Articles of interest about journalism, fakes, social media & more - Jan 27

***COVID-19

What to Say if Someone Wrongly Claims ‘99% of People Survive COVID’

An estimated 10% of COVID-19 patients in the U.S. have developed lasting symptoms nearly a year later

Coronavirus: Should I be wearing double masks?

***JOURNALISM 

After the Capitol Riot, Journalists Contend with Rage against the Media 

Is unpublishing old crime stories Orwellian or empathetic?  

Trust in media hits new crisis low

Ethical practices are changing as a result of the increase in threats to journalists 

How a project is training incarcerated people to become journalists

***REPORTING TOOLS  

How to vet social media real quick

Trump era sets FOIA record 

Can a video journalist be successful with just a smartphone

***THE BUSINESS OF JOURNALISM 

Six tips for independent journalists before deciding to go solo  

An Idaho newspaper editor struggled to get Excel access for staff. After tweeting about it, she was fired  

Axios promises it will never have an opinion section, and more, in an “audience Bill of Rights” 

***FAKES, FRAUDS & SCAMS

We Asked People Who Run 'Fake' News Websites: Why

Got a package you didn't order? It could be a scam

Far-right groups move to messaging apps as tech companies crack down on extremist social media

A big chunk of Trump’s 1776 report appears lifted from an author’s prior work

The Most Dangerous Conspiracy Theory in the World

Ken Burns Says U.S. Has 3 Viruses: COVID-19, White Supremacy And Misinformation 

Covid misinformation takes its toll on British doctors, teachers 

PPP loans were given to anti-vaccine groups ($)

***QANON NONSENSE  

Marjorie Taylor Greene Believes in Frazzledrip, QAnon’s Wildest Conspiracy Theory  

QAnon Thinks Trump Will Become President Again On March 4

Lacking a leader, QAnon believers find ways to carry on ($) 

‘Are you QAnon?’: One Trump official’s brush with an internet cult gone horribly wrong 

There are Qanon believers in Congress

With Trump gone, where will QAnon supporters go for inspiration?

Trump’s exit leaves QAnon faithful grappling with doubt

***SOCIAL MEDIA 

Alternative Social Media Platforms Become Popular Among Some Trump Supporters

The podcast business is booming, but few are making money  

TikTok Surpasses Facebook as Most Time-Consuming Social Media App of 2020

Signal aims to tempt WhatsApp users by borrowing some of its best features

How to use Signal: Everything you need to know 

Parler shows signs of life

***PRIVACY & SECURITY 

Intelligence Analysts Use U.S. Smartphone Location Data Without Warrants, Memo Says 

TikTok Is Watching You – Even If You Don't Have an Account 

***WRITING & READING 

Digital reading has exploded during the pandemic

In Defense of Writing Books That May Never Be Read

***POETRY

How a 22-year-old L.A. native became Biden's inauguration poet ($) 

Amanda Gorman Delivers Breathtaking Poem At Inauguration

Who Is Amanda Gorman, the Youngest Poet Laureate to Perform at an Inauguration?

Articles of interest about religion - Jan 25

***COVID-19

UNC helps find a new way to prevent COVID-19 outbreaks

What 'vaccine passports' mean for your summer vacation 

The face mask that could end the pandemic

Facemask Sensor Being Developed at UCSD Could Help Detect COVID-19

***RELIGION & THE VIRUS

Hundreds attend largely maskless El Cajon concert by controversial religious figure Sean Feucht

***RELIGION 

Fringe groups raise funds on Christian site

Five myths about evangelicals ($) 

***RELIGION AND POLITICS

U.S. Government Sees Wave Of Catholic Leaders

Biden Invokes Augustine in Call for American Unity

Biden is only the second Catholic president, but nearly all have been Christians

Militant Christian Nationalists Remain A Potent Force, Even After The Capitol Riot

Trump ignites a war within evangelical Christianity (opinion)

Some Christians Feel It's A God-Given Mission To Fight On Trump's Behalf

***RELIGION & THE LAW 

Supreme Court won’t hear Nevada church’s COVID-19 case

Should Christians Worry that Free Speech Is Eroding? (podcast)  

Federal appeals court denies a SoCal church’s request to overturn state’s coronavirus restrictions

***SOUTHERN BAPTISTS

SBC president’s church announces review of pastor accused of mishandling sex abuse cases

Southern Baptist Dwight McKissic to leave Texas group over critical race theory stance 

Some Black Southern Baptists feel shut out by white leaders 

***MEGACHURCHES

A Tampa megachurch pastor held a giant, maskless indoor service  

Charlotte megachurch draws criticism from health director for large, maskless worship performance

Megachurch pastor Ed Young mourns death of daughter aged 34

Syracuse megachurch pastor’s emotional message after Capitol riot: ‘We have crossed the line’ 

***DAVE RAMSEY 

Is the empire of Christian Financial Guru Dave Ramsey the ‘best place to work in America’?

