Today in this country we have a struggle between those who believe in and wish to build a just, equitable, and inclusive multi-racial democracy and those who do not, and it is an epic struggle and a lot is at stake. At the middle of it all is the urgent issue of history and historical knowledge.
We're not used to thinking of history as an urgent matter, but we know that our country's history—how we tell it, how we remember it, how we use it to light the way forward—is today the object of a momentous political conflict.
—Kathy Roberts Forde
The Hussman Media Justice speaker series, co-hosted by CITAP, kicked off this Wednesday with a talk from Kathy Roberts Forde on how the white press helped build white supremacy in the South and her upcoming book Journalism and Jim Crow. If you were unable to join us, you can watch on YouTube.
Recent publications and appearances
“Science’s ability to understand our cells and airways cannot save us if we don’t also understand our society and how we can be led astray.” Zeynep Tufekci wrote for the New York Times about how the unvaccinated may not be who you think they are.
"Are Facebook and every other large technology company engaging in a massive lobbying effort to shape the coming regulation? Absolutely. But this doesn't mean we shouldn't require public and accountable oversight! We should require a regulatory system that is informed by the government, but also by outside legal scholars and social scientists.” Shannon McGregor spoke to the Columbia Journalism Review about Facebook and potential regulation of the digital public sphere.
"I think in the vacuum that is the lack of local news, you've seen a lot more ideological or political organizations try to step in and capitalize on those dynamics, and they have different incentives than commercial newspapers do, which adhere to journalistic standards like objectivity and professionalism." Daniel Kreiss spoke to the News and Observer about the changing landscape of local news. The article also features research from CITAP affiliate Melody Kramer.
“Opening up Facebook gave it incentives to scale and to make scale its No. 1 priority. When platforms prioritize scale over users’ safety or even the user experience, the people who own the platform have chosen a set of political beliefs that inform their economic decisions.” Tressie McMillan Cottom discussed the question of regulating Facebook with Tarleton Gillespie, Matt Perault, and Siva Vaidhyanathan.
“If you have a democracy-frame on your policies, you would say these ads are clearly designed to question the election outcome. But Facebook doesn’t. It has a narrow interpretation of election disinformation.” Daniel Kreiss and CITAP affiliate Matt Perault spoke to Tech Policy Press about Facebook permitting PACs to run ads questioning the legitimacy of the presidential election. Matt Perault also appeared on a panel for the Knight First Amendment Institute to discuss government regulation of electoral speech (event video available) and published an essay urging Congress to establish rules governing electoral speech in the runup to the 2022 midterm elections.
“About two-thirds of NPR’s 1,000-plus stations are licensed to or affiliated with colleges or universities. With higher education at the crossroads of the culture wars, public media is vulnerable to growing political interference over its operations.” CITAP affiliate Nikki Usher discusses growing political interference in public radio.
Coming soon
October 19: Student affiliate Daniel Johnson will be moderating a virtual conversation with Howard Nathaniel Lee, U.S. Army veteran, social worker, and first African-American mayor of Chapel Hill. Email stonecenter@unc.edu to register.
October 22 & 27: Rachel Kuo will give a two-part series of virtual talks at Duke University. October 22 she will be discussing misinformation in Asian diasporic communities, and October 27 will be a research workshop on transnational and intergenerational histories of information.
October 27: Faculty affiliate Caitlin Petre will give a research seminar at the University of Leeds on how metrics are transforming the work of journalists.
November 2 & 3: Zeynep Tufekci will speak as part of the Knight Foundation’s Lessons from the First Internet Ages symposium.
Rest of Web
💚 The Editorial Board of the Daily Tar Heel released a compilation of mental health resources for the UNC community, and the School of Social Work has open Mental Health First Aid workshops in November (free to UNC students, faculty, and staff).
💼 The School of Media and Communication at University of Leeds is hiring a Professor of Race and Media.
🔎 Buzzfeed is publishing a database of court documents related to plea deals from January 6 rioters.
…and on a lighter note: