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New Web Site Will Team Journalists With Programmers (sfgate.com)
schwit1 shared an article from the New York Times:
When investigative journalist Julia Angwin worked for ProPublica, the nonprofit news organization became known as "Big Tech's scariest watchdog." By partnering with programmers and data scientists, Angwin pioneered the work of studying Big Tech's algorithms -- the secret codes that have an enormous effect on everyday American life... Now, with a $20 million gift from Craigslist founder Craig Newmark, she and her partner at ProPublica, data journalist Jeff Larson, are starting the Markup, a news site dedicated to investigating technology and its effect on society. Sue Gardner, former head of the Wikimedia Foundation, which hosts Wikipedia, will be the Markup's executive director. Angwin and Larson said that they would hire two dozen journalists for its New York office and that stories would start going up on the website in early 2019...
Angwin, who was part of a Wall Street Journal team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2003 for coverage of corporate corruption, said the newsroom would be guided by the scientific method, and each story would begin with a hypothesis... At the Markup, journalists will be partnered with a programmer from a story's inception until its completion. "To investigate technology, you need to understand technology," said Angwin, 47... Newmark, who splits his time between San Francisco and New York, has for years kept a low profile. But he worries about what he sees as a lack of self-reflection among engineers. "Sometimes it takes an engineer a while to understand that we need help, then we get that help, and then we do a lot better," Newmark said. "We need the help that only investigative reporting with good data science can provide...."
Engineers being surprised by the tools they have made is, to the Markup team, part of the problem. "Part of the premise of the Markup is the level of understanding technology and its effects is very, very low, and we would all benefit from a broader understanding," Gardner said. "And I would include people who work for the companies."
Larson laments a world where programs handle crucial decisions, and "once they go into production, there's no oversight..." Or, as he says earlier, "Increasingly, algorithms are used as shorthand for passing the buck." The Markup's site promises " a nonpartisan, nonprofit newsroom" offering independent analysis of how technology is re-shaping everything from what we believe to "who goes to prison versus who remains free." The site's donations page adds that "We strive for fairness and independence and for us, the best way to achieve that is to operate without ads or a paywall."
Angwin tells Recode that she grew up in Steve Jobs' neighborhood in Palo Alto, and in a long interview reveals that she learned to program in a fifth grade class that a public-spirited Steve Jobs funded. Now the Times points out that the Markup "will release all its stories under a creative commons license so other organizations can republish them, as ProPublica does."
Angwin, who was part of a Wall Street Journal team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2003 for coverage of corporate corruption, said the newsroom would be guided by the scientific method, and each story would begin with a hypothesis... At the Markup, journalists will be partnered with a programmer from a story's inception until its completion. "To investigate technology, you need to understand technology," said Angwin, 47... Newmark, who splits his time between San Francisco and New York, has for years kept a low profile. But he worries about what he sees as a lack of self-reflection among engineers. "Sometimes it takes an engineer a while to understand that we need help, then we get that help, and then we do a lot better," Newmark said. "We need the help that only investigative reporting with good data science can provide...."
Engineers being surprised by the tools they have made is, to the Markup team, part of the problem. "Part of the premise of the Markup is the level of understanding technology and its effects is very, very low, and we would all benefit from a broader understanding," Gardner said. "And I would include people who work for the companies."
Larson laments a world where programs handle crucial decisions, and "once they go into production, there's no oversight..." Or, as he says earlier, "Increasingly, algorithms are used as shorthand for passing the buck." The Markup's site promises " a nonpartisan, nonprofit newsroom" offering independent analysis of how technology is re-shaping everything from what we believe to "who goes to prison versus who remains free." The site's donations page adds that "We strive for fairness and independence and for us, the best way to achieve that is to operate without ads or a paywall."
Angwin tells Recode that she grew up in Steve Jobs' neighborhood in Palo Alto, and in a long interview reveals that she learned to program in a fifth grade class that a public-spirited Steve Jobs funded. Now the Times points out that the Markup "will release all its stories under a creative commons license so other organizations can republish them, as ProPublica does."
Why team with journalists? Journalists don't know anything, can't do anything, and don't bring anything useful to the table. In fact, if anything, they taint your work and your message with their biases and ideologies. Journalists used to be a necessary evil as gatekeepers to a costly, limited bandwidth distribution medium (paper, TV), but that function has been made obsolete. And journalists work for for profit corporations that turn your knowledge into their profits. They get something out of teaming with you, you don't get anything out of teaming with them.
If you have something to say or contribute, skip the middleman and publish it and distribute it yourself. If you develop tools for detecting bias or censorship in Google, put them in a Github repository, publish a couple of papers on it, and record YouTube videos.
