Dad of toddler in viral hugging video speaks out: 'It's a beacon of hope'
/Two children from a heartwarming viral video cat ch up with each other over video. Read more about the story from NBC’s Today Show. #goodnews
ideas that challenge / comfort / inspire
Why Video Conferencing is Exhausting
/Video chats mean we need to work harder to process non-verbal cues like facial expressions, the tone and pitch of the voice, and body language; paying more attention to these consumes a lot of energy. “Our minds are together when our bodies feel we're not. That dissonance, which causes people to have conflicting feelings, is exhausting. You cannot relax into the conversation naturally,” according to Gianpiero Petriglieri.
Silence is another challenge, he adds. “Silence creates a natural rhythm in a real-life conversation. However, when it happens in a video call, you became anxious about the technology.” It also makes people uncomfortable. Even delays of 1.2 seconds made people perceive the responder as less friendly or focused.
An added factor—we are very aware of being watched. You are on stage, so there comes the social pressure and feeling like you need to perform. Being performative is nerve-wracking and more stressful. It’s also very hard for people not to look at their own face if they can see it on screen, or not to be conscious of how they behave in front of the camera.
Read more from the BBC
A teen who spent 10 hours cleaning up after a protest is given full scholarship, car and insurance
/Buffalo's WKBW-TV has a video report. #goodnews
Articles of interest about the virus, journalism, writing, & fakes - June 7
/***THE VIRUS
Should I Buy a Copper Face Mask? Does Copper Provide Protection Against COVID-19?
Doctors rank the activities most likely to spread the coronavirus
Coronavirus drugmakers' latest tactics: Science by press release
From hair salons to gyms, experts rank 36 activities by coronavirus risk level
Which kind of face mask is the best protection against coronavirus?
Can you catch COVID-19 from delivered packages?
A Monday Is a Tuesday Is a Sunday as COVID-19 Disrupts Internal Clock
***JOURNALISTS & THE PROTESTS
NY Police shove, make AP journalists stop covering protest
United States added to list of most dangerous countries for journalists for first time
U.S. police have attacked journalists at least 100 times in the past four days
Journalists covering protests targeted
Texas journalist loses eye to tear gas canister during demonstrations against George Floyd's death
Louisville TV Reporter Shot By Police During Live Broadcast Covering Street
Journalists are being attacked while doing their jobs
Covering a protest? Know your rights
Journalists at times targeted by police during protests in Detroit
Conservative reporter in video pretending to board up a Santa Monica business has been fired
Ohio State student journalists told police they were media. Then police sprayed them. ($)
***JOURNALISM RESOURCES
Know your rights when covering a protest
3 Web Tools That Can Help in Idea Generation and Research
8 great online learning resources for journalists and journalism educators
Safety Advisory: Covering U.S. protests over police violence
***THE BUSINESS OF JOURNALISM
Microsoft lays off journalists to replace them with AI
On this date in 1980: CNN launches
***FAKES & FRAUDS
Texas county GOP leaders share conspiracy theories about George Floyd's death
How these filmmakers concocted a viral coronavirus conspiracy video
28% of Americans are very confident they could fact-check COVID-19 news
LA Sues California Company, Alleging 'Sophisticated' COVID-19 Fraud
What Happens If You Click A Link On A Phishing Email?
Australian anti-vaxxers label Covid-19 a 'scam' and break distancing rules at anti-5G protests
A guide to fighting lies, fake news, and chaos online
Evangelicals split on the notion of 'fake news' and QAnon
Sid Miller falsely says George Soros orchestrated George Floyd protests
***WRITING & READING
7 Pieces of Reading Advice From History’s Greatest Minds
Lawsuit over online book lending could bankrupt Internet Archive
Albert Einstein Explains Why We Need to Read the Classics
Two-Thirds Of The Population Can’t Find The Grammar Mistakes In These Sentences — Can You?
***SOCIAL MEDIA
Facebook is a hotbed for violent extremism and it doesn't seem to care
***LANGUAGE
Words matter when talking about race and unrest, experts say
Study of Cantonese lexical tone shows language evolution possibly linked to genes
***PRIVACY & SECURITY
Cybersecurity warning: Hackers are targeting your smartphone as way into the company network
The Government is Regularly Flying Predator Drones Over American Cities
***PRODUCING MEDIA
Smart People
/Smart people pawn their troubles – and then lose the ticket.
unduly influenced by outside suggestion
/Referees favour home teams in judgment calls, particularly those that happen at a crucial stage in a game. If a batter chooses not to swing at a baseball pitch, the pitch is more likely to be called a strike if the home team is pitching. This tendency is most extreme in close games. In soccer, referees are more likely to award penalties to the home team, hand out fewer punishments for offences to home players.
Are referees deliberately biased? The authors (of Scorecasting) think not. Instead, they blame the fact that referees, like the rest of us, tend subconsciously to rely on crowdsourcing, picking up on the mood of the crowd when making their decision.
“Anchoring” is the name economists give to people’s tendency to be unduly influenced by outside suggestion. Take away the crowd and the home bias shrinks, as it did a few years back when 21 Italian soccer matches were played without supporters following incidents of crowd violence. In these games the home bias declined by 23% on fouls called, by 26% for yellow cards and by a remarkable 70% for red cards, which remove a player from the game and have a particularly big impact on the result.
3-Year-Old Boy Helps Save Elderly Neighbor Trapped In Basement For Days
/WBZ-TV in New Hampshire has a video report.
Facing Trouble
/The poor and the marginalized expect suffering, they know that life on this earth is “nasty, brutish, and short.” Successful people are much more shocked and overwhelmed by troubles. - Timothy Keller
If you go to bed angry
/If you go to sleep after a fight with someone, you may “preserve” those emotions. That’s the finding of researchers at the University of Massachusetts. Scientists showed images (some positive, some negative) to more than 100 people and checked 12 hours later to see which pictures stuck with the subjects. The response changed depending as to whether the person had slept during the 12-hour break or not. Sleeping seemed to protect the emotional response. You can read the details in The Journal of Neuroscience.
Other studies have also support the idea that sleep enhances emotional memories. If you have difficulty sleeping after an upsetting day, it could be your mind’s way of trying to avoid storing that memory. It’s a reminder of the Bible verse that reads, “Let not the sun go down upon your wrath” (Eph. 4:26).
Stephen Goforth
Tuesday Tools: More than 250 links to articles and sites about media jobs and internships
/You’ll find more than 250 links to articles and sites about media jobs and internships (updated June 2020) here.
Articles of Interest about the virus & higher ed - June 1
/***THE VIRUS
Can You Get Time Off to Recover From COVID-19?
Can you have both flu and COVID-19 at the same time
A third of Americans now show signs of clinical anxiety or depression
A Simulation Of Different Real Life Scenarios And Your Coronavirus Exposure Risk (video)
Here's Why Your Sleep Has Been So Messed Up During Quarantine
How We Can Mitigate the Psychological Impact of Quarantine
The surfaces that kill bacteria and viruses
***HIGHER ED & THE VIRUS
How Colleges Can Keep the Coronavirus Off Campus (opinion)
Higher-Ed Lobbying Group Asks Congress for Liability Shields
Risky Strategy by Many Private Colleges Leaves Them Exposed
Columbia, Cornell, Brown, Other Colleges Face Coronavirus Lawsuits
***HIGHER ED
Michigan State University hit by ransomware gang
U.S. College Towns on Edge as Coronavirus Threatens Football Season
Some depts plan on suspending or limiting graduate cohorts
Coronavirus raises new questions about the value of higher education
***THE FALL SEMESTER
Iona College to start fall semester 3 weeks early, offers courses in hybrid format
Texas A&M University System to reopen campuses in the fall with modifications
Michigan colleges plan for fall amid pandemic
Colleges counter looming enrollment declines with tuition bargains
***LAYOFFS & FURLOUGHS
Even with a $27 billion endowment, Stanford University expects layoffs will be 'unavoidable'
Kentucky announced it will not lay off staff--experts doubt that many universities can do the same
Fort Lewis College expects to issue furloughs, layoffs
***COLLEGE FINANCE
TCU chancellor says school is ‘scrambling’ to make up $50 million in losses from COVID-19
Could a fifth of America’s colleges really face the chop? ($)
UNC braces for harsh budget cuts in wake of pandemic
Brown University cut 11 varsity athletic programs
