Climate communications: Social media has gone insane over fires in the Amazon area of Brazil, with most posts being wrong

Climate communications: Social media has gone insane over fires in the Amazon area of Brazil, with most posts being wrong

Social media has gone utterly insane about fires in the Amazon region of Brazil-virtually all of them contain false information. NASA points out that over their 15 year satellite-based observing history, the fire situation in the Amazon is average. But the falsehoods have blown up to the point that internationally known politicians are calling for action!

Social media is a bonfire of idiocy.

Social media defined? Miserablism, the philosophy of pessimism and enjoyment of being depressed

Social media defined? Miserablism, the philosophy of pessimism and enjoyment of being depressed

Twitter does not represent the views of the people: it represents the views of a very tiny minority of angry and miserable people (most tweets come from about 2% of the population, a group that seems to very outraged and angry). There is a word for this: it’s miserablism, or the philosophy of pessimism and the enjoyment of being miserable.

Do social media algorithms favor “sexualized posts”?

Do social media algorithms favor “sexualized posts”?

Social media algorithms that select what items we see in our feeds or in our “recommended” posts or video lists, may be designed to favor content that features attractive people (usually females, usually young and fit) or which include more sexualized content (broadly defined). Content creators see in their viewership data what works to obtain views and will produce more content like that. The effect is that algorithms may be reinforcing stereotypes of women as sex objects (data suggests this has happened more so for women than men).

Story contradicts the headline: “Minimum wage doesn’t cover the rent anywhere in the U.S. – CBS News”

Story contradicts the headline: “Minimum wage doesn’t cover the rent anywhere in the U.S. – CBS News”

Their third paragraph contradicts the headline: “Even the $15 hourly wage touted by labor activists would not be enough to make housing affordable in the overwhelming majority of states, the coalition found.” — but in other words, it can afford housing in some states. But the story’s errors are worse than that …

When the media spins a story to tell the author’s narrative, rather than reality

When the media spins a story to tell the author’s narrative, rather than reality

An incredibly lengthy news article spins a story that a top athlete and scholar’s death, due to suicide, is likely due to the increasing pressure on young women to accomplish great things. 10 pages into this 14 page, single spaced news article, does the author mention she had suffered a brain injury just prior to her suicide, and even that mention goes into less detail than contemporary news reports shortly after her death. (I have had multiple and serious TBI’s myself, which is why I found the reporting on this terribly sad story to be a rambling odyssey that seemingly wanted to avoid reality.)

Oxfam’s annual report on income inequality is nonsense designed for propaganda messaging

Oxfam’s annual report on income inequality is nonsense designed for propaganda messaging

Oxfam issues its annual report on global wealth inequality, but this time, many notice that its methodology is garbage, designed to produce a specific outcome for citation in propaganda campaigns. Specifically, many U.S. university graduates with good paying jobs, nice apartments, cars, smart phones, cable TV and Internet access are identified as among the poorest people on earth. Really?

Everything, everywhere is now a “crisis”

Everything, everywhere is now a “crisis”

While researching overuse of the “crisis” label (literally everything is now a crisis), I ran across a Google News linked web site whose own description largely labels itself as a propaganda mill. Yet this is what passes for “news”?