And if journalists want to take advantage of your expertise as a programmer, make them pay consulting fees. After all, it is their corporate masters that make money from your skills and expertise and they should pay for it.
I understand where you're coming from though. Nowadays, it is hard to believe, that "journalists" could be good. Much like "politicians".
But the thing is: Those are not journalists. They stole the word.
As an example of what a real journalist does: ... *by* the Al-Qaeda, because *they* thought he was too nuts. (WTF number 2.) ... Sometimes my dad is really stupid that way. ... Then again, he has friends in certain places that probably watched anyway.) ... and got him to *confirm* Gul's stories! (Raise your chairs and hairs, fasten your seatbelts, shit’s getting real.) ... Because everything was already uploaded. It's not like he's a rookie. ^^
* My dad discovered a photo where the ex Pakistani military intelligence leader Hamid Gul sat there with a CIA agent in turban and traditional clothes, and they seemed to drink tea and be best friends. Naturally, like we all would, he thought "WTF"?
* But unlike you and me, he proposed an investigatory bit to our local TV station. (Public [state] TV, mind you, and working together with others to form a country wide one.)
Since the editors knew him well, they accepted. The budget was massive, and would burst the budget of the entire station later on, when it was supposed to be made into a documentary.
* He found out, that Hamid Gul was under house arrest in northern Pakistan (that area that you always hear as the terrorist training camps)
* So he flew to Pakistan, went to that little town where Gul lived, and *asked* him. (Yeah, that’s right. Imagine you and me... that’s the shit we'd *never* do, and that he gets paid for.)
* This involved two informants being murdered for telling him (to save their families which would otherwise have been murdered), entering a zone where all foreigners are shot on sight, faking proficiency in the Koran and in praying (my dad has stopped accepting religion when he was a teenager) just to not get shot instantly, and asking Gul while two AK-47s were pointed at him in case Gul twitches at something that displeases him.
* That way he found out who the agent was, and that it was in fact really a CIA agent, as he had a long and "fruitful" relationship with the CIA, (all according to Gul of course). Including what we already know: That the CIA were not only aware that the Pakistanis gave all the US money "to fight terrorists" to the terror camps, but that it was kinda the point. (Again, be wary of who is telling us this!)
* He also found out why Gul is under house arrest: Since he oversaw the construction of the Pakistani nukes (a god state by the way, but *somehow* not the enemy of the US), he had full access and all the codes. And he planned to put the warheads in passenger planes, and fly them over. (HOLYWTF number 3.) Even the Al-Qaeda knew that that was a death sentence to their whole region and served absolutely no one, and locked him up. (phew!)
* And what did my dad do after that? He wanted to interview the agent! In Washington!! So he flew over. Via Hamburg! (WTF, does he not know that that was the precise route that the 9/11 terrorists took?
* He found the "ex" agent in Washington... (you're apparently never really "ex", due to what you know)
* Later, a swat team stormed his hotel room and demanded he should delete ALL the things. He of course complied.
* That's what he then put into his documentary. A shorter version was broadcast. But the full version was too expensive, and since the various regional stations here in-fight like toddlers, they could not agree on financing it.
* Not long thereafter, the editors at his station pretty much all went into retirement, and were replaced by younger ones, who didn't accept anything by my dad anymore.
He retired too, since then.
I wish even a single thing of that "Bond movie" shit was made up. But I'm as close to the source as I can be, without risking my life. (Actually, our family once got threatened with death by terrorist
Did your CS degree cover locating, interviewing, documenting, and protecting sources? Did it teach you how to get into and out of a war zone safely and do effective coverage while you're there? Did it teach you how to investigate a situation that smells funny? Did it teach you how to cover your tracks and avoid government and corporate censorship?
Let's turn that around and see what that disrespect feels like pointed at us:
"Why team with programmers? Programmers don't know anything, can't do anything, and don't bring anything useful to the table. In fact, if anything, they taint your work and your message with their biases and ideologies. Programmers used to be a necessary evil as gatekeepers to a costly, limited bandwidth distribution medium (computers), but that function has been made obsolete. And programmers work for for-profit corporations that turn your knowledge into their profits. They get something out of teaming with you, you don't get anything out of teaming with them."
Oh, okay, that' s pretty much how social media companies operate.
There are all kinds of journalists out there, and they have their own areas of expertise of which programmers know nothing. Many of them put themselves out there in war zones, disaster areas, and other dangerous situations. They poke under rocks with their sticks and tell us what they find.
Journalists have always been hated by people who don't want us to see what's under those rocks. And sure, there is a lot of sloppy journalism, and editors have always shaped their reports to fit the narrative they want to tell.
If you hate and revile the press indiscriminately, though, you run the danger of destroying one of the pillars of liberty.