Our presidential campaign is putting news literacy to the test
The rapid growth of QAnon is a symptom of something much more damaging
Sree’s Sunday Note newsletter is produced w/ Zach Peterson (@zachprague). The image above is from Journalists’ Charity, a UK nonprofit. #supportjournalism ht Raju Narisetti (@raju)
Scroll down for Read Something; Watch Something; and a weekly tech tip from Robert S. Anthony (@newyorkbob).
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This week, we got our first real look at what a virtual presidential campaign looks like. The Democratic National Convention was a pretty good show all-around; passionate and scathing speeches by the Obamas, a ringing endorsement of the Biden-Harris ticket from Bernie Sanders, and, of course, the official nomination of Kamala Harris as the candidate for Vice President made for compelling viewing — despite the lack of an in-person audience.
The next day, the Trump campaign, if you can call it that, bought up significant ad real estate on the Washington Post’s website, plastering the site with ads that were rife with lies and debunked claims. But the campaign made the ad buy, the Post took the money and there were these misleading ads right there next to legitimate journalism.
News literacy has faltered — to say the least — in the digital age, and now we need to be as discerning as ever. This is where the presidency will be won and lost, and we need to be prepared.
For years, Brandy Zadrozny and Ben Collins have been covering the rise of conspiracy peddlers online — usually via Facebook Groups. It’s really the perfect example of the negative side of the information age. Unfiltered, unsubstantiated lies get laundered through these communities — anti-vaxxers, conspiracy theory adherents, right-wing groups — and find their way onto your feed. There are tens of thousands of groups with millions of members all over the world, according to an internal study by Facebook.
Now, there are IRL marches happening across America. They aren’t huge, but they are significant — especially when you dig a bit deeper into what Q followers actually believe. This is from this weekend:
This represents a grand failure of so many different things, it’s hard to know where to start the list. But, the reality is that minds are being corrupted, lives are being put in danger, and this is having a real tangible effect on people’s lives at both micro and macro levels.
Over the next 70+ leading up to the election, every digital space will be absolutely flooded with content that will ask a lot of its consumers — is this real? What is the source? Does this meme have an alternative meaning to certain groups?
Please be vigilant. Talk to friends and family members who are sharing conspiracy theories and other misleading things online. Report posts as spam or violations. And, read up, do your homework, and do your best to get it right. It’s a lot to ask, but it’s absolutely vital.
- Sree
CNN Chief Media Correspondent Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) does a terrific job keeping us informed of the digital lies that I worry so much about. In his daily newsletter, his Reliable Sources show and now in his new book, newly atop the Amazon bestseller list, “Hoax: Trump, Fox News and the Distortion of Truth.” Read the Vanity Fair extract here.
Read Something
This is a powerful piece that really gets to the heart of the pandemic and its second-order effects. It’s making us look critically at so many facets of life, perhaps none more so than education and exactly what “school” really means.
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Tech Tips from @newyorkbob: Working from Home? Defend the Network
Each week, veteran tech journalist Robert S. Anthony shares a tech tip you don’t want to miss. Follow him on @newyorkbob.
Now that many schools and businesses will be operating remotely for some time, one thing is guaranteed: Your home computer network will be busier. The problem with that is that much of the data usually handled by well-protected office networks will now be floating around less-defended home networks sharing bandwidth with movies and Alexa commands.
Last week Acronis, known for its data-backup solutions, launched Acronis True Image 2021 (versions start at $50), an all-in-one cybersecurity solution which not only handles data backups, web filtering and computer virus and ransomware protection, but also includes a timely feature: videoconference protection. Here’s what it looks like:
According to Acronis, due to the boom in videoconferencing, hackers have found it worth their while to try to share malware via Zoom, Cisco Webex, Microsoft Teams and other programs. Acronis True Image 2021, blocks these “malware injection” attempts, thus protecting you and your online colleagues.
Listen to Something
Last week, Reply All re-upped an episode from 2018 that is worth your time. It’s all about the big Foxconn manufacturing “deal” in a small Wisconsin town that, two years later, remains very much a work in progress. Expertly reported by Sruthi Pinnamaneni (@sruthiri), it paints a picture of local officials in over their heads, unrealistic expectations, and a lot of false promises. Listen here and on all major podcast platforms. And here’s a follow up from this April from The Verge.
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Watch Something
“Rollercoaster” strikes me as the ideal term to describe the last 6 months; for teachers, students, and parents, the run-up to the 2020-21 school year has been…fraught. The next year or two are going to be very challenging, and Rose Horowitz (@rosehorowitz31), Vandana Menon (@vandana_menon) and I brought together four amazing people to talk about it. Watch “The K12 Rollercoaster”:
Odds & Ends
🗞 Sundays are busy at Digimentors. 8:30-10:15 am ET, we read the print edition of the NYT out loud for you to watch live or later. 9-10 pm ET, we interview generally positive people to put some pep in our step as we go into the new week. Today’s videos:
#NYTReadalong w/ John Byrne of Poets & Quants (and former top editor of BW & Fast Company)
Daily Global Covid19 Show, 9 pm ET w/ author Judith Matloff
The Readalong is followed Sundays 11 am-noon ET by a new medical show I’m co-executive producing with surgeons Sujana Chandrasekhar, M.D. (@DrSujanaENT), and Marina Kurian, M.D. (@MarinaKurian), called She’s On Call (watch live or later).
The Sunday #NYTReadalong is sponsored by Muck Rack and Strategy Focused Group. Interested in sponsorship opportunities? Email sree@digimentors.group and neil@digimentors.group.
🎧 Every Saturday, I host a call-in show on WBAI 99.5FM (@wbai) - "Coping with Covid19" - focused on being helpful, hopeful, and focusing on the pandemic's effects on society’s most vulnerable. Listen live Saturdays from 12-2pm EST, or later. And, of course, call in or tweet questions for us using the #wbaisree hashtag! Listen to this week’s episode here!
📺 A reminder to watch my Daily Global Show. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll learn something every time. We’ve had 150+ shows and 280+ guests - and 1m+ viewers. Check out the archive and please subscribe to my YouTube channel. And/or sign up for my WhatsApp alerts list (it’s not your typical WhatsApp group, just a text when I’m live!). We are in partnership with Scroll.in, one of India’s best news and culture websites.
Recent highlights:
Sapphire, whose novel became Oscar-winning “Precious” (she’s newly on Twitter!)
Dr. Keiji Fukuda of HKU, former pandemics expert at WHO & CDC
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