December 7, 2023
In this week's edition: 2023's Most Contagious report, what people think of AI-created content, identifying the news avoiders, the importance of the UI, five consumer trends for 2024, and much more...
The 2023 Most Contagious Report - As usual, chock full of case studies, campaigns, interviews and perspectives on key trends driving our industry today. (Contagious)
Study gauges how people perceive AI-created content - New research has found that “when people knew a product’s source, they expressed a positive bias toward content created by humans. Yet at the same time, and contrary to the traditional idea of “algorithmic aversion,” people expressed no aversion toward AI-generated content when they knew how it was created. In fact, when respondents were not told how content was created, they preferred AI-generated content.” (MITSloan)
Why The Future Of Planning Is Opera, Only Fans, God, And Low Traffic Neighbourhoods - “Open up your f**cking world because if your life is small your work will be too.” I buy it. (Creative Salon via Storythings)
LinkedIn has AI to enhance profiles. It made some sound robotic - “If you’re one of the many users who struggle to tell your professional story on the job site LinkedIn, a built-in artificial intelligence tool may now offer some assistance. But whether using AI is worth your time may depend on how creative you want your profile to be.” (Washington Post)
So who are the consistent news avoiders? While most news avoiders skewed younger and female, “No single variable is more predictive of whether someone consistently avoids news than their level of interest in politics and civic affairs.” (Nieman Lab)
Audiences are declining for traditional news media in the U.S. – with some exceptions - “A declining share of U.S. adults are following the news closely, according to recent Pew Research Center surveys. And audiences are shrinking for several older types of news media – such as local TV stations, most newspapers and public radio – even as they grow for newer platforms like podcasts, as well as for a few specific media brands.” (Pew)
Remedial lesson to PR folk out there: You can give one news outlet an exclusive, or you can give multiple outlets something under embargo, but you can't do both - I’d like to think that most PRs would understand that. Then again… (Sarah Wheaton/Politico via Laura Shields)
No to NoUI - Trust me, despite the title it’s very interesting given, as the author states, that “Interfaces are the dominant cultural form of our time. So much of contemporary culture takes place through interfaces and inside UI. Interfaces are part of cultural expression and participation.” As communicators, it’s useful to understand this. (Elastic Space)
5 Things You Need To Know for 2024 - Consumer trends that the authors have defined as “‘Low Mass, High Velocity.’ Low Mass means they are small in volume now. High Velocity means they have high engagement and are growing in size. This dynamic means they are under the radar, so - according to the authors - there is opportunity to get ahead of them.” Do with it what you will. (Decode_M via Alan Chumley)
Meta Highlights Key Platform Manipulation Trends in Latest ‘Adversarial Threat Report’ - “While the data shows that Russia and Iran remain the most common source regions for coordinated manipulation programs, China is third on that list, with Meta shutting down almost 5,000 Facebook profiles linked to a Chinese-based manipulation program in Q3 alone.” (SMT)
News outlets turn to Reddit as Musk’s X descends into chaos - “As Twitter continues to decline as a place to post news, media companies have been seeking out alternative platforms to promote their work, and more are turning to Reddit.” (Washington Post)
Here’s how 13 news outlets are using LinkedIn newsletters - While the platform is viewed as news-friendly, “They don’t think LinkedIn newsletters will replace email newsletters any time soon. LinkedIn’s customization tools are limited. Publishers have little access to metrics data, and they don’t own their LinkedIn subscriber lists. There are also challenges on the user side. There is currently no newsletter discoverability feature.” (Nieman Lab)
And finally, the most popular article from last week was The biggest trends in graphic design for 2024 by Creative Boom. And with that, good night and good luck!