problem or completing a task. Recipes are algorithms, as are math equations. Computer code is algorithmic. The internet runs on algorithms and all online searching is accomplished through … Read more
Wikipedia calls the Daily Mail “generally unreliable,” and bans it as a source in most cases Nieman Journalism Lab by Laura Hazard Owen Following about a month of discussion, Wikipedia editors have decided to prohibit the use of the Daily Mail as a source in most situations, writing: [The] Daily Mail should not be used … Read more
Online Shopping and E-Commerce Pew Internet Rss Feed: Reports by Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech (Photo by Erik Isakson) Facebook: 59,229 Government Requests for Account Data in First Half of 2016 All Facebook by David Cohen Government requests for Facebook account data were up 27 percent in the first half of 2016 compared … Read more
via ******** Clamping down on viral fake news, Facebook partners with sites like Snopes and adds new user reporting Nieman Journalism Lab by Laura Hazard Owen After weeks of criticism over its role in spreading fake news during and after the 2016 presidential election, Facebook announced Thursday that it’s taking some concrete steps to … Read more
The Political Environment on Social Media Pew Internet Rss Feed: Reports by Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech In a political environment defined by widespread polarization and partisan animosity, even simple conversations can go awry when the subject turns to politics. In their in-person interactions, Americans can (and often do) attempt to steer clear of … Read more
Younger adults prefer to get their news in text, not video, according to new data from Pew Research Nieman Journalism Lab by Ricardo Bilton Digital publishers may be pouring time and energy into cranking up their video operations, but for a lot of their potential viewers, text is still the way to go. New data from … Read more
Big data meets politics EurActiv.com by Davide Patteri Politicians across Europe often look suspiciously at the “big data” revolution as a trend imported from the US, which encroaches on their privacy. Europe’s rude awakening to big data politics EurActiv.com by Frédéric Simon To many in the Brussels bubble, the big data revolution came as a rude awakening, … Read more
How to find breaking news on Twitter firstdraftnews.com by Alastair Reid By its very nature, breaking news happens unexpectedly. Simply waiting for something to start trending on Twitter is not an option for journalists – you’ll have to actively seek it out. The most important rule is to switch perspectives with the eyewitness and ask yourself, “What would I … Read more
New Pew report: Cable news remains a popular way to follow the election, but social media reaches the young Nieman Journalism Lab by Joseph Lichterman More than 90 percent of American adults followed the 2016 presidential election in some medium or another last week, according to a report released today by the Pew Research Center. The Boston … Read more
181,000 drones have been registered with the FAA in just 14 days The Next Web by Matthew Hussey Over the holidays, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) made drone owners register their vehicles. Since that announcement, more than 180,000 drones have been added to the FAA’s database, says CNN. Dutch reject ‘encryption backdoors’ BBC News | Europe | World Edition The … Read more
Negotiating the WSIS+10 and the Future of the Internet Dipnote – U.S. Department of State Official Blog by Daniel Sepulveda After two and a half years of technical analysis and discussions, six months of deliberations among all stakeholders, and intense negotiations at the United Nations, at three o’clock in the morning on December 12, 2015, the … Read more
Mapping How Tor’s Anonymity Network Spread Around the World Wired Top Stories by Andy Greenberg Germany has overtaken the US in total nodes, with France, the Netherlands, and Russia coming close behind. First Detailed Public Map of U.S. Internet Backbone Could Make It Stronger MIT Technology Review Researchers dug through public records to uncover the true shape … Read more