Jan 06 Column: Can librarians help solve the fake news problem? By Donald A. Barclay for The Conversation As a long-time academic librarian, I have spent a good part of my career teaching college students to think critically about information. For me, the recent spate of stories about large segments of the population falling for fake news stories… Continue reading
Jan 02 Column: 10 ways the tech industry and the media helped create President Trump By Damian Radcliffe, University of Oregon Three weeks after Donald Trump won a historic victory to become the 45th president of the United States, the media postmortems continue. In particular, the role played by the media and technology industries is coming under heavy scrutiny in the… Continue reading
Dec 28 Fans share mental illness stories #InHonorOfCarrie By Dan Cooney Fisher, the actress, author and screenwriter, was perhaps as well known as an advocate for mental illness as she was for her iconic role as Princess Leia from "Star Wars." In the hours since her death, fans have shared a… Continue reading
Dec 15 Watch 7:09 Will new tools help Facebook users get the facts on fake news? By PBS News Hour During the last three months of the campaign, fake news headlines drew more engagement than real reporting, and social media platforms were criticized for not doing enough to dispute false information. Now Facebook is launching new tools to help identify… Continue watching
Dec 09 Watch 9:29 The ‘thrill of the chase’ in perpetuating fake news By PBS News Hour This election cycle saw its fair share of so-called “fake news.” On December 4, an armed man walked into a Washington, DC, pizza joint, claiming he needed to investigate a story he had heard: that Hillary Clinton and her former… Continue watching
Dec 08 Watch 2:48 The ‘thin legitimacy’ of social media as a news source By PBS News Hour Due to the proliferation of social media, getting people to read serious journalism is harder than ever, says New York University professor Jay Rosen. Anyone with a smartphone can produce content, and Facebook doesn’t have an editor in chief --… Continue watching
Dec 05 Watch 7:56 Tony Blair on why he’s advocating for a global policy ‘center ground’ By PBS News Hour Tony Blair, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, believes the populist wave coursing across the globe is dangerous -- and likely to exacerbate, rather than ease, tensions and instability. He sits down with Judy Woodruff to discuss Brexit, the… Continue watching
Nov 22 Trump disavows alt-right in New York Times interview By Dan Cooney, Kristen Doerer President-elect Donald Trump disavowed the alt-right in an on-the-record interview with the New York Times on Tuesday. He also responded to questions about the possibility of prosecuting Hillary Clinton, his commitment to the First Amendment, his plans for Syria, and… Continue reading
Nov 11 Court rules to block LinkedIn in Russia By Alison Thoet Russia could move to block the website as early as next week, when the country’s telecommunications and media regulator receives the full text of the court’s ruling, the Associated Press reported. Continue reading
Oct 27 Twitter Chat: How political squabbles on social media stressed us out this year By Dan Cooney, Jaclyn Diaz Join us at 2 p.m. EST on Friday, Oct. 28 for online conversation about social media and 2016 presidential election. Follow along on Twitter via the hashtag #NewsHourChats. Continue reading