Making journalism accessible, how an Iranian newspaper condemned state media censorship and more in this week's Digital Media Mash Up, produced by the Center for International Media Assistance.
Designing journalism products for accessibility
A few months ago, I went over my friend Betty’s apartment to drop off some spaghetti and meatballs. Betty is 89 and a news junkie. After we sat down and drank some tea, she asked me to help her find some news stories she wanted to read on her iPad.
“Sure,” I said, as we peered at her screen. “Why don’t you show me what you’re doing and I’ll see if I can help.”
Betty began to tap around on news websites. I watched her grow increasingly frustrated when she accidentally clicked on an ad or parts of the story she didn’t mean to click on. I also saw her grow increasingly worried that she wasn’t going to be able to return to her story or accidentally click on malware. (Melody Kramer, Poynter, 12/7)
Iranian newspaper condemns media censorship in rare front-page editorial
Iran’s Ettelaat newspaper has strongly objected to the state’s ban on publishing the name or images of a former reformist president, Mohammad Khatami.
In an unprecedented move underlying the complexities of Tehran’s internal politics, the managing editor of the state-run newspaper, with nearly 90 years of history, wrote a front-page editorial on Wednesday stating that the ban is against the country’s constitution, which prohibits censorship. (The Guardian, 12/9)
Twitter is testing timelines that aren't in chronological order
Are you a loyal Twitter user? Brace yourself, because your favorite social media platform might get turned on its head: Twitter is experimenting with a new way of sorting your timeline that breaks with the reverse-chronological format it has used since its inception. (Motherboard, 12/8)
Using #BrusselsLockdown, the press played along with Belgium’s Twitter cats
Three days after coordinated attacks in Paris killed 130 people last month, the Belgian police launched operations in the Brussels suburb of Molenbeek to locate the suspected planners. They asked residents not to post on social media about the operations.
Instead, Belgians began flooding Twitter with cat photos, using #BrusselsLockdown. The idea was to clog social media so potential terrorists couldn’t use it to track police activity, and to spread a bit of humor during a tense moment. Belgian media referred to the cat photos as a “smokescreen.” (Columbia Journalism Review, 12/9)
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Main image CC-licensed by Flickr via Flickr by Official GDC.
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