Our weekly recap highlighting the best feature stories from around the internet.
Zayn Malik. Photo: AFP
Zayn Malik’s Next Direction – by Duncan Cooper, The Fader
“So far, Zayn’s has been a story about how your life gets boxed in by other people’s perceptions of you, and how easily that can spiral out of control. This happens to everyone, but in a famous boy band, the gulf between who you are and who the rest of the world thinks you are is tenfold. As the band’s only person of color, and the West’s single most prominent Muslim celebrity, Zayn has faced misunderstanding to an unimaginable degree.”
Anatomy of a Corporate Disaster – Inside Weldon and Glucina’s Gossip Site Scout – by Duncan Greive, The Spinoff
“On the Friday prior to launch, Glucina told staff about their lead story: the instantly infamous ‘exclusive’ video of Newstalk ZB host Mike Hosking cleaning his car. The reaction among staff was one of shock – particularly on hearing the price-tag for its purchase from a local tabloid photographer, rumoured to be in the region of $5000. “Is he vacuuming up drugs or something?” wondered one. “Because that’s the only way this is in any way newsworthy.””
Social media after tragedy – by Henry Oliver, Idealog
“The trouble is, when tragedy strikes, we're already conditioned to share, even if we have nothing of value to add. We share for the sake of it. Social media gives us a voice, and when the world seems the loudest, we speak even louder. We all want to contribute. And social media doesn’t just give us an opportunity to contribute, but a compulsion to.”
A little lippy: Author, poet and playwright Courtney Sina Meredith – by Nicola Shepheard, Metro
“I also think there are privileged white males who’ve always been written for, and they can’t understand they’re not the ones I’m writing for. People say the problem about writing in your twenties is it’s so me-me-me. I just think you can’t handle a world that wasn’t designed for you.”
Docos spotlight struggle of women to be heard – by Alex Casey, NZ Herald
“Following the very recent, very public quashing of the New Zealand women's voice in Parliament, the telly has stepped in with this near-cosmic reminder that we need to listen to women and their experiences.”
On Fake Instagram, a Chance to Be Real – by Valeriya Safronova, The NY Times
“Life isn’t all rooftop parties and 45-degree-angle selfies. Some young adults, weary of trying to live up to their annoyingly perfect online avatars, have created “finstagrams,” or fake Instagram accounts, that present truer versions of themselves than their main profiles. These locked, pseudonymous accounts capture something rarely seen by people who follow these same users on their main accounts: reality.”