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Why we love to hate Davos, and that's OK; Curated media stories on: podcasts, BBC, media literacy, Semafor, disinformation, and more - read this first post on Substack after years on now-defunct Revue

Davos - a love/hate relationship with journalism

Reporters love the World Economic Forum in Davos almost as much as the politicians and plutocrats who are its real stars. They love to hate it (especially if they haven’t been asked or assigned to it), and they love to mix and perhaps hear some astounding ideas from some of the most brilliant and influential people in the world.

Not a media circus as such but a metaphor maybe - Photograph: Peter Bale

Here are a few very different takes:

Journalism has a Davos problem, By Kyle Pope in the Columbia Journalism Review takes apart the obsession with the WEF. It’s unfair and quite funny in places but largely misses the value of being there and hearing amazing people.

“The journalists continue to come, in wave after wave, eager to make fun of the scene while making sure that they show up at the right parties,” writes, adding later: “But it’s gotten to the point where none of this is funny anymore. Never in my career have I seen such a disconnect between the state of the global economy and the stories that the business press is serving up to cover it.”

Over at The Economist, its editor-in-chief Zanny Minton Beddoes, whose languorous accent is worth listening to, told The Intelligence podcast, the answer was very much yes: “Its star may be fading, but that doesn’t mean that what happens here isn’t useful.”

I can also recommend the sage analyst Ian Bremmer, founder of the Eurasia Group political risk agency, and its GZero Media offshoot, as a sensible interpreter of the value of and trends emerging at the WEF in his podcast, headlined: Davos, meet humility: grappling with Russia & egregious violations of international law

Elon Musk declined an invitation this year and mocked the entire event and its founder Klaus Schwab “boring” and “ominous”, according to this witty report in The Street: Elon Musk Orchestrates Takedown of the Most Powerful Club in the World

Footnote: I sent teams to Davos for years but only went once myself when working for Jimmy Wales, the Wikipedia founder who was once a WEF Young Global Leader and who has gone ever since, holding a dinner each year where on this visit I managed to insult Norway’s Crown Prince with a few Norwegian words supplied by a mischievous friend. I met and interviewed remarkable people — including a madly spontaneous live video interview with Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, and conversations with Usher, Malala, oh, and Elon Musk’s odd and Stetson-wearing brother Kimbal who talked about green things and OpenAI as I recall. It was hard work and great fun on a new project and I learned a lot about blockchain.

More media news headlines with a twist

Can BBC radio thrive in a new world of podcasts? The Guardian looks at the explosion of podcasts and narrower radio services and the implications for the BBC which of course has gone in boots and all to podcasts.

Axios Pro generated $2 million in 2022 with more than 3K paid subscribers, Digiday reports of the offshoot of Axios, recently bought by Cox.

TikTok’s Secret ‘Heating’ Button Can Make Anyone Go Viral, in Forbes appears to confirm the pretty obvious assumption that TikTok can weaponise virality. Forbes isn’t what it once was but I see little obvious to doubt in this report.

We need a functioning democracy. Teaching media literacy can help, is an editorial from the now-non-profit-run media group The Philadelphia Inquirer after Pennsylvania education authorities launched media literacy programmes for kids in the kindergarten-to-12 group. I always find the phrase media literacy patronising but whatever it is called it has to be good to help kids know what they’re consuming.

Here’s an intriguing study from South Korea of the impact of educating readers about and calling out misinformation which appears to help readers become more vigilant and discerning but it also appears to risk increasing trust in established media brands.

What Does It Mean to Reinvent Journalism? is a big question from a small publication I really wasn’t aware of before, Dame. Writer Allison Hantschel takes apart the motives and habits of those who promise a media revolution only to deliver the same old stuff as the publications they claim to be supplanting. She takes a particularly acerbic look at the well-funded Semafor news site launched by former New York Times media columnist Ben Smith and former Bloomberg media CEO Justin Smith.

I interviewed Ben Smith for something I do at INMA, the International News Media Association, and it is true they have broken some good stories if not yet reinvented the formula for covering international news and politics the way Axios has.

Right now, however, Semafor has become part of the story because of Sam Bankman Fried of FTX infamy was one of its significant early investors. I am sure that is of far more concern to the Smiths than the Dame critique and Semafor has been thorough in its coverage of FTX and relatively transparent.

And finally, Ian Black, former Guardian Middle East editor, dies aged 6, The Guardian reported.

This quote in the obituary fits with my experience of him in the field, unassuming, charming to other reporters, and a calm and balanced correspondent on one of the world’s most difficult stories: ‘Chris Doyle, director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding, said: “Ian was always so generous with his time with me ever since I first met him in the early 1990s. One of the finest journalists covering the Middle East from whom I learnt so much. His book on Israel-Palestine, Enemies and Neighbours, written back in 2017 remains one of the best on the issue. He was warm, fun and kind and will be sorely missed.”’

Innovation watch: Tying complex stories together

I am not 100 percent convinced that this is the greatest thing since sliced bread but news information start-up Stringboard is quite interesting and not a million miles away from some of the visual tools used by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists to explain the linkages in things like the Panama Papers.

Thanks for getting to the end of the first version of this newsletter on Substack. Let me know, please, what worked for you and what didn’t, and what more you need.