Everyone wants in on Snapchat Discover, The New York Times experiments with WeChat and more in this week's Digital Media Mash Up, produced by the Center for International Media Assistance.
Snapchat draws a crowd of media companies eager to land a spot in its app
New York media executives used to feel anxiety over landing a prime lunch reservation at Michael's in midtown Manhattan. Now, they're dying to get into a much more exclusive club: Snapchat Discover. (The Los Angeles Times, 9/22)
The New York Times is targeting new readers in Asia through WeChat
The New York Times is diving into the world of chat apps with a new bilingual WeChat account. The Times will send out a daily digest of news in English and Chinese targeted at WeChat’s millions of users around the world. (Nieman Lab, 9/18)
Are you a journalist? Download this free guide for verifying photos and videos
First Draft Coalition members teamed up to create these guidelines for newsrooms and journalists working with eyewitness media. (First Draft News, Medium, 9/24)
Understanding what audiences want from local news
One of the most common recommendations local news organizations hear today, as they search for a viable business model, is to build stronger connections with their communities. This call for more responsiveness to audience needs and interests is a reaction to the upheaval in the news business, but it’s also part of a long tradition: As American University’s Jan Schaffer has written, contemporary efforts to better engage with audiences recall the civic journalism movement that flowered briefly in the 1990s. Going back further, we can hear echoes of the community ascertainment activities that used to be part of local broadcasters’ public interest obligations, which the FCC eliminated in the early 1980s.
Building these connections, though, is easier said than done. (Columbia Journalism Review, 9/22)
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Main image CC-licensed by Flickr via AdamPrzezdziek.
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