Dave Ramsey, the Good Ole Boy Network & the Evangelical Industrial Complex (opinion) 

***RELIGION & LGBTQ ISSUES

Tensions rise over California church’s anti-LGBTQ message

Authorities Investigate Blast at Anti-Gay California Church

***MUSLIMS

Barred From U.S. Under Trump, Muslims Exult in Biden’s Open Door ($) 

Video shows man threatening to kill gas station worker in anti-Muslim attack

What’s behind Anger

According to Albert Ellis, the most common irrational ideas behind anger are the following:

1. I must do well and win the approval of others for my performances, or else I will rate as a rotten person.

2. Others must treat me considerately and kindly and in precisely the way I want them to treat me.

3. The world (and the people in it) must arrange conditions under which I live, so that I get everything that I want when I want it.

Mark Cosgrove, Counseling for Anger

The persecuted victim

Conspiracy theorists perceive and present themselves as the victim of organized persecution. At the same time, they see themselves as brave antagonists taking on the villainous conspirators. Conspiratorial thinking involves a self-perception of simultaneously being a victim and a hero.

Stephan Lewandowsky & John Cook, The Conspiracy Theory Handbook

Articles of interest about higher ed - Jan 20

***HIGHER ED & COVID

CDC: COVID-19 outbreaks linked with in-person instruction at large colleges

Are Colleges Superspreaders?

College openings led to increase in community cases, research says

***COVID AT SPECIFIC SCHOOLS 

Auburn University is not conducting re-entry testing for students

UC San Diego reports surge in COVID-19 infections among students returning from holidays 

Ohio State issued nearly 1,500 COVID-related sanctions last semester

***HIGHER ED & POLITICS 

When Your Alumni Incite an Insurrection ($) 

Middlebury Revokes Giuliani's Honorary Degree

***LAYOFFS  

University of South Florida trustees approve $36.7 million in budget cuts 

UNC-Chapel Hill to cut personnel, spending to address pandemic losses, long-term deficit

University of Hawaii braces for budget cuts

***COLLEGE FINANCES 

How to Survive the Enrollment Bust ($)

Education Department releases billions in aid to colleges

***PROGRAM CUTS AT SPECIFIC SCHOOLS

Kansas universities need to save money. These are the majors that could be eliminated

Petition calls on Stanford to reverse cuts to Cantonese language program

Iowa public universities cancel study abroad programs through Aug. 1

***HIGHER ED  

The Higher Education Industry Is Embracing Predatory and Discriminatory Student Data Practices

***COLLEGES & POLITICS

Biden instructs Ed Dept to extend pause on federal student loan payments through Sept ($)

How Biden's immigration plan would affect colleges

Trump pardons USC father in college admissions scandal

Protest at NC State calls for employee who was alleged to be Proud Boys member to resign

***HIGHER ED IN COURT

Student accused of cheating sues Syracuse University for denying conduct hearing

Michigan State women's swim, dive team files Title IX lawsuit, seeks reinstatement

Group of international students sues Iowa college, alleging forced labor

Grand Canyon sues U.S. Education Department for rejecting its conversion to nonprofit status

Student sues Rice University, demands refund over online learning during COVID

Univ of North Carolina must release names of sexual assault perpetrators, NC Supreme Court rules

***HUMANITIES 

Liberal arts and the pursuit of a well-rounded education

University of Minnesota scales back liberal arts Ph.D. programs amid pandemic

***TEACHING  

Men speak 1.6 times more often than women in college classrooms

Media Now Offers 100,000 Digital Resources in its Library for Educators

How to Help Students Know When It’s Time to Quit—and When It’s Not (Opinion)

Teaching in the Age of Disinformation ($)

***ONLINE CHEATING   

Students cheat with online learning service, professors hope to identify users

Senator: More transparency is needed from exam proctoring firms

Academic misconduct cases double over course of pandemic at Univ of Houston

***ACADEMIC LIFE  

Why campus leaders must prioritize faculty morale

Iowa Lawmakers Attempt to Eliminate Tenure Systems in Public Higher Ed

A longtime professor wants to retire. Her university says she has to drop her pay-based gender discrimination suit first

