Tricky

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.

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 WGAE Council member and writer Kelly Stout to explain how unions has been brought into the digital newsroom— and what digital journalism expects from labor.

Printed newspapers have long been losing ground to new technologies, from the radio to the Internet. The good news, says journalism professor Iris Chyi, is that loyal subscribers have proven willing to pay more for less, as newsrooms shrink. This "death spiral" continues when resources go to building an online presence for non-paying readers. 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.

How do we measure the reach and impact of online journalism? Does audience data belong in the newsroom? Though the meaning of audience metrics is often opaque, 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."

Jezebel founding editor Anna Holmes joins Heather and Emily to talk about the glory days of blogs, the evolution of women's digital spaces, and what was lost when commenter culture moved to Facebook and Twitter. Also: 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.

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.

Rolling Stone's Jamil Smith lays out the responsibilities of journalists reporting on a divided electorate as we look towards 2020, journalists from across the country discuss their midterm coverage, and what Trump’s exchange with Jim Acosta says about the White House’s relationship with the press.

Journalist Mehdi Hasan joins Heather and Emily to discuss the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and explore what its coverage says about the American media's evolving relationship with the Saudi Arabian government. Plus, Heather and Emily bring back the unboxing to reveal two new recurring segments for the show. It's the beginning of a whole new season of Tricky.

On the finale of the first season of Tricky, Emily and Heather are joined by media critic and NYU journalism professor Jay Rosen to discuss the journalism that exposed the Trump administration's atrocities at the border and the role of the American press in an era of competing realities.