Tong Li
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tongli.bsky.social
Tong Li
@tongli.bsky.social
Digital Media & Brand Strategy Expert | Former Journalist & Skilled Storyteller | Data & Business Analytics Enthusiast
Fake AI-stories surged in Google Discover. Google acknowledges the issue and promises a fix.
When people lose trust in what they read, democracy loses.
🔗 pressgazette.co.uk/platforms/go...

#MediaJustice #AI #Trust #DigitalMedia
Google promises Discover 'fix' as more fake AI stories top rankings
Google has promised it is working on a "fix" for spam sites in its Discover app after more fake news stories topped the rankings in the UK.
pressgazette.co.uk
November 14, 2025 at 6:29 PM
Global peek into AI moods: Most people know of AI—but far more are concerned vs. excited. (Median: 34 % more concerned, 16 % more excited)

🔗 www.pewresearch.org/global/2025/...

#TechEquity #AI #PublicOpinion #Trust
How People Around the World View AI
Most adults across 25 countries are aware of AI, and people are generally more concerned than excited about its effects on daily life.
www.pewresearch.org
November 14, 2025 at 6:26 PM
Creators: the look of your podcast set is telling the story before the mic even opens. The New York Times’ recent piece dives into how podcast set design is evolving—light, space, visual cues all matter.

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

#MediaJustice #Podcasting #Design #InclusiveMedia
Modern Podcast Sets and Online Chat Shows Are Less Polished By Design
Modern online chat shows look less fussy and polished than TV. That’s by design.
www.nytimes.com
November 14, 2025 at 6:22 PM
Search is changing — and news media are feeling the hit.
When a Google AI Overview appears, the Daily Mail reports click-throughs drop by ~80-90%.
We need not only innovation, but also fairness — both for audiences and the newsrooms that serve them.

🔗 digiday.com/media/daily-...

#MediaJustice
Daily Mail says Google AI Overviews have killed click-throughs
Daily Mail’s clickthroughs drop 80–90% when Google AI Overviews appear, but traffic impact remains minimal due to strong direct traffic.
digiday.com
November 14, 2025 at 1:53 AM
Podcasting + Threads = interesting mix.
Threads is adding highlighted podcast links, profile-showcase for creators, and promises to become the place fans discuss shows.

🔗 techcrunch.com/2025/11/11/t...

#MediaJustice #Podcasting #SocialMedia
Threads targets podcasters with new features, aiming to become the home for show discussions | TechCrunch
Threads is targeting podcasters with new features, including dedicated links in the bio and more visible links in the feed.
techcrunch.com
November 12, 2025 at 10:00 PM
Podcasting’s promise of inclusive voice is faltering: according to a new USC study, 64% of top-100 podcast hosts are male and 77% are white.
We should ask: who gets heard, who profits, and who’s invisible?
🔗 www.thewrap.com/usc-study-po...

#MediaJustice #Podcasting #Representation
Podcasting's Diversity Problem: 64% of Hosts Are Male, 77% Are White, USC Study Finds
The hosts of the top 100 podcasts of 2024 were overwhelmingly white and male, a new comprehensive study from USC reveals.
www.thewrap.com
November 12, 2025 at 9:56 PM
Local newsrooms often know what they need—but not where to find it. Enter the Journalism Support Exchange (JSX): a searchable, transparent database of 300+ organisations offering help in finance, audience, legal, strategy.
www.niemanlab.org/2025/11/the-...
#MediaJustice #JournalismSupport
The Journalism Support Exchange is a new matchmaking tool for local news outlets to get the help they need
Put a finger down if you've ever been in a journalism-related Slack and asked for recommendations or help with something, got a bunch of responses that you sifted through, only to find in the end that...
www.niemanlab.org
November 12, 2025 at 9:51 PM
Local newsrooms: there’s a new guide you need to see.
The Nieman Lab highlights a report with 21 actionable steps to help outlets move from “just getting by” to being truly sustainable.

🔗 www.niemanlab.org/2025/11/want...

#MediaJustice #LocalNews #SustainableJournalism
Want to build a sustainable local newsroom? These 21 steps will help you get there, a new report finds
“Having dedicated staff to generate revenue was transformational to an organization’s chances of sustainability.”
www.niemanlab.org
November 12, 2025 at 9:45 PM
Reuters is testing an AI agent as its “first video producer” — automating edits, metadata and clip selection.
If newsrooms use AI, they must embed ethics, representational fairness and transparency — not just speed.
🔗 digiday.com/media/inside...