***TEACHING
9 takeaways from teaching online during COVID-19
‘I’m Teaching Into a Vacuum’: 14 Educators on Quarantine Learning
New resources to help support faculty with quality online instruction
Remember the MOOCs? After Near-Death, They’re Booming
The Future of College Is Online, and It’s Cheaper (opinion)
Florida universities’ switch to online learning was tough - but could last for years
***ONLINE CHEATING
62 percent of college students say they have cheated on tests and coursework
Study: Students who experience a hotter than average year appeared to experience reduced learning
***ACADEMIC LIFE
Adjuncts fear losing livelihoods
Stanford Joins List Of Law Schools With White Professors Using The N-Word In Class
***CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS
Professor says Seminary used Covid-19 as an excuse to get rid of him
In summer of uncertainty, small is good for Mennonite colleges
Pensacola Christian College offering students $10.3M in aid during COVID crisis
***LIBERTY UNIVERSITY
Black Liberty University instructor resigns in response to Jerry Falwell’s ‘racist’ tweets
***RESEARCH
Scientific misinformation persists when retractions and corrections are not promptly issued
Network models to think about why retractions often fail
COVID law review paper promotes ‘ableism and eugenics,’ activists say, demanding retraction
Open peer review: promoting transparency in open science
A Multi-perspective Analysis of Retractions in Life Sciences
***STUDENT LIFE
This Is What an 1869 MIT Entrance Exam Looks Like
NYU’s virtual graduation event turned into ‘a vaporwave nightmare’
Promoting Student Mental Health in Difficult Days
New Grads Say Discrimination on Campuses Not Taken Seriously
Coursera Will Now Offer All College Students Free Access To Its Courses
Who comes out on top
/To understand a company’s strategy, look at what they actually do rather than what they say they do. The same logic applies to one’s life. For example, ambitious people will reliably tell you that family, or being a mother or father, is the most important thing in their lives. Yet when pressed to choose between racing home to deal with a chaotic pre-bedtime scene and staying another hour at the office to solve a problem, they will usually keep working. It’s these small, everyday decisions that reveal if you’re following a path to being the best possible spouse and parent. If your family matters most to you, when you think about all the choices you’ve made with your time in a week, does your family come out on top?
Clay Christensen, How will you Measure your Life?
Alabama man serves homeless community
/..by offering laundry service (audio below or read the story here)
Soon-to-be second-grader
/..creates mini-prom for his babysitter
When you wake up
/It’s a much happier way to live your life if you wake up in the morning and you think, “What I am going to build that’s great?” not if you wake up saying, “Who are my enemies today, who do I have to beat?” -Phil Libin
A 10-year-old girl has sent more than 1,500 art kits
/..to kids in foster care and homeless shelters during the coronavirus pandemic. More from CNN.
A nurse on the Covid-19 frontline
/..reconnects with New York City firefighter who rescued her from a burning building 37 years ago https://bit.ly/2M6jG3N
Linus and his blanket
/It’s Linus when his blanket is in the dryer. There’s nothing to hold on to. -Marilyn Ferguson
The Elevator Pitch
/The Challenge: Create a compelling speech about your entire professional life-lasting no more than 15-second. Be able to offer it on demand and under pressure.
The so-called “elevator pitch” requires serious practice. Regardless of the audience, irrespective of whether you are sitting, standing, or walking down a hall or talking on the phone, you should be comfortable offering it. You never know whether your next open door will take place at family gatherings, in the waiting room of the doctor’s office, or at a coffee shop.
You’ll want to describe the impact you have had and can continue to have on a project or work environment. Make it about who you are rather than what you do.
Don’t try to rattle off as much information as possible, like a college debater. Be thoughtful and deliberate. Show you are calm and confident. Yet still, be passionate and genuine.
These questions that may help you discover your elevator pitch and paint a compelling self-portrait:
What do you think your value to an employer is?
What have you been proudest of in your work life?
What do you love to do?
What makes you unique?
A word of caution: Pre-packaged, over-practiced canned pitches can come across as lacking respect for the one you are trying to win over. They are not a means to an end but is a person. Your goal isn’t just to sell yourself but start an Elevator Conversation. It's not just me; it’s about us.
Think of it this way: Most people want to hire interesting, intelligent people who they would enjoy spending time working with day-to-day—not slogan shouters.
Stephen Goforth