American investigative journalist
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Rachel Maddow talks with Julia Angwin and Ami Fields-Meyer, authors of "On Courage: How to be a dissident in an age of fear," about "the central question of how to live right as an American citizen right now," and the variety of ways people can throw sand in the gears of authoritarianism to preserve democracy. Want more of Rachel? Check out the "Rachel Maddow Presents" feed to listen to all of her chart-topping original podcasts.To listen to all of your favorite MS podcasts without ads, sign up for MS NOW Premium on Apple Podcasts. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Senior democracy scholar and former White House policy advisor Ami Fields-Meyer joins award-winning investigative journalist Julia Angwin in conversation with acclaimed broadcaster Patt Morrison for a timely discussion on courage, dissent, and democratic engagement in an era of growing fear and polarization.Drawing on their book On Courage: How to Be a Dissident in an Age of Fear, Fields-Meyer and Angwin explore how individuals and institutions can respond when democratic norms, public trust, and civic participation are under pressure.Topics include:• Courage and dissent in modern democracy• Free expression and civic engagement• Media, technology, and public trust• Political polarization and democratic resilience• How individuals can act in challenging times
“Friction is what brings us together. If we were never able to communicate in real space, we would not truly learn what it is to be human.” — Stephen BalkamIs social media a drug? In what the Financial Times called a landmark case, Facebook (Meta) and YouTube (Google) have been found guilty of designing their products to be addictive to kids. Is this a big tobacco moment? the tut-tutting New York Times asked. In contrast, the free market Wall Street Journal called it a shakedown.So what to make of this decision to make social media a narcotic? Stephen Balkam — founder and CEO of the Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI), amongst Washington's most credible nonpartisan voices on kids and technology, has been on the front lines of this fight for nearly thirty years. Calling himself a radical moderate, he sees good and bad in social media. He even expelled Meta from FOSI three years ago for what he calls conduct contrary to the institute's mission.Balkam's sharpest disagreement is with Jonathan Haidt, amongst the shrillest voices arguing in favor of a social media ban for kids. He “violently agrees” with Haidt on the idea of a free-range childhood — giving kids more freedom outdoors. But the evidence Haidt uses to justify banning social media confuses correlation with causation, a basic research error that, Balkam insists, academic researchers have called out. Balkam thinks the real anxious generation isn't the kids — it's us, the paranoid parents, projecting our mostly irrational fears onto our children.His deeper argument is in favor of friction. Silicon Valley has spent thirty years removing friction from ordering pizza, hailing cabs, and dating. Balkam argues we need to design it back into childhood — the friction of developing friendships, building resilience, learning to think critically instead of outsourcing cognition to ChatGPT at midnight. Bring the human friction of life back, Balkam argues. It's the most effective antidote to the drug of online existence.Five Takeaways• Yesterday Was Tech's Big Tobacco Moment — Sort Of: Meta and Google found liable for harm to children's mental health. Balkam sees strong parallels to the tobacco cases of the nineties but resists the lazy comparison. The repercussions will extend beyond social media to AI. The hundreds of trials still to come will shape the next decade of tech regulation.• Congress Gets a D-Minus: America is the last advanced country without a national privacy framework. COPPA dates to the late nineties. KOSA never passed. The result is a splintering of state-level laws and no coherent federal approach. Meanwhile, parents are overwhelmed, and the tech companies retrofitted safety features years after the damage was done.• Jonathan Haidt Got the Free-Range Part Right. The Rest Is Shaky: Balkam “violently agrees” with Haidt on giving kids more freedom outdoors. But the evidence Haidt uses for his social media bans confuses correlation with causation — a basic research error. Academic researchers violently disagree with him. His book directly caused Australia's social media ban. Balkam thinks we — the parents — are the anxious generation, not the kids.• 42% of Teens Talk About Their Feelings with AI Chatbots: 60% say they feel safe using AI. 44% say some of its behaviours freak them out. They're using it for homework, for loneliness, for practical advice, for asking how to invite someone to prom. And they're worried about their job prospects. The three waves of concern: content in the nineties, behaviour in the 2000s, emotional attachment and cognitive outsourcing now.• Bring the Friction Back: Silicon Valley has spent thirty years removing friction from ordering pizza, hailing cabs, and dating. Balkam argues we need to design friction back into childhood — the friction of developing friendships, building resilience, learning to think critically. A plush AI toy called Grok is being marketed to three-year-olds. It's always there, always positive, always frictionless. That's the dystopia. About the GuestStephen Balkam is the founder and CEO of the Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI), a nonpartisan organisation dedicated to making the online world safer for kids and families. FOSI's members include Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and other leading technology companies. Balkam is based in Washington DC and will teach an MA course on online safety at Georgetown University in 2027.References:• Family Online Safety Institute — FOSI's research, policy work, and resources for parents.• Episode 2849: How Stories Can Save Us — Colum McCann on Narrative Four. Social media promised storytelling. It delivered isolation.• Episode 2846: How to Be Agreeably Disagreeable — Julia Minson on disagreeing better. Balkam's friction argument is the parenting version.About Keen On AmericaNobody asks more awkward questions than the Anglo-American writer and filmmaker Andrew Keen. In Keen On America, Andrew brings his pointed Transatlantic wit to making sense of the United States — hosting daily interviews about the history and future of this now venerable Republic. With nearly 2,800 episodes since the show launched on TechCrunch in 2010, Keen On America is the most prolific intellectual interview show in the history of podcasting.WebsiteSubstackYouTubeApple PodcastsSpotify Chapters:(00:31) - Introduction: Meta and Google found liable for harm to children (03:23) - Big tobacco or something different? (04:29) - Julia Angwin: should big tech pay us? (06:23) - FOSI and the radical moderate (07:25) - Congress gets a D-minus: no federal privacy bill (09:34) - Safety by design vs. retrofitting parental controls (09:49) - Why FOSI expelled Meta — and Twitter (12:38) - The pendulum from optimism to paranoia (14:48) - Jonathan Haidt: brilliant on free-range kids, wrong on the evidence (18:05) - Australia's ban vs. Greystones, Ireland: local solutions work (22:20) - Trump's tech panel: Zuckerberg and Andreessen (24:19) - Melania and the robot: the optics of grift (26:54) - 42% of teens talk about their feelings with AI chatbots (31:22) - Bring the friction back: critical thinking vs. ChatGPT at midnight (35:25) - Grok: the AI plush toy marketed to three-year-olds
“The fatal error is ours. Legislators set out a regulatory regime that keeps regulation at bay. The only other industry with a similar protection is the gun industry.” — Olivier SylvainThere are certain words in book titles that provoke. “Reclaiming”, for example. My guest today is happy to defend the provocation. Fordham law professor and former FTC senior advisor Olivier Sylvain argues in his new book, Reclaiming the Internet, that the internet was never really ours to begin with—and that the story about user control, free speech, and digital democratisation was always more nostalgia than reality.But Sylvain's argument in Reclaiming the Internet: How Big Tech Took Control—and How We Can Take It Back is not the usual big-tech-is-bad narrative (yawn). He doesn't blame the companies. He blames us—or rather, Congress. The fatal error, he says, was Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, passed in 1996, which created a blanket immunity from liability for companies trafficking in user-generated content. The only other industry with comparable legal protection, he says, is the gun industry. That immunity enabled the attention economy's business model. Infinite scrolling = infinite advertising = infinite profit.What follows from that error is now everywhere: autoplay, algorithmic recommendation—design features engineered to hold your attention, not to facilitate free speech. Sylvain insists these companies aren't really platforms. They are, instead, services delivering content pursuant to their bottom line. And now the same Nineties playbook—innovation, user control, free speech—is being replayed with AI. Companies are deploying chatbots before they're ready, racing each other to market. A young man killed himself after a Gemini chatbot told him to and Google invoked the First Amendment in its defence.The fix, Sylvain argues, is not to abolish Section 230 but to attend to the business model itself: data minimisation, purpose limitations, and the kind of product-safety regulation that every other industry—from automobiles to toys to food—already accepts. I should disclose that my wife runs litigation at Google, so I'm all too familiar with the counter argument. But Sylvain makes a persuasive case even if his reclamation project is still a little too Rousseauean for my Hobbesian taste. Five Takeaways• The Fatal Error Was Ours, Not Theirs: Sylvain doesn't blame big tech. He blames us—or rather, Congress. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act created a blanket immunity from liability for user-generated content. The only other industry with comparable protection is the gun industry. That legal shield became the business model.• These Are Not Platforms: The word “platform” implies a neutral conduit connecting users. Sylvain says that's wrong. These are companies engineering your experience—infinite scroll, autoplay, algorithmic recommendation—to hold your attention and serve their bottom line. The free speech story is cover for a commercial design.• The Same Mistake Is Happening with AI: The nineties playbook—innovation, user control, free speech—is being replayed with AI. Companies are deploying chatbots before they're ready, racing each other to market. Internal documents show they knew the dangers. A young man committed suicide after Gemini told him to. Google invoked the First Amendment in its defence.• Data Protection Is the Real Fix: Sylvain argues for data minimisation and purpose limitations—rules that would only allow companies to collect information consistent with the purposes a consumer signed up for. Not to monetise it for opaque reasons. That would dampen the incentive to engineer addiction without touching free speech.