How to (almost) fail a PhD: a personal account

MIT Professor Arrested on Charges of Grant Fraud

Univ of Florida students encouraged to use a campus-crime app to report faculty members not teaching face to face    

Controversial law professor John Eastman retires from Chapman University

Ole Miss Doubles Down on Professor's Termination

***ACADEMICS ON SOCIAL MEDIA   

Professor reprimanded for tweet about an instructor who’d died of Covid-19 ($)

This professor is getting harassed over a tweet about students with bad email etiquette

UCF professor accused of racist tweets to be terminated for ‘misconduct’

***ADMINISTRATORS

Illinois State University president to receive $46,000 bonus before June retirement

Auburn University faculty punt on no confidence vote for Hardgrave

University Of Utah President Ruth Stepping Down, Leaving Mixed Legacy Behind

***CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS  

Bethel president resigns to take post at Olivet Nazarene University

Gay teacher sues Seattle Pacific University after being denied full-time position

Wheaton College faculty condemn 'abuses of Christian symbols' at Capitol siege

Abilene Christian University student arrested for child pornography

Rape lawsuit settled with Baylor fraternity, other defendants

***RESEARCH 

What explains scientific misconduct?

Many scientists citing two scandalous COVID-19 papers ignore their retractions

What do you do when you realize years of your published work is built on an error?

***STUDENT LIFE 

How the pandemic is impacting college students’ mental health

University of Kentucky student charged in US Capitol riot

‘It’s just too much’: Why students are abandoning community colleges in droves

What it’s like to attend school on a phone ($)

Some Columbia University students say they’re prepared to withhold payments if tuition isn’t lowered

The Campus Underground Press

***RACIAL ISSUES ON CAMPUS

The University of Alabama at Huntsville fires police chief, captain, & officer out after traffic stop of Black teen

Here's what I'm thinking

"If you walk into a room as a senior person and innocently say, 'Here's what I'm thinking about this,' you've already skewed people's thinking," says Marine Gen. Peter Pace. His approach: "Start out with a question and don't voice an opinion."

Why? Because people can't line up behind you if they don't know where you stand. And if you present subordinates with an intellectual challenge, they feel freer to offer their opinions without fear of giving offense. "If you are looking for answers, ask the question," advises Pace, and "if you are looking for an honest critique, you ought to be the first person to self-critique." 

Michael Useem writing in Fortune Magazine

The Creative Process

The creative process is often not responsive to conscious efforts to initiate or control it. It does not proceed methodically or in programmatic fashion. It meanders. It is unpredictable, digressive, capricious. As one scientist put it, “I can schedule my lab hours, but I can’t schedule my best ideas.”

Creative individuals have the capacity to free themselves from the web of social pressures in which the rest of us are caught. They don’t spend much time asking “What will people say?” The fact that “everybody’s doing it” doesn’t mean they’re doing it. They question assumptions that the rest of us accept. As J. P. Guilford has pointed out, they are particularly gifted in seeing the gap between what is and what could be (which means, of course, that they have achieved a certain measure of detachment from what is.

It is easy to fall into the romantic exaggeration in speaking of the capacity of people of originality to stand apart. Those who are responsible for the great innovative performances have always built on the work of others, and have enjoyed many kinds of social support, stimulation and communication. They are independent but they are not adrift.

John Gardner, Self-Renewal

Articles of interest about journalism, fakes, social media - Jan 18

***THE VIRUS 

Will your neighbors get the vaccine? The percentage by count  

When can grandparents safely visit with grandkids after they’ve been vaccinated for COVID-19

Americans have unrealistic expectations for a COVID-19 vaccine

The Maddening Red Tape Facing Older People Who Want the Vaccine 

***JOURNALISM

Journalism, media, and technology trends and predictions 2021

Measuring progress on inclusivity in Journalism

Now It Can Be Told: How Neil Sheehan Got The Pentagon Papers 

Tiny News Collective aims to launch 500 new local news organizations

***FREE SPEECH 

The First Amendment doesn't guarantee you the rights you think it does

Supreme Court wrestles with Georgia college free speech case

***FAKES & FRAUDS 

How to Spot a Fake Social Media Account 

How Anti-Vaccine Movement Could Hurt Efforts To End Pandemic 

How can the Biden administration reduce scientific disinformation? Slow the high-pressure pace of scientific publishing ($)

What covering heavy metal taught me about spotting Nazis

Links between online misinformation and real-world violence were always a problem “over there.” The Capitol Hill riot shows otherwise.

