WebProNews

Tag: Craigconnects

  • More People Think Facebook, Twitter Negatively Affect News Quality

    A new survey from Craig Newmark’s pro-philanthropy initiative, craigconnects, shows that social media isn’t really making any headway in changing how people get news about politics and elections. Furthermore, most who participated in the survey said that social media sites like Facebook and Twitter had a negative effect on the quality of news in the United States.

    It’s not just social media that’s getting the negative reviews as respondents didn’t really find any of the six media outlets included in the survey – newspapers, cable news, network news, talk radio, internet news sites, and blogs & social media – to be all that trustworthy. Obviously, such a low opinion of all news sources isn’t great news but when it comes to social media sites, only 6% of people said they think the news found on social media is actually credible. As far as how the quality of the news was reflected on social media, 34% felt that it had a negative effects on the quality of the news.

    “Most people aren’t getting hard election news from social media,” Newmark said, who is also the founder of craigslist. “Tech folks and early adapters are, but not most people, not yet.”

    Newmark opined on how he felt all news sources could boost their credibility among audiences. “It’s called fact-checking, and there are a lot of good people working on it,” he said. “They’re looking at ways to help the news media hold candidates and other public figures accountable for what they tell the public. So far it’s hard, and it’s not inexpensive, but it’s really important.”

    Newmark also identified one of the greatest perils of SEO journalism: rumors. “People often hear rumors, report it on social media and then the news outlets scramble to get on top of the story and sometimes things are not fact-checked enough in today’s battle to scoop the news first,” he told WebProNews. “Overwhelmingly, I hear that people have kind of given up on trusting political news.”

    As you’ll see below, Newmark put together an infographic that displays the full findings from the survey.

    (To see a larger version of this graphic, go here.)

  • Craigslist Founder Announces New Site

    Craig Newmark, the founder of Craigslist, is trying something new – and substantial – today.  This morning, he launched Craigconnects, an initiative (and website) designed to encourage and trigger charitable acts all over the world.

    Craigconnects isn’t intended to be any sort of side project or hobby for Newmark.  In a video introduction, Newmark mentioned his ties to Craigslist, then stated, “Now I’m starting something even bigger, which I’m calling Craigconnects.  Its long-term purpose is to help connect everyone of goodwill across the entire world for whatever they feel is the common good.”

    Also, as the screenshot below shows, Newmark said in a tweet that Craigconnects has become “the biggest thing in my life . . .”

    Unfortunately, not a whole lot more information is available right now, as all the official material is a little vague.  One other problem: the Craigconnects site is experiencing server issues.

    An official announcement (linked to in Newmark’s tweet) was clear that the program isn’t a fundraising or grant-giving organization, however, and Newmark indicated that – while he will support it in every way – he’s open to the idea of letting more qualified individuals join or perhaps take the reins.

    Given what Newmark achieved with Craigslist, it should be very interesting to see what happens here.