#MediaEthics #News #AI #Journalism
Inside Reuters' agentic AI video experiment
Reuters is experimenting with using an AI agent to speed up its video production process, and hired its first AI TV producer.
digiday.com
November 10, 2025 at 9:29 PM
Patreon is rolling out “Quips” (public short-posts) and collaboration tools so creators can co-author and reach each other’s audiences.
More algorithmic reach = more chase for visibility, fewer guarantees of fairness.
www.theverge.com/news/816723/...

#CreatorEconomy #MediaJustice #IndependentMedia
Patreon is adding tweet-like features and more recommended content
Patreon recently scooped up high-profile Substack writers.
www.theverge.com
November 10, 2025 at 9:26 PM
Public radio is facing serious pressure: funding cuts are forcing many stations to lean heavily on “old, rich, white” donors. when funding narrows, programming and priorities narrow too.

🔗 www.niemanlab.org/2025/11/fund...

#MediaJustice #PublicMedia #Journalism
Funding cuts may make public radio more reliant on old, rich, white donors
After years of interviews, research, and writing, Laura Garbes submitted the final draft of her book on public radio in December 2024. By the time Listeners Like Who? Exclusion and Resistance in the P...
www.niemanlab.org
November 10, 2025 at 9:22 PM
Audiences are skeptical that AI-generated imagery in news is “worth the risk.” Many say it’s harder to spot fake visuals than fake words — and they’re right.

🔗 www.niemanlab.org/2025/11/audi...

#AIethics #Journalism #MediaTrust #VisualIntegrity
Audiences doubt the benefits of AI-generated imagery in news are worth the risks, new study finds
What do readers really think of AI-generated images in their news? There has been substantial research on how audiences respond to AI-generated text, but far less dedicated research on image generator...
www.niemanlab.org
November 6, 2025 at 11:22 PM
Teens are harsh on the news media — calling it “biased,” “boring,” “chaotic,” and “bad.”
• 84% of teens used negative words when describing the news.
• ~50% believe journalists fabricate quotes or pay for sources.

🔗 www.niemanlab.org/2025/11/bias...

#MediaEthics #News #YouthVoices #TrustInMedia
“Biased,” “boring,” “chaotic,” and “bad”: A majority of teens hold negative views of news media, report finds
About half of the teens surveyed believe that journalists frequently “make up details, such as quotes” and “pay for sources.”
www.niemanlab.org
November 6, 2025 at 11:19 PM
AI is being sold into school and library systems as “efficiency tools,” but one 404 Media piece argues they’re doing much more: enabling a streamlined war on knowledge, librarians say.

🔗 www.404media.co/ai-is-superc...

#MediaReform #EducationJustice #Journalism
AI Is Supercharging the War on Libraries, Education, and Human Knowledge
"Fascism and AI, whether or not they have the same goals, they sure are working to accelerate one another."
www.404media.co
November 6, 2025 at 10:33 PM
Meta internally estimated that up to 10% of its 2024 revenue (~$16b billion) came from scam and banned-goods ads, and the company’s platforms showed users ~15 billion high-risk scam ads a day.

🔗 www.reuters.com/investigatio...

#MediaJustice #PlatformAccountability #Journalism
Meta is earning a fortune on a deluge of fraudulent ads, documents show
Meta projected 10% of its 2024 revenue would come from ads for scams and banned goods, and it internally estimates that its platforms show users 15 billion scam ads a day, company documents show.
www.reuters.com
November 6, 2025 at 10:23 PM
Journalists are increasingly souring on social-media platforms — after 11 years of predictions, the optimism has faded. Toxic engagement loops, collapsing trust, and algorithms that reward outrage over clarity.
🔗 www.niemanlab.org/2025/11/jour...
#Journalism #SocialMedia #PublicInterest #NewsEthics
Journalists are souring on social media platforms, an analysis of 11 years of Nieman Lab predictions suggests
While these predictions suggest that the journalistic community’s enthusiasm for social media platforms has waned over time, there has been no such change in the perceptions of the people actually usi...
www.niemanlab.org
November 6, 2025 at 12:38 AM
The nonprofit Common Crawl is under scrutiny for feeding pay-walled news articles into AI training sets — while saying it only collects “freely available” content. This isn’t just tech talk — it’s about power, access, and fairness in the digital age.
www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...
#MediaEthics
The Company Quietly Funneling Paywalled Articles to AI Developers
“You shouldn’t have put your content on the internet if you didn’t want it to be on the internet,” Common Crawl’s executive director says.
www.theatlantic.com
November 6, 2025 at 12:34 AM
Sweden’s Aftonbladet just rolled out a 50-language chatbot so readers can ask what they want to know — not just be told what to read. Worth keeping an eye on this model as we think about audiences, equity, and digital transformation across newsrooms.
thefix.media/2025/11/04/h...

