For our season two finale, Emily and Heather are joined by "Full Frontal with Samantha Bee" writer Mike Drucker to talk about all things comedy and journalism. How do the writing staffs at shows like Full Frontal collaborate with researchers to produce investigative segments? How has the rise of social media changed the comedy landscape? Have comedians done a better job of explaining Brexit to Americans than journalists? Plus, Tricky's in-house comedian George Civeris presents a list of innovative suggestions for solving journalism's thorniest problems. 

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Season Two Finale: Is This Thing On?

In "The Digital Maginot Line", Mozilla fellow and disinformation expert Renée DiResta argues that perpetrators of information warfare have shifted from "targeting infrastructure to targeting the minds of civilians." In this week's episode, Renée joins Heather and Emily to talk about how governments and platforms are not doing enough to address this shift. In light of recent debates about the ethics of covering the Christchurch massacre, we talk about best practices for journalists working in an era of democratized propaganda and rampant misinformation. 

'The Digital Maginot Line' and the Future of Information Warfare

In the past few years, coverage of Silicon Valley in the press has shifted away from techno-utopian boosterism towards increasingly critical analysis. On this week's episode, we hear some advice from the New York Times' John Herrman about covering big tech platforms, and then Emily and Heather are joined by the Times' Amanda Hess to discuss her experiences writing about the internet as both a reporter and a critic.

And The (Tech) Beat Goes On

Gawker unionized in 2015, setting off a wave of digital newsroom organizing, invigorated by layoffs and politics that leave journalists feeling embattled. Emily and Heather are joined by long-time labor reporter Steven Greenhouse, Writers Guild of America East organizer Megan McRobert, and writer and WGAE Council member Kelly Stout to explain how unions has been brought into the digital newsroom— and what digital journalism expects from labor.

The Rise of Unions in Digital Media

BuzzFeed, Vice and other leaders in digital media have laid off over 2,000 people so far this year. It seems that nobody can bring in enough revenue from digital advertising to fuel free news online. Meanwhile, printed newspapers continue to lose subscribers. The good news, says University of Texas at Austin associate professor Iris Chyi, is that loyal subscribers are willing to pay more for less— even while newspapers feed their own "death spiral" by cutting newsrooms, hiking prices, and bemoaning their own demise. Nieman Lab director Joshua Benton joins in to discuss and disagree about what the numbers tell us about newspapers' past, and to pitch a future for print. 

Print Is Dead! Long Live Print!

How do we measure the reach and impact of online journalism? Does audience data belong in the newsroom? The meaning of audience metrics is often unclear, but their effects on business and editorial decisions are very real (pivot to video, anyone?). Chris Moran, The Guardian's strategic projects editor, talks to Emily about building analytics tools for journalists, navigating misleading numbers, and working in a newsroom that is "data-driven, but not data-led." 

Can We Count on Audience Metrics?

In the second part of Tricky's deep-dive into the relationship between news publishers and tech platforms, Jezebel founding editor Anna Holmes joins Heather and Emily to talk about the glory days of blogs, the evolution of women's digital spaces (RIP Rookie), and what was lost when commenter culture moved to Facebook and Twitter. We also discuss the legacy of Gawker Media, what recent layoffs at digital publishers mean for the industry, and Anna's escape from the 24-hour news cycle as the editor of Topic, an online magazine that publishes once a month.

Platforms & Publishers, Part 2: "We Damaged Our Souls"

Writer and journalism professor Anjali Khosla joins Heather and Emily to talk about how we got this fraught relationship between tech platforms and news publishers. They cover the latest Facebook bombshell(s), Jonah Peretti's plans for digital media conglomeration, Anjali's experience as one of the first social media editors, and how future decisions from social media platforms will to shape the viability of journalism. They attempt to end on a positive note several times to mixed results. 

Platforms & Publishers (Name A More Dysfunctional Duo)

Disentangling journalism’s messiest problems. Heather Chaplin and Emily Bell tap the biggest brains in the business and beyond to tease out where we go from here. From the Journalism and Design program at The New School.

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