The Enemies of Writing: A writer who’s afraid to tell people what they don’t want to hear has chosen the wrong trade https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/01/packer-hitchens/605365/

JRR Tolkien's son Christopher dies aged 95 https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jan/16/jrr-tolkiens-son-christopher-dies-aged-95

Exploring various scholars' rationales for self-plagiarism https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2020/01/10/essay-rationales-self-plagiarism

***GRAMMAR

Who do they think they are? The battle over the singular use of “they” has been waged for centuries https://www.economist.com/books-and-arts/2020/01/18/who-do-they-think-they-are

English's pronoun problem is centuries old https://www.business-standard.com/article/beyond-business/english-s-pronoun-problem-is-centuries-old-120012301829_1.html

***JOURNALISM

7 things to consider before adopting AI in your news organisation: A training module for newsrooms https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/polis/2019/12/12/7-things-to-consider/

Journalism still has power: But not the way you’d hope https://www.cjr.org/cjr_outbox/hegseth-trump-gallagher.php

The latest newspaper chain to face Alden Global Capital cost-cutting https://www.axios.com/media-local-newspapers-private-equity-0add6bce-f44a-4938-82bb-6d4bb01068c8.html

Jim Lehrer's 16 Rules for Practicing Journalism with Integrity www.openculture.com/2020/01/jim-lehrers-16-rules-for-being-a-journalist-with-integrity.html

***THE BUSINESS OF JOURNALISM

Flipboard expands into local news https://techcrunch.com/2020/01/28/flipboard-expands-into-local-news/

Facebook awards $700,000 in local news grants https://www.axios.com/facebook-local-news-grants-advertising-f9f7048b-2bd2-4eb6-9bfc-6fe72fb5c359.html

The New York Times used to be afraid of BuzzFeed. Now it’s hired its biggest star. https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/1/28/21112608/ben-smith-new-york-times-buzzfeed-media-revenue-jonah-peretti

***FAKES & FRAUDS

Big Tech platforms struggle to police deepfakes ahead of the 2020 elections https://www.axios.com/deepfakes-big-tech-policy-facebook-reddit-tiktok-ca7a99b8-e571-4b0b-933a-27e4b2c0b0f7.html

2020 rules of the road for the Age of Misinformation https://www.axios.com/2020-rules-of-the-road-for-the-age-of-misinformation-87bc3f7e-b064-4b47-bc71-7639b9a82b8a.html

How Swedes Were Fooled By One Of The Biggest Scientific Bluffs Of Our Time https://medium.com/@Soccermatics/how-swedes-were-fooled-by-one-of-the-biggest-scientific-bluffs-of-our-time-de47c82601ad

A new text message scam is disguising itself as a FedEx notification https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/23/business/fedex-text-scam-trnd/

How To Spot 2020 Election Disinformation https://www.npr.org/2020/01/23/798809217/how-to-spot-2020-election-disinformation

Clearview AI Says Its Facial Recognition Software Identified A Terrorism Suspect: The Cops Say That's Not True https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanmac/clearview-ai-nypd-facial-recognition

Half of Americans don’t know 6m Jews were killed in Holocaust, survey says https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/22/holocaust-survey-americans-pew-research-center

American Distrust Of The Voting Process Is Widespread, Poll Finds https://www.npr.org/2020/01/21/798088827/american-distrust-of-the-voting-process-is-widespread-npr-poll-finds

Is this video “missing context,” “transformed,” or “edited”? This effort wants to standardize how we categorize visual misinformation https://www.niemanlab.org/2020/01/is-this-video-missing-context-transformed-or-edited-this-effort-wants-to-standardize-how-we-categorize-visual-misinformation/

Misinformation about coronavirus tests Facebook, Google and China https://www.axios.com/coronavirus-misinformation-facebook-twitter-google-china-246a0325-b4ea-4465-92ae-5f364a7e965c.html

The New York Times tested blockchain to help you identify faked photos on your timeline https://www.niemanlab.org/2020/01/heres-how-the-new-york-times-tested-blockchain-to-help-you-identify-faked-photos-on-your-timeline/

***SOCIAL MEDIA

Twitter’s Jack Dorsey on edit button: ‘We’ll probably never do it’ https://www.theverge.com/2020/1/15/21066815/twitter-edit-button-jack-dorsey-says-no

Twitter apologises for letting ads target neo-Nazis and bigots https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-51112238

Targeting TikTok’s privacy alone misses a larger issue: Chinese state control https://qz.com/1788836/targeting-tiktoks-privacy-alone-misses-a-much-larger-point/

***LANGUAGE

How we use language, with a look under the hood https://www.baltimoresun.com/opinion/columnists/mcintyre/bs-ed-mcintyre-20200111-tmf465vuubdebmtpu3p6ngsz2q-story.html

Things You Didn't Know Had Names https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/63034/48-things-you-didnt-know-had-names

Using a child’s identified pronouns might feel complicated, but it’s crucial. Here’s why (opinion) https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2020/01/16/using-childs-identified-pronouns-might-feel-complicated-its-crucial-heres-why/

The alphabets at risk of extinction https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200121-the-alphabets-at-risk-of-extinction