#Media #Inclusion
How Sweden’s largest daily newspaper built its own chatbot to let users choose how they consume news
Earlier this year the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet launched a chatbot available in 50 languages ​​to allow its users to obtain news in a different way.
thefix.media
November 6, 2025 at 12:30 AM
Spotify now boasts ~500 k video podcasts and nearly 400 m viewers. Big for the creator economy—but for newsrooms and public-interest media it raises key questions: Are we leveraging video to deepen engagement, or just extend reach?

🔗 techcrunch.com/2025/11/04/s...

#MediaTrust #DigitalEquity
Spotify now has half a million video podcasts, which nearly 400M users have watched | TechCrunch
Spotify says that users' time spent with video content on Spotify has more than doubled year-over-year, largely driven by video podcasts.
techcrunch.com
November 6, 2025 at 12:06 AM
Big decision: Getty Images largely fails in its UK lawsuit against Stability AI—even though the case was marketed as a major precedent for copyright in AI training.

🔗 www.reuters.com/sustainabili...

#MediaTrust #CreatorRights #AIforGood
Getty Images largely loses landmark UK lawsuit over AI image generator
Getty Images largely lost its landmark lawsuit against artificial intelligence company Stability AI over its image generator at London's High Court on Tuesday.
www.reuters.com
November 5, 2025 at 12:05 AM
The Times of London was duped twice recently—once by a fake interviewee, once by an AI-generated “case study.” Its editors called the errors “humiliating” and reminded reporters of basic checks: “Who is telling me this? How do I know they say what they say?”
🔗 pressgazette.co.uk/news/times-j...
Times journalists urged to make 'basic' checks after two 'humiliating' hoaxes
A newsroom boss at The Times has described two fake interviews it ran as "humiliating" and said "basic" questions were not asked.
pressgazette.co.uk
November 4, 2025 at 11:49 PM
In Latin America, newsrooms are using AI in creative, locally-tailored ways—even when big tech tools are less accessible.
Innovation isn’t only in Silicon Valley—it’s in newsrooms working under resource constraints.

🔗 ijnet.org/en/story/lat...

#MediaTrust #AIforGood #Journalism
From Latin America, emerging models for AI in media
Media outlets across Latin America are finding novel ways to navigate the tsunami of change unleashed by fast-evolving AI.  Among these players are innovative organisations that were working with AI l...
ijnet.org
November 4, 2025 at 10:21 PM
Reddit is telling publishers: don’t just drop links in subreddits—engage, understand community norms, and contribute meaningfully. This is a call for authenticity, not shortcuts.

🔗 pressgazette.co.uk/platforms/re...

#MediaTrust #CommunityFirst #JournalismFuture
Press Gazette | Substack
Click to read Press Gazette, a Substack publication with tens of thousands of subscribers.
pressgazette.substack.com
November 4, 2025 at 10:12 PM
iTromsø in Norway—just 25 staff—built their own AI platform and used it to cut archival research time dramatically and surface high-impact local stories. If local newsrooms can pair smart tech with human storytelling and community focus, they can reclaim civic relevance.
wan-ifra.org/2025/11/a-sm...
A small Norwegian newsroom punches above its weight with a data-driven, human-centred AI strategy
2025-11-04. iTromsø, a 25-reporter newsroom in northern Norway, is showing how a small local publisher can produce original, locally relevant data stories using self-developed AI tools. Its owner, Pol...
wan-ifra.org
November 4, 2025 at 10:00 PM
A nonprofit in Philadelphia has bought a 117-year-old magazine and plans to convert it into its own nonprofit entity.
Legacy-media struggle is real—this is a creative response rather than a surrender.

www.niemanlab.org/2025/11/in-p...

#MediaTrust #LocalJournalism #CivicMedia
In Philadelphia, a young nonprofit buys a century-old magazine
The Philadelphia Citizen, the decade-old nonprofit dedicated to solutions journalism and civic engagement, has acquired Philadelphia Magazine. As part of the acquisition, announced on Friday, the 117-...
www.niemanlab.org
November 4, 2025 at 9:26 PM