Buying into conspiracy theories can be exciting! And that’s what makes them dangerous
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Monday, July 11, 2022
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Buying into conspiracy theories can be exciting! And that’s what makes them dangerousAs the TikTok influencer William James put it: “The peace of rationality may be sought through ecstasy when logic fails.” By Donovan Schaefer. |
What We’re Reading
The Guardian / Martin Farrer
Here’s how global media covered the latest leak-driven international investigation, the Uber files →
“More than 180 journalists at 40 media outlets including the Guardian, Le Monde, the Washington Post and the BBC have collaborated on a series of investigative reports about how Uber's ruthless tactics helped it to gain a foothold in crucial cities around the world.”
The Washington Post / Amanda Ripley
I stopped reading the news. Is the problem me — or the product? →
“I have a secret…I've been actively avoiding the news for years…What was my problem? I used to cover terrorist attacks, hurricanes, plane crashes, all manner of human suffering. But now? I was too permeable. It was like I'd developed a gluten allergy. And here I was — a wheat farmer!”
The Post-Crescent / Sophia Voight
Focusing on the issues voters care about most helps the media earn readers’ trust →
“By actively asking the public to participate in the coverage, the Citizens Agenda works to build this trust.”
Puck / William D. Cohan
“This is like watching a train wreck in slow motion. What a clown.” →
“As a result of this little stunt, he and his companies — Tesla, SpaceX, The Boring Company — will now be as big pariahs on Wall Street as Donald Trump, as a result of all his shenanigans over the years. Who on Wall Street is going to want to do business with Elon after he ginned up a takeover of Twitter, signed a legally binding agreement to do so for $44 billion in cash, put the biggest banks to work on the deal (and thereby used their credibility to help legitimize his offer) and then manufactured a half-assed excuse for why he no longer wanted to do it?”
The Washington Post / Jeremy Barr and Elahe Izadi
There are too many mass shootings for the U.S. media to cover →
“News companies are facing an agonizing challenge in a year that has already seen, by one count, more than 320 mass shootings across the United States: deciding which atrocities warrant on-the-ground coverage and which don't.”
Press Gazette / Aisha Majid
In journalism philanthropy, the U.S. dominates the world →
The top overall donors to journalism since 2009: the Ford Foundation ($271 million), Google ($267 million), the Knight Foundation ($257 million), the Gates Foundation ($155 million), the MacArthur Foundation ($106 million), and Open Society Foundation ($89 million). The top non-U.S. donor, Mexico’s Carlos Slim Foundation, gave $42 million.
The Objective / Holly Rosewood
“No one ever says ‘You're not being objective’ because you're white and you're writing about white people” →
“I think for the most part — and there are a lot of media criticism and reporting outlets — none of them center how journalism has failed throughout its entire existence in the U.S. in being equitable and representative of the people that they are meant to cover and write for, and being equitable and representative in terms of the people that are working in journalism institutions.”
Agence France-Presse
Nobel laureate Maria Ressa has lost an appeal of her cyber-libel conviction →
“The ruling comes less than two weeks after the Philippine authorities ordered Rappler to shut down ahead of the former president Rodrigo Duterte's last day in office. Rappler on Friday described the decision to uphold the conviction as ‘unfortunate,’ saying it ‘weakens the ability of journalists to hold power to account.'”
Vulture / Kathryn VanArendonk and Josef Adalian
“I don’t know how my show is doing”: Streamers run on data, but that doesn't mean they share any of it with showrunners →
“I was given the opportunity to see graphs but not graphs with numbers on them. I have no idea whether it was, like, ‘You had 400,000 viewers’ or ‘You had 3 million viewers, and we wanted 5 million.'”
The Guardian / Dan Milmo
Can Elon Musk really walk away from $44 billion Twitter takeover? →
“He is going to bear a burden of proving to the court that he had legitimate need for the information and that his requests were reasonable. He can't use unreasonable information requests to create a pretext to claim a violation.”
Press Gazette / Bron Maher
The U.K.’s Tories are charging journalists £125 (or more!) to cover its party conference →
“Tickets for media seeking accreditation for the Conservative Party conference start at £125, according to the party website. Tickets purchased after 31 July will cost £800, and those bought after 25 September will cost £1,250…The party told Press Gazette it was a "modest" charge designed to stop people from signing up for accreditation and not attending, wasting money on security checks as well as paper and plastic for passes.”
The Arizona Republic / Chelsea Curtis
Recording within 8 feet of police is now illegal in Arizona →
“Various news organizations, including Gannett, the company that owns The Arizona Republic, signed letters from the National Press Photographers Association opposing the bill.”
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