Author Interview: Dennis Baron On 'What's Your Pronoun?' https://www.npr.org/2020/01/26/799629318/author-interview-dennis-baron-on-what-s-your-pronoun

'Baby Shark,' Now In 19 Languages And Counting — Including A Navajo Tongue https://www.npr.org/2020/01/28/800557518/baby-shark-now-in-19-languages-and-counting-including-a-navajo-tongue

Discover the Disappearing Turkish Language That is Whistled, Not Spoken www.openculture.com/2020/01/discover-the-turkish-language-that-is-whistled-not-spoken.html

***LITERATURE

The Obscure Editions of Jane Austen Novels That Made Her Internationally Known https://lithub.com/the-obscure-editions-of-jane-austen-novels-that-made-her-internationally-known/

UCLA receives $25 million from Uniqlo founder for Japanese literature and culture studies http://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/25-million-uniqlo-founder-japanese-literature-and-culture

Edgar Allan Poe's Baltimore home was named a literary landmark https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/edgar-allan-poe-baltimore-literary-landmark-trnd/index.html

Virginia Woolf Books To Read If You Want To Explore 20th Century Literature https://www.republicworld.com/lifestyle/books/virginia-woolf-books-to-read-to-explore-20th-century-literature.html

Is Jane Austen the Antidote to Social Media Overload? https://daily.jstor.org/is-jane-austen-the-antidote-to-social-media-overload/

Jeanine Cummins' migrant book 'American Dirt' is problematic; author’s note makes it worse https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/books/2020/01/21/american-dirt-jeanine-cummins-book-review-mexican-migrant/4497859002/

***POETRY

What happens when machines learn to write poetry: should artificial intelligence alter our appreciation of art? http://bit.ly/30CkvI3

Have You Abandoned Your New Year's Resolutions? Tell Us In A Poem https://www.npr.org/2020/01/16/795953834/have-you-abandoned-your-new-years-resolutions-tell-us-in-a-poem

'Ghost poetry': fight over Samuel Beckett's Nobel win revealed in archives https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jan/17/ghost-poetry-fight-over-samuel-beckett-nobel-win-revealed-in-archives

***THE BUSINESS OF MEDIA

Augmented reality contacts are real, and could be here sooner than you think https://mashable.com/article/augmented-reality-contact-lenses-mojo-vision/

The Culling Has Begun’: Inside the iHeartMedia Layoffs https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/iheartmedia-mass-layoffs-937513

Could iHeart layoffs be the beginning of local radio’s endgame? https://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/2020/01/could-iheart-layoffs-be-the-beginning-of-local-radios-endgame.htm

2020 won't be the year digital election ads surpass TV https://www.axios.com/2020-digital-election-ads-tv-75cd82b1-b9a1-4637-b885-8aa654e63291.html

***PRIVACY & SECURITY

Clearview app lets strangers find your name, info with snap of a photo, report says https://www.cnet.com/news/clearview-app-lets-strangers-find-your-name-info-with-snap-of-a-photo-report-says

Facial Recognition could replace the fingerprint https://story.californiasunday.com/facial-recognition

The Secret History of Facial Recognition https://www.wired.com/story/secret-history-facial-recognition/

Most Americans support right to have some personal info removed from online searches https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/01/27/most-americans-support-right-to-have-some-personal-info-removed-from-online-searches/

November 29, 2019

Articles of Interest about Literature, Journalism, Writing & Languages – Nov 29

November 29, 2019/ Stephen Goforth

***WRITING & READING

The Weirdest Book Titles On Amazon https://www.sadanduseless.com/weird-amazon-books-list/

How do you cope with knowing that the project you poured years of your life into is not quite setting the world on fire? https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/nov/25/writing-is-tough-my-book-went-so-unnoticed-i-won-an-award-for-it

The Last Decade Has Been Tumultuous For The Publishing Industry https://www.npr.org/2019/11/26/782867252/the-last-decade-has-been-tumultuous-for-the-publishing-industry

Prisons Around the U.S. Are Banning and Restricting Access to Books www.openculture.com/2019/11/prisons-around-the-u-s-are-banning-and-restricting-access-to-books.html

Messy handwriting reveals mystery translator: Queen Elizabeth I https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/nov/29/handwriting-identifies-elizabeth-i-tacitus-translation

***JOURNALISM

New York Times dropping most social media trackers https://www.axios.com/new-york-times-social-media-trackers-47f547d5-a241-424a-a398-12344c78ac32.html

Reporting That Hits People Where They Live — by Reporters Who Live There Too https://cronkitenewslab.com/broadcast/2019/11/14/new-generation-storytellers-changing-rules-abc

How one woman captured 30 years’ worth of broadcast news https://lwlies.com/articles/recorder-the-marion-stokes-project-director-interview/?utm_source=nextdraft&utm_medium=email

5 Photojournalists Sue Homeland Security for First Amendment Violations https://pdnpulse.pdnonline.com/2019/11/5-photojournalists-sue-homeland-security-for-first-amendment-violations.html

