philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

24Sep/18Off

News Site to Investigate Big Tech, Helped by Craigslist Founder

merlin_144247725_1fa42627-e8a9-4ec8-a856-87f001e64d35-superJumboInvestigative reporter Julia Angwin and data journalist Jeff Larson, both formerly of ProPublica, are starting The Markup, a news site dedicated to investigating technology and its effect on society. Funded in part by a $20 million gift from Craigslist founder Craig Newmark, the site will hire two dozen journalists for its New York; stories will start going up in early 2019. The Markup will explore three broad investigative categories: How profiling software discriminates against the poor and other vulnerable groups; internet health and infections like bots, scams and misinformation; and the awesome power of the tech companies; journalists will be partnered with a programmer from a story’s inception until its completion.

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“When canned food came out, it was amazing,” said Ms. Angwin, who will be the site’s editor in chief. “You could have peaches when they were out of season. There was a whole period of America where every recipe called for canned soup. People went crazy for canned food. And after 30 years, 40 years, people were like, ‘Huh, wait.’

“That is what’s happened with technology,” Ms. Angwin said, calling the 2016 election a tipping point. “And I’m so glad we’ve woken up.”

The site will explore three broad investigative categories: how profiling software discriminates against the poor and other vulnerable groups; internet health and infections like bots, scams and misinformation; and the awesome power of the tech companies. The Markup will release all its stories under a creative commons license so other organizations can republish them, as ProPublica does.

See the full story here: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/23/business/media/the-markup-craig-newmark.html

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