How many fact-checking organizations does it take to change the proverbial fake news lightbulb? Elon Musk thinks we need at least one more. But maybe more like a popularity contest than a fact check, with journalists and institutions competing for credibility ratings. Emily and Heather ask what is the point in the dozens of recently launched fact-checking initiatives, and the director of Poynter's international fact-checking network Alexios Mantzarlis provides them with answers.

Reading List:

Explainer on the Elon Musk & "Pravda"

https://www.vox.com/2018/5/24/17389388/elon-musk-twitter-pravda

Nate Silver's response:

https://twitter.com/NateSilver538/status/999370434108944384

Ben Smith's response:

https://www.buzzfeed.com/bensmith/elon-musk-doesnt-know-what-hes-talking-about?utm_term=.poQVePjPl#.pcqEYlOla

Our guest Alexios Mantzarlis' response:

"Four serious questions about Elon Musk's silly credibility score"

https://www.poynter.org/news/four-serious-questions-about-elon-musks-silly-credibility-score

Interview with Journalism professor Lucas Graves on the history of fact-checking:

https://www.poynter.org/news/who-decides-whats-true-politics-history-rise-political-fact-checking

Survey of fact-checking projects around the world:

http://www.niemanlab.org/2018/02/a-2018-survey-of-fact-checking-projects-around-the-world-finds-a-booming-field-with-at-least-149-dedicated-initiatives/

Heather and Emily are joined by David Uberti of Splinter News, one of the authors of "Univision is a Fucking Mess" about his employer. But, seeking silver linings wherever they go, they also talk with Almudena Toral from Univision News Digital about some of the award-winning investigative work coming out of the Miami newsroom. Plus, Emily has all the latest on the Royal Wedding.

Reading list: https://journalismdesign.com/episode-8-the-unraveling-of-univision/

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Emily and Heather consider what place opinion journalism has in public discourse today. With Jeet Heer of The New Republic, and Katie Kingsbury of the New York Times, the two ask: Is intellectual diversity possible? Can, and should, legacy news organizations provide thought leadership? When do provocations and thought experiments actually foster debate and when are they just straight trolling? And what's that smell? Is it the daily bonfire of hot takes?

Reading list: https://journalismdesign.com/episode-7-a-bonfire-of-hot-takes/

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Heather and Emily hunker down in the journalistic equivalent of a nuclear bunker with Storyful's Mandy Jenkins and design technologist Rick Barraza to explore the looming crisis of AI-generated fakery that threatens our understanding of what's real.

Reading list: https://journalismdesign.com/episode-6-getting-ready-for-the-infocalypse/

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In this episode of Tricky, Heather and Emily talk to Sarah L. Roberts, the woman who coined the term "commercial content moderation," about how elements of online discourse are governed by outsourced and unseen low-paid workers, who sift through "the grossness of humanity."

And they ask Andrew Losowsky of the Coral Project whether newsrooms and journalists still have a part to play in fostering civil discourse, on and offline. Plus: the bubonic plague, dance mania, Karen Carpenter, and pointy shoes. Read the full transcript below.

Reading list: https://journalismdesign.com/please-dont-read-comments/

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Facebook's 35 mentions in the 37-page indictment of 13 Russian nationals solidified the social network's position at the center of our current political and cultural conundrum. In this episode, Heather Chaplin and Emily Bell retrace the steps that led to this point, examine whether Facebook's leadership was willfully ignorant or breathtakingly naive, and analyse the role of journalism in all this. And while we pick over the debris of our democracy, we also debate the case for blockchain – technology plenty of smart folks, including our guest Jarrod Dicker (former VP of innovation at the Washington Post, new CEO of Po.et), are putting a lot of faith in.

Reading list: https://journalismdesign.com/episode-2-facebook-is-broken-should-we-hop-on-the-blockchain/

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In the inaugural episode of Tricky, Emily Bell and Heather Chaplin look at perhaps the greatest challenge facing journalism today: the fight to capture your attention.

Journalism may be a pillar of democracy, but how can it compete with the persuasive design tactics that serve up everything from Instagram posts to dating apps? Examining persuasive design through the lenses of psychology, anthropology, ethics and history, Emily and Heather try to unpack what the attention economy is doing to journalism and to society. This week's show features excerpts from a discussion about the "dark side of design," starring some outspoken critics of social networks.

Our hosts speak with Natasha Schull, author of Addiction by Design and James Williams, co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology and try to identify a framework for change. Who's responsible for the effects of persuasive technology? Is regulation of Big Tech reasonable, or even the right approach? Where does personal responsibility begin and end?

From Jim Carrey divesting from Facebook, to ad-blocking as an act of revolt to suing Mark Zuckerberg for that time you've wasted, they cover all the issues.

Plus…gin.

Reading list: https://journalismdesign.com/journalism-podcast-journalismdesign-episode-one/

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Disentangling journalism's knottiest problems. Heather Chaplin and Emily Bell call on leading thinkers, doers, writers, and designers to tease out where we go from here. From the Journalism and Design program at The New School.