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Media Bits and Bytes – April 5, 2022

Media and the organizing wave, women and war coverage, and much more

In happier days: Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem, Benedict Cumberbatch, Olivia Colman and Will Smith. Credit,© Ted Jouflas

 

 

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Videos That Won a Union at Amazon

By multiple creators

TikTok

Discover short videos related to Amazon union on TikTok. Watch popular content from the following creators: More Perfect Union (@moreperfectunion), Bernie Sanders (@bernie), BreakThrough News (@btnewsroom), Melissa Salazar (@melissa.a.salazar), nowthis(@nowthis) . 

Media Companies Are a Labor Organizing Target

By Jon Allsop

Columbia Journalism Review

Staffers at Condé Nast announced that they are forming a company-wide union with the NewsGuild of New York, covering more than five hundred staffers across a dozen titles. Staffers at The New YorkerWiredPitchfork, and Ars Technica are not covered as they are unionized already.

Taking the Internet Back

Protocol

The problem with productivity tools is that they tell you how to work. They have structures and systems, specific ideas about design and non-fungible opinions about How People Get Stuff Done. That’s why so many productivity geeks end up using pen and paper: There’s nothing digital that’s nearly as adaptable to the way we work.

A Long Look At Fox News

By Philip Bump

The Washington Post (possible paywall)

There are four elements outside of Murdoch that make Fox News a uniquely damaging part of the American news landscape: its strength on the political right, the demonstrated way in which it shapes its viewers’ beliefs, its grip on Republican power and the views of its leadership.

A Peculiar Hire For CBS News

By Matt Gertz

Media Matters

The network has hired Trump’s former chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, a multimillionaire.

Muzzling Mass Media

Russia   By Ilya Yablokov, The Conversation
 

China   By Josh Pao, Asia Times
 

Kashmir   By Nusrat Sidiq, FairPlanet
 

UK   By Sam Greenhill, The Daily Mail

Oscars: Look Back in Anger

By A. S. Hamrah

The Baffler

The audience on social media engages in Frustration Discourse as they watch loser-winners grapple with their moments of professional glory on live TV, all so ABC can continue to exist in a world that has left it behind. It’s also a world in which actual movies have become marginal, especially during the Oscars.

Women and War Coverage

By Amelia Lester

Foreign Policy

We have ideas about the role that women play in war. We have ideas about the role that men play. And if we don’t go so far as to really investigate and spend time and have sources ahead of time and have a cadre of women from the country reporting, we’re not going to get the nuance. 

NYT Plays “Cancel ‘Cancel’”

By Ari Paul

FAIR

Over the last few years, journalists annoyance at the elevation of reader response in the discourse has evolved into hand-wringing over the future of liberalism. The commentators aren’t just filling our inboxes, they are threatening the Enlightenment and free discourse.

The Ideology of Crypto Hype

By Rick Wash

The Conversation

Hardcore enthusiasts argue that crypto will get people to trust in technology rather than government, which they see as inherently untrustworthy. This ideology leads people to encourage its use while downplaying its risks.