How Apple News is gearing up to cover Tuesday’s U.S. midterm elections

“Every major media outlet that covers politics is gearing up to cover Tuesday’s U.S. midterm elections. And so is Apple,” Will Oremus reports for Slate. “While Facebook’s “election war room” attempts to stand athwart the inevitable flood of misinformation on the social network, performing triage, Apple will have a news room of professional journalists engaged in a much more familiar task. Their mandate, editor-in-chief Lauren Kern said in a June blog post, is to handpick ‘the most important, rigorously reported news’ stories from a variety of mainstream media outlets and highlight them for Apple News users in the app’s special Midterm Elections section.”
“It’s a noteworthy editorial project from a 3-year-old platform that is rapidly gaining readership and influence in the news industry amid the well-publicized struggles of its Silicon Valley rivals. Apple doesn’t disclose audience numbers for Apple News, but some major news publishers say it has lately vaulted past other platforms to become one of their top traffic sources,” Oremus reports. Slate’s Apple News readership has tripled in the past year.””
“Apple says the goal of its election-night hub is to be a one-stop destination for all the latest results, stories, and videos,” Oremus reports. “Apple’s Midterm Elections project is already in full swing. But starting at 8 p.m. EST on Tuesday, the company will launch a redesigned, election-night version. Midterms news will take over the top of both the app’s main “Today” feed and its “Digest” tab, while also being featured in the widget that appears when you swipe right from the home screen of an iOS device. The section will lead with the latest results based on data from the Associated Press, which will update once a minute without making you refresh the page. And it will pipe in live TV coverage from at least two major networks, along with clips from CNN, Fox News, and others, without requiring users to log in as pay-TV subscribers.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Good luck on Election Night, Apple News!
Once again, do not solely trust Apple News or Google News or ABC News or Sky News or CNN or Fox News or The BBC or, for God’s sake, Facebook.
Do not trust any single gatekeeper.
The best way to consume so-called “news” is to cast a wide net. There is no such thing as a truly impartial journalist or algorithm.
As always, readers of “news” need to consider the sources and interpret what they are being told accordingly. The more disparate sources you can find, the better. And we don’t mean different newspaper, network, website brands that are all owned by the same conglomerate. Determining the actual ownership of your “news” sources is an investment that requires a bit of time, but it is very enlightening. — MacDailyNews Take, June 17, 2015
SEE ALSO:
Who – not what – picks the stories for Apple News – October 25, 2018
91% of contributions by Apple employees have gone to Democrats vs. 9% to Republicans since 2004 – October 5, 2018
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey: I ‘fully admit’ our bias is ‘more left-leaning’ – August 20, 2018
Facebook and Apple disagree on how to curb ‘fake news’ for U.S. Midterms – July 3, 2018
Apple News’ plan for the 2018 midterms: Be the opposite of Facebook – June 26, 2018
Apple shoots for the high ground in ‘fake news’ debate – June 26, 2018
Apple News launches 2018 Midterm Elections section – June 25, 2018
Editorial bias: Apple News’s human editors prefer a few major newsrooms, study shows – June 6, 2018
Apple, J.P. Morgan under fire for donations to notorious Southern Poverty Law Center – August 28, 2017
New York magazine editor Lauren Kern named first Editor-in-Chief of Apple News – May 25, 2017
Apple refuses to aid 2016 GOP presidential convention over Trump comments – June 18, 2016
Who’s going to ‘curate’ Apple News? – August 13, 2015
The Apple News app is doomed – July 30, 2015
The future’s not looking too bright for Apple News – July 30, 2015
Apple hiring team of journalists for News app; a ‘jaw-dropping’ development says publisher – June 15, 2015
Apple News is fast, responsive, enjoyable, and it might become your only news app – July 15, 2015
Apple News shows that Apple wants to bolster and profit from ads, not eliminate them – July 10, 2015
Apple News to have human curation – and that raises issues – June 15, 2015
Apple employees donate $15 to Obama for every $1 to Romney – July 27, 2012
Apple, other tech firm employees’ contributions favor Democrats over Republicans, Obama over Clinton – April 14, 2008
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “Ladd” for the heads up.]