This week…
I’d like to properly introduce readers to the work I do. For the past few months, I have assisted in producing Health Unmuted, an audio library of health podcasts by Mission Based Media. MBM is a UK-based company that provides audio production and promotion services for podcasts about health. Health Unmuted is an MBM’s original, which means the shows under this library is 100% produced in-house.
We also run the Health Podcast Network, a collection of health podcasts created and hosted by other health communication authorities. We provide production services for some of these podcasts, but not all. For example, we do the audio production for the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons podcasts. That means the AAOS team finds the hosts, guests and topics for each of their shows, and I sit in during the recording sessions, conduct the soundcheck, record the audio, troubleshoot any technical issues, and get speakers to redo certain lines or sounds that I think will give us options in post-production, before passing the recording to our audio engineer who does the editing. On the other hand, there are other shows in the network, such as Amazon’s AWS Health Innovation podcast, where my only involvement was at the backend. As a show that only recently joined our network, I set up a system to automatically import the podcast’s feed so that episodes get delivered to our audience.
I do other things too, including social media strategies for the in-house shows. Even though it is a completely different set of work, I enjoy getting to do that because I only asked to be involved in the pre-production tasks on the production side. I used to enjoy post-production work as well, but honestly, coordinating post-production assets remotely is probably not going to make me happy.
Anyway, here’s a selection of top stories on my radar, a few personal recommendations, and the chart of the week.
Real money, fake musicians: Inside a million-dollar Instagram verification scheme
Craig Silverman and Bianca Fortis for ProPublica:
The verification scheme identified by ProPublica exploited music platforms like Spotify and Apple Music, as well as Google search, to create fake musician profiles. The songs uploaded to client profiles were often nothing more than basic looping beats or, in at least one case, extended periods of dead air. They credited composers with nonsense names such as “rhusgls stadlhvs” and “kukyush fhehjer.” The Meta employees tasked with reviewing the musician verification applications apparently failed to listen to the tracks or look too closely.
The people running the scheme also purchased articles promoting fake artists and their music on websites, including hip-hop publications like The Source and ThisIs50.com, a music and culture site affiliated with rapper 50 Cent. They often bought fake comments and likes for clients’ Instagram posts to make the accounts look popular and purchased fake streams for songs on Spotify, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the operation. One source said some clients were told to rent a recording studio and post photos on Instagram that made it look like they were working on music.
Similar to the fake IMDb story by Prashant Baid featured on The 119th Block—except bigger and includes the despicable Toronto plastic surgeon Martin Jugenburg aka the Real Dr. 6ix or, in this case, DJ Dr. 6ix. Remember him from The 38th Block? Gross.
Kids yell “Poop” At Alexa, And these musicians profit
Katie Notopoulos for Buzzfeed News:
There are many topics that my 5-year-old and I don’t see eye to eye on: How many popsicles per day is reasonable or the virtues of sleeping past 7:30 a.m. on a Sunday. But there is one area where we are in philosophical lockstep: “Poop” is a funny word. So when my son commanded our Amazon Echo Dot, “Alexa… play poopy diaper,” I shot him a faux-stern look that indicated this isn’t appropriate, but I’ll allow it. And when Alexa replied, “OK, playing ‘Poopy Diaper’ from Spotify,” I was intrigued.
[…]
It’s not surprising that there are songs about the most basic of human functions — what is the point of art if not to unite us through shared feeling? But connecting these songs with their ideal audience (children who can’t yet spell) took a technological leap: voice-enabled smart speakers like Alexa. Several of the songs’ creators told BuzzFeed News that their biggest source of revenue by a landslide is Amazon Music — the default music player for Alexa. When it comes to these novelty artists, the evidence is clear: The word “poop” translates to streaming gold.
Anonymous editors are a bigger problem than bylined reporters
Dan Froomkin for Press Watch:
Reporters are personally responsible for anything that appears under their bylines. For the reader, that means bylines provide a measure of accountability.
But some news articles – particularly political news articles – are so ill-conceived, so misguided, and so disconnected from reality that you can’t blame the reporters. At least not entirely.
In those cases, it’s the editors who are most at fault. In many cases, they assigned the article. They looked it over, maybe sent it back for revisions. At some point, they decided it was fine. And it’s the editors, not the reporters, who ultimately decided that it should see the light of day.
What I read, listen, and watch…
I’m reading the WHO’s new findings that infodemics and misinformation negatively affect people’s health behaviours.
I’m listening to a debate by Nicole Edwards and Lacy Roberts over dissolving human remains on Undark Magazine’s The Undark Podcast. I’m okay with that; cemeteries are a waste of time, space, and resources.
I’m watching Selena + Chef. Easy, feel-good show. Let’s give your mind a break.
Reviews, opinion pieces and other stray links:
It’s time for an online creators act by Saskia Kowalchuk and Fenwick McKelvey for Policy Options.
Social media’s election war room scam by Ryan Broderick on Garbage Day.
White House requires immediate public access to all U.S.-funded research papers by 2025 by Jeffrey Brainard and Jocelyn Kaiser for Science.
When the water rises: A Malaysian climate change story by Aidila Razak and Arulldass Sinnappan for MalaysiaKini.
The disaster consultants by Nicole Wetsman for The Verge.
Chart of the week
From Reuters Institute’s Digital News Report 2022 released earlier this year, here’s the proportion of those surveyed who think journalists should stick to reporting the news on social media:
And one more thing
In general, I ignore most social media posts shared with me if:
they don’t come with a primary source;
the original poster has no public credentials that can be easily verified; and,
they are not memes.
Here’s a good social media post. The caption explains clearly what we’re looking at and it comes with a striking image, nearly too unrealistic to be true. I would almost not look twice. Now, the game changer: The poster includes the original source (open access!), within the same post. Immediately, *immediately!* I am interested. And that is all it takes, really.
Selena video is private, unfortunately.