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Media Bits and Bytes – April 30, 2024

A student paper beats mainstream media to every punch

Haefeli, The New Yorker
  1. Social Media for the Revolution
  2. Net Neutrality Finally Back
  3. Time Out for TikTok?
  4. Columbia U. Paper Breaking the News
  5. Post-Roe Digital Dangers
  6. What is Civil War Really About?
  7. Mass Media Normalizes Trump/MAGA
  8. Journalists Put NYT on the Hot Seat
  9. NPR: Wokeness Ain’t the Issue
  10. Meta: AI Hits the Fan

 

Social Media for the Revolution

By Reina Sultan
Yes!

In the face of a repressive shift in the online landscape, organizers are adapting. Despite challenges, people continue to find ways to translate their online connection into action. And, against all odds, the unprecedented support for Palestine—both online and in the streets—in the face of genocide has demonstrated that there may yet be a place for social media in revolution.

Net Neutrality Finally Back

By Matt Wood
Free Press

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On April 25, the Federal Communications Commission voted to restore its authority over broadband internet-access services. This is a huge victory. Some academics and advocates have suggested that the proposed rules are actually weaker than the Obama-era protections that Trump FCC Chairman Ajit Pai jettisoned. This is a false alarm.

Time Out for TikTok?

Columbia U. Paper Breaking the News

By Betsy Morais
Columbia Journalism Review

I think every newsroom in this moment is facing the challenges of objectivity and maintaining that in coverage. As students, we’re reporting on everything that’s been going on as we’ve experienced it. We’ve really just tried to put our reporters first and listen to their needs. Give them the space to process. We’ve emphasized that reporting is a way that we help our community. 

Post-Roe Digital Dangers

By Daly Barnett
Electronic Frontier Foundation

It’s been a long two years since the Dobbs decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. There was a mad scramble to figure out what the impacts would be. Besides the obvious perils of stripping away half the country’s right to reproductive healthcare, digital surveillance and mass data collection caused a flurry of concerns.

What is Civil War Really About?

By David Rooney and Lovia Gyarkye
The Hollywood Reporter

One of the chief criticisms of Civil War has been that the movie — directed with visceral muscularity and led by a haunting Kirsten Dunst — sets up an incendiary near-future nightmare while refusing to clarify the battle lines. Sure, there’s a fascist president in office, a fear shared by many Americans in 2024, but who’s fighting whom exactly?

Mass Media Normalizes Trump/MAGA

By Chauncey DeVega
Salon

In the interest of “balance” and “fairness” and a “diversity of opinion," those same elite media outlets will the next day feature op-eds and other commentary from Trumpists and MAGA people and others who oppose multiracial pluralistic democracy – the effect of which is to mainstream and normalize their anti-democratic beliefs. 

Journalists Put NYT on the Hot Seat

By Deb Aikat et al.
Literary Hub

The Times’ editorial leadership remains silent on important and troubling questions raised about its reporting and editorial processes. We believe this inaction is not only harming The Times itself, it also actively endangers journalists, including American reporters working in conflict zones as well as Palestinian journalists.

NPR: Wokeness Ain’t the Issue

By Alicia Montgomery
Slate

Uri Berliner, one of the NPR’s (formerly, as of now) senior editors, set off a firestorm by publishing a commentary that essentially blamed “wokeness” and Democratic partisanship for the apparent loss of confidence in the once-unimpeachable institution. Christopher Rufo, a conservative writer and fellow at the Manhattan Institute, has launched a campaign against NPR’s new CEO Katherine Maher.

Meta: AI Hits the Fan

By Scott Nover
Fast Company

Meta (Facebook, Instagram, Messenger) is flexing its muscle and betting that AI ubiquity will actually improve user experience. So far, at least, that looks like a misguided bet.