'She was deep into it': Ashli Babbitt, killed in Capitol riot, was devoted conspiracy theorist

***QANON

The QAnon 'Shaman' Is Turning Indigenous Culture Into Cosplay

QAnon believer who plotted to kill Nancy Pelosi came to D.C. ready for war

QAnon Conspiracy Theories Are Being Promoted by Wellness Influencers

The QAnon Doctor Pushing Wild Conspiracies About The COVID Vaccine  

How QAnon-Like Conspiracy Theories Tear Families Apart 

***THE FIGHT AGAINST FAKE NEWS 

Google is giving $3 million to news orgs to fact-check vaccine misinformation 

Fake news victims deploy lawsuits to shut down lies and disinformation

Site That Traffics In Misinformation Fills Void Left By Struggling Newspaper

***SOCIAL MEDIA  

How lawmakers’ social media activity changed in the days after the U.S. Capitol riot

Far-right groups migrate to smaller apps

How Social Media Can Approach Free Speech During A Polarizing Time

Every Video Ever Posted to Parler Is Now Available to Download

Trump supporters flock to MeWe, Gab, and Rumble after Parler goes offline

An annual survey on how social media is used as a news source

Does 'deplatforming' work? Trump's most extreme fans will find him, research says

***PRIVACY & SECURITY 

Parler’s amateur coding could come back to haunt Capitol Hill rioters

***POETRY

Poetry Challenge: Honor MLK By Describing How You Dream A World

How L.A.’s Amanda Gorman became Biden’s inauguration poet

Articles of interest about religion, politics, & the virus - Jan 15

***THE VIRUS

What COVID-19 will look like once the pandemic ends

Flu cases have been shockingly low during the pandemic. Here why.

Experts have worked out how long you stay immune for after catching COVID  

Disappointing Chinese Vaccine Results Pose Setback for Developing World ($)  

How Scientists Trace New Coronavirus Variants 

COVID-19 severity linked to gut bacteria in first-of-its-kind study  

Moderna thinks its vaccine will protect against the coronavirus for at least a year

***RELIGION AND THE ATTACK ON THE CAPITOL  

Wheaton College faculty condemn 'abuses of Christian symbols' at Capitol siege

Evangelicals and other faith leaders still support Trump after deadly US Capitol attack  

Why pro-Trump evangelicals brought shofars to DC this week

About 60 of the 138 House members who objected to the Electoral College count were evangelical Christians  

A Christian Insurrection: Many of those who mobbed the Capitol on claimed to be enacting God’s will

How Prominent Evangelicals Reacted to the Capitol Riot

They Invaded the Capitol Saying ‘Jesus Is My Savior. Trump Is My President’  

***OPINIONS ABOUT THE ATTACK

What Americans believe about violence against the government (opinion)  

Capitol rioters made a mockery of Christian values (opinion)

A Call For Evangelical Reckoning (opinion)  

Donald Trump and the future of our faith (opinion) 

***RELIGION AND POLITICS

US set for flurry of ‘Christian nationalist’ bills advanced by religious right

Trump Ignites a War Within the Church ($)

How White Evangelical Christians Fused With Trump Extremism 

Franklin Graham “shames” the ten Republicans who voted to impeach Trump  

For some Christians, the Capitol riot doesn’t change the prophecy: Trump will be president ($)  

Charismatics are at war with each other over prophecies of Trump victory 

Most Evangelical Trump Voters Didn’t Turn on Mike Pence 

State Department Office Sees Last-Minute Surge of New Evangelical Appointees

The U.S. Senators who objected to the Electoral College results were almost all evangelicals

***RELIGIOUN & FINANCIES

Religious nonprofits scramble to get enough donations to match the surge in community needs

***DENOMINATIONS

Denominational leaders denounce Capitol violence while evangelicals offer mixed responses

Southern Baptist Convention leader calls for president’s resignation 

***MEGACHURCHES

Houston megachurch pastor sentenced to 6 years in prison for bilking investors

The Majority of American Megachurches Are Now Multiracial

Healing in Freedom

Being loving is far more therapeutic that being correct. People need first to believe that you are willing to let them be who they are. If you attempt to direct another person’s every move, you eventually lose your effectiveness, no matter how correct you may be. Freedom for each of us is to be who and what we are, that’s the cornerstone of an influential life.

When you give freedom to others, it doesn’t mean you are lowering your standards or that you don’t care about them. It means you are providing an atmosphere to let others think and feel and act without excessive pressure to fit your mold. The paradox is that when others sense the freedom you offer, they are more attracted to you. They key is to learn how to use this freedom.

Les Carter, Imperative People: Those Who Must Be in Control