Climate: “Rebranding Climate Change as a Public Health Issue”
Should climate change be re-branded as a public health issue?
Media: Remember July’s reports on smoke from fires in Canada?
In July, the national news reported about smoke from Canada wild fires impacting east coast cities. Why the AQI was over 100! Oh my! In the past few days, the AQI at my town has exceeded 500. It’s not even worth a news story in my state, outside the County.
Media: Content mills and the eliteness of reporters
“Content mills” and “Content Generation” services are becoming the backbone of web “journalism”. Related: many journalists having surprisingly elite backgrounds, greatly disconnected from the rest of society. At the national level, most have attended elite universities, went to private high schools, and have done studies abroad, They have degrees in English Lit, Creative Writing, History or Political Science, and sometimes journalism – yet often call themselves “Science” or “Environmental Science” reporters, even though they have no background in those subjects. A bit of a surprise.
Media: CNET tech news site deletes old content to improve search rankings
Would you delete old stories if it would improve your search engine ranking? Some sites say yes.
Media: Content farms are using AI-generated text to sell eyeballs to advertisers
“Content mills” and “Content Generation” services are becoming the backbone of web “journalism”. 57% of newsroom jobs at newspapers went away from 2008 onwards. What does those people do now? They write stories about that one weird trick that explains why this airport did something to someone… in other words, fluffy filler click-bait articles.
Learning a new dialect of your native language?
Every language has terminology and idioms that may have originated long ago, in the context of derogatory comments or associated with an era when such language may have been viewed as derogatory. There is a list, online, over almost 3,000 words or phrases in the English language, that are considered offensive, or considered offensive in some contexts.
The Daily Doomer: “Existential threats are getting worse: nuclear war, AI fears, climate change”
We are all going to die, Really Soon Now. Your dose of The Daily Doomer.
Climate: ‘”Boiling seas” part of the ClimateCrisis”‘
A competent reporter would ask why one buoy (but not the adjoining buoys) registered high sea temperatures, which then dropped by 9 degrees within hours, and by 17 degrees within 2 days. But “competent” and “reporter” rarely belong in the same sentence. Sigh.
Media: “61% of Americans” live paycheck to paycheck
Every few months, the media tell us that – horrors! – 61% (or whatever) of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. Left out of the breathless reporting is that this is pretty much where it always is, except during recessions when it goes up higher.
Media: An outstanding reporter – the late Jim McKay
One of the long ago greats in journalism, the late Jim McKay.