If you're at @ire.org's NICAR, don't forget alt text on images you share in social media posts. If you're fuzzy on alt text best practices, @stacykess.bsky.social, @emiliaruzicka.bsky.social, and have a session tomorrow followed by another session where they will dig deeper.
#NICAR26 #NICAR2026
And if you need more incentive to go to this session, yes, we'll be providing some kind of goodies.
That's all I'm saying.
#NICAR26 #Accessibility #AltText
schedules.ire.org/nicar-2026/#...
We've been making a lot of references to how the onslaught of AI is similar to the rise of Skynet from the Terminator movies. Fair! But we can't leave out the OTHER cybernetic organisms who also sought to destroy humans: The Borg, who famously said "resistance is futile."
What a time to be alive.
Filling readers’ feeds with nonsensical slop is not the journalism time-saver that these folks think it is!
The most valuable outlets in the world going forward are going to be the ones that try to help people understand the world we’re all living in.
This is a great way to make sure your social posts are accessible! And if you don’t know how to write alt text, join @stacykess.bsky.social and I for our “Implementing Accessibility” session at #NICAR26 on Friday!
This week, @ire.org has its annual NICAR conference. If you struggle to remember to add alt text to your images, Bluesky has a setting that will remind you. Go to "Settings," then "Accessibility." Select the checkbox for "Require alt text before posting."
#NICAR26 #NICAR2026
The best time to start thinking about and talking about making a website accessible is at the very beginning, before any content or code has been written. But the second best time is right now.
For any and all who will be at @ire.org's NICAR this year, please come to these sessions about accessibility! #NICAR26
Please send! This is one of the most popular articles on my website. I always welcome new food analogies for #accessibility from anywhere in the world. Thanks for sharing @a11yawareness.bsky.social
#disability #AccessibilityIsDelicious
Lots of great quotable lines from @deque's Axe-con, including this gem from @stephaniewalter.bsky.social: "You can't sprinkle eggs on the cupcake after baking it. Fixing accessibility later is messy, slow, ineffective!"
www.deque.com/axe-con/sess...
Axe-con continues today!
"The rules are the rules until they aren't."
—@lflegal.bsky.social, talking about the laws
Today is off to a great start, as I'm watching @lflegal.bsky.social do her "US Digital Accessibility Legal Update," which is always one of my favorite sessions.
Axe-con is a free virtual digital accessibility conference offered today and tomorrow (February 24 and February 25) by @deque.com.
Registrants from all time zones are welcome! All sessions are free, recorded, and available on demand following the conference.
www.deque.com/axe-con/
Looking for a very very affordable video editor to help w some overflow work on my YouTube channel. Need someone with STRONG editorial judgement and the ability to edit news footage on tech policy and complicated topics with an eye for detail. Student or teen is fine, but they need to be reliable!
Some newsrooms that had graphics folks just... go without now. Or, they might use DataWrapper, HighCharts, or Flourish and have the reporters make the charts.
One newspaper used Flourish to make a color-coded stacked bar chart with 44 colors in the chart. I counted to make sure. 44 colors!
Many newspapers had visual journalists. They might have had titles like "graphic artist" or "news artist," but these folks often pitched their own projects besides working with reporters. I did that job at three newspapers. None of those papers has a dedicated graphics desk anymore.
My local paper, which has won Pulitzers, now uses AI for its real estate summaries. That was someone’s job.
Reporter here. Most local / regional papers charge an initial 99 cents for a digital subscription. Try it for a year. Aim to be an engaged and informed member of the public. Democracy is counting on you.
The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing people local newspaper reporters are rarified elites instead of ink-stained wretches driving their Honda Civic to a crime scene so you know don’t have to rely on Nextdoor and the police press release.
First fish fry of the season feels like Opening Day, and today's was a winner.
I saw this thread before bed last night and waited to decide this morning, as if I was making a huge life decision. And I think Erasure's "Stop!" might be my decision.
This is likely many people's answers. Probably mine, too.
But yes, the trailer does look fun!
Be prepared:
"Did you see the trailer for the Mandalorian movie?"
"It's called 'The Mandalorian and Grogu.'"
"Right, the movie based on the Mandalorian TV show. Did you see it?"
"It's called 'The Mandalorian.'"
"Yes, did you see?"
"Yes, I've seen the show."
"The trailer."
"That's for the movie."
As soon as I saw it on the home page today, I made a bee line to read it.
I'm now a few years older than he was when he ran for president. Those quotes of is from 1984 gave me goosebumps as I read them, and I look forward to checking out more of those speeches.
The answer is a rewrite experiment, backed by AI. We plan to hire an AI rewrite specialist to ingest the reporting by Hannah and others and use AI to convert it into stories. The role will require an evolving expertise in prompt writing for an AI chatbot, to get the quality stories you might want to read. This is not a one-and-done kind of thing. We envision the rewrite specialist tweaking the stories a good bit with additional prompts for refinements. I see this as a writing role.
“We plan to hire an AI rewrite specialist to ingest the reporting by Hannah and others and use AI to convert it into stories.”
The editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer said it will use AI to ‘write’ its articles.
www.cleveland.com/news/2025/10...
In the case of the NYT, we can surmise the use of a full verbatim quote here is not meant to convey grief, but something else. It's a noticeable choice given that the Times has cleaned up so many quotes from other politicians, including a certain different politician from New York.
There is one example I always use when talking about full verbatim quotes. It's the interview between Anderson Cooper and Stephen Colbert, talking about grief. I argue that full verbatim quotes in that transcript from that interview are essential to feeling the heavy grief in Cooper's voice.
