What We’re Reading: Freelancing for Disinformation, How (Not) to Pitch, #ElectionWatchdog

Russia Ensnares Freelancers in Disinformation Campaign (Reuters)

Freelancers: If you thought you only need to worry about malicious sources and bad information, here’s a reminder to ask who’s behind that next commission.  Reuters interviewed six journalists about their commissions from the website Peace Data, which Facebook and Twitter — acting on a tip from the FBI — identified as the “center of a Russian political influence campaign targeting left wing voters in the United States, Britain, and other countries.” Approached on social media, freelancers were commissioned to write articles about the US presidential election and the pandemic, paying up to $250 per article. See also this New York Times piece on Peace Data. Careful out there.

7 Fatal Flaws of Story Pitches (Nieman Storyboard)

Here’s more advice for freelancers from Jacqui Banaszynski on Nieman Storyboard. She points out seven common mistakes that freelancers make when pitching to editors: 1. Failure to know the publication. 2. Failure to respect submission protocol. 3. Failure to honor the core: spelling, style, and grammar. 4. Failure to do a basic clips search. 5. Failure to be interesting. 6. Failure to focus. 7. Failure to sell yourself. Says Banaszynski: “Cut this out and tape it to your computer screen.” Also worth checking out are her suggestions of the Pitch Database on The Open Notebook; “Freelancing with Tim” on Substack; and Storyboard’s own The Pitch, where editors are interviewed about what they want in a good pitch. For more, check out GIJN’s guide on how to pitch a story.