Americans favor mobile devices over desktops and laptops for getting news https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/11/19/americans-favor-mobile-devices-over-desktops-and-laptops-for-getting-news/

An Exhaustive Ranking of Movie Journalists https://www.theringer.com/movies/2019/11/25/20974644/movie-journalists-ranked

***JOURNALISM & AI

The relationship of journalism to AI http://bit.ly/35z5F6s

Relevance of AI in Accelerating Journalism and Newsroom Workflow https://www.analyticsinsight.net/relevance-ai-accelerating-journalism-newsroom-workflow/

Actually, it’s about Ethics, AI, and Journalism: Reporting on and with Computation and Data https://www.cjr.org/tow_center_reports/ai-ethics-journalism-and-computation-ibm-new-york-times.php

***THE BUSINESS OF JOURNALISM

9 charts about America’s newsrooms https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/11/26/9-charts-about-americas-newsrooms/

Putting a price tag on local news https://knightfoundation.org/reports/putting-a-price-tag-on-local-news/

AP to add 14 statehouse reporters in collaboration with Report for America https://www.ap.org/press-releases/2019/ap-to-add-14-statehouse-reporters-in-collaboration-with-report-for-america

Portland Has Been Overcharging People for Public Records, Court Finds https://www.portlandmercury.com/blogtown/2019/11/19/27502241/portland-has-been-overcharging-people-for-public-records-court-finds

***STUDENT MEDIA

Student reporters at BYU-Idaho allegedly pressured not to publish negative stories https://www.eastidahonews.com/2019/11/student-reporters-at-byu-idaho-allegedly-pressured-not-to-publish-negative-stories/

High school journalists who fought censorship win award https://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/2019/11/25/burlington-high-schoolers-censorship-granted-journalism-award/4295236002

Lawsuit pits father against daughter after article alleging sex abuse appears in UNC student newspaper https://www.greensboro.com/news/local_news/no-turning-back-in-lawsuit-pitting-father-against-daughter-after/article_f093b659-134f-5fd8-a7ad-6b98c9f9be2f.html

***FAKE NEWS

The neuroscience of how fake news grabs our attention, produces false memories, and appeals to our emotions https://www.niemanlab.org/2019/11/galaxy-brain-the-neuroscience-of-how-fake-news-grabs-our-attention-produces-false-memories-and-appeals-to-our-emotions/

Fake News Is Costing the World $78 Billion a Year https://cheddar.com/media/exclusive-fake-news-is-costing-the-world-billion-a-year

The Incredibly True Story of Fake Headlines https://daily.jstor.org/the-incredibly-true-story-of-fake-headlines/

Before Trump: the real history of fake news https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/nov/22/factitious-taradiddle-dictionary-real-history-fake-news

***SOCIAL MEDIA

Here’s What Cancel Culture Looked Like in 1283 (video) https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/18/opinion/cancel-culture-victims.html

Facebook still isn’t clear about why it won’t take down false political ads https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/11/18/20970942/facebook-political-ads-policy-carolyn-everson-code-media

‘This app is free and therapy is not’: Gen Z will keep using TikTok even if they don’t trust it https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/11/15/this-app-is-free-therapy-is-not-gen-z-will-keep-using-tiktok-even-if-they-dont-trust-it/

TikTok Denies Censoring A Teen Who Criticized China's Concentration Camps — They Said They Banned Her After A Joke About Osama Bin Laden Thirst https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/juliareinstein/teen-tik-tok-china-osama-bin-laden

Twitter Said It Will Not Delete The Accounts Of Dead People https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/katienotopoulos/twitter-wont-delete-the-accounts-of-dead-people-for-now

***LANGUAGE

The Loudness Of Vowels Helps The Brain Break Down Speech Into Syl-La-Bles https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/11/20/780988618/the-loudness-of-vowels-helps-the-brain-break-down-speech-into-syl-la-bles

‘Climate Emergency’ Is the Oxford Dictionaries’ Word of the Year https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2019-11-20/climate-emergency-is-the-oxford-dictionaries-word-of-the-year

What happens when college students discuss lab work in Spanish, philosophy in Chinese or opera in Italian? https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/education/what-happens-when-college-students-discuss-lab-work-in-spanish-philosophy-in-chinese-or-opera-in-italian/2019/11/18/0eef3f7a-0985-11ea-bd9d-c628fd48b3a0_story.html

***LITERATURE

The 50 best nonfiction books of past 25 years https://slate.com/human-interest/2019/11/50-best-nonfiction-books.html

Author hits back after library removes LGBT picture book from shelves https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/nov/20/author-west-virginia-library-removes-lgbt-book-shelves-daniel-haack-prince-and-knight

George Eliot translation of Spinoza sheds new light on her fiction https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/nov/22/george-eliot-translation-of-spinoza-sheds-new-light-on-her-fiction

***POETRY

‘My cell is smaller than my size’ – how writing poetry saved a political prisoner (video) https://aeon.co/videos/my-cell-is-smaller-than-my-size-how-writing-poetry-saved-a-political-prisoner

Finding poetry in the letters of Vincent van Gogh https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/finding-poetry-in-the-letters-of-vincent-van-gogh-1.4090884