• There's a Bipartisan Consensus—but Only for Children: Something is shifting. Courts are rejecting Section 230 defences. Legislators on both sides agree something must be done. But the consensus only extends to protecting children. Sylvain thinks that's a mistake: a 36-year-old man just killed himself after talking to a chatbot. Adults are vulnerable too. About the GuestOlivier Sylvain is a professor of law at Fordham University, a former senior advisor to the Chair of the Federal Trade Commission, and a Senior Policy Research Fellow at Columbia University's Knight First Amendment Institute. His new book is Reclaiming the Internet: How Big Tech Took Control—and How We Can Take It Back (Columbia Global Reports).ReferencesReferences and previous Keen On episodes:• Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (1996) and its evolution into blanket immunity for tech companies• Gonzales v. Google (2023)—the Supreme Court case that declined to rule on Section 230 but allowed the merits to proceed• The Character AI / Gemini chatbot suicide cases—ongoing litigation against Google• Tim Wu on the extractive economics of platform capitalism — previous Keen On episode• Julia Angwin, Zephyr Teachout, and Stewart Brand—referenced in the conversationAbout Keen On AmericaNobody asks more awkward questions than the Anglo-American writer and filmmaker Andrew Keen. In Keen On America, Andrew brings his pointed Transatlantic wit to making sense of the United States—hosting daily interviews about the history and future of this now venerable Republic. With nearly 2,800 episodes since the show launched on TechCrunch in 2010, Keen On America is the most prolific intellectual interview show in the history of podcasting.WebsiteSubstackYouTubeApple PodcastsSpotify Chapters:(00:00) - Introduction: What does “reclaiming” the Internet mean? (03:06) - The layered stack: pipes, platforms, and consumer-facing apps (06:01) - Was user control ever real? The ideology of the nineties (09:32) - The fatal error: Section 230 and blanket immunity (14:51) - Facebook as punching bag—and why Sylvain doesn't blame the companies (17:31) - Addiction, self-harm, and the design features that hold your attention (22:00) - The attention economy and the Gonzales v. Google case (26:35) - How we can take it back: data minimization and purpose limitations (29:02) - “These are not platforms” (31:21) - Europe, the First Amendment, and the right to be forgotten (33:06) - AI business ...
In a landmark trial in California, Meta and Google are being accused of addicting children to social media. On this week's On the Media, hear how the dramatic proceedings are playing out, and how measures to protect kids online can backfire. Plus, why are betting companies showing up in newsrooms?[01:00] Host Brooke Gladstone speaks with Madlin Mekelburg, a legal reporter at Bloomberg, about the landmark lawsuit against Google and Meta that went to trial this week. The social media giants are being accused of deliberately designing their platforms in a way that is addictive and harmful to children's brains, and the verdict of this case will influence the outcomes of thousands of similar cases across the country. Plus, neuroscience researcher Ian Anderson explains why the ‘addiction' framework misses the complexity of what social media does to our brains. [20:00] Brooke interviews Julia Angwin, investigative journalist and founder of Proof News, a nonprofit journalism studio. They discuss the tools that users can employ to protect themselves against doomscrolling, and how social media bans across the world can sometimes do more harm than good. [34:41] Host Micah Loewinger speaks with Judd Legum, the author of the accountability newsletter Popular Information, about the explosive rise of prediction markets, and the implications of their growing partnerships with newsrooms. Further reading / watching:“Social Networks Face Big Tobacco Moment Over Addiction Cases,” by Madlin Mekelburg“Overestimates of social media addiction are common but costly,” by Ian Anderson and Wendy Wood“I Killed Color on My Phone. The Result Shocked Me,” by Julia Angwin“Social Media Use and Well-Being Across Adolescent Development,” by Ben Singh, Mason Zhou, Rachel Curtis, et al“Evidence for link between digital technology use and teenage mental health problems is weak, our large study suggests,” by Qiqi Cheng and Neil Humphrey“The casino-fication of news,” by Judd Legum On the Media is supported by listeners like you. Support OTM by donating today (https://pledge.wnyc.org/support/otm). Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @onthemedia, and share your thoughts with us by emailing onthemedia@wnyc.org.
In the immediate aftermath of the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota, federal authorities presented very different accounts of what happened from what videos from witnesses showed. Did having footage from multiple angles of each shooting make the truth clear?Guests: Jake Godin, researcher for Bellingcat.Julia Angwin, investigative journalist, founder of Proof News and contributing opinion writer for New York Times.Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to get access wherever you listen. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In the immediate aftermath of the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota, federal authorities presented very different accounts of what happened from what videos from witnesses showed. Did having footage from multiple angles of each shooting make the truth clear?Guests: Jake Godin, researcher for Bellingcat.Julia Angwin, investigative journalist, founder of Proof News and contributing opinion writer for New York Times.Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to get access wherever you listen. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In the immediate aftermath of the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota, federal authorities presented very different accounts of what happened from what videos from witnesses showed. Did having footage from multiple angles of each shooting make the truth clear?Guests: Jake Godin, researcher for Bellingcat.Julia Angwin, investigative journalist, founder of Proof News and contributing opinion writer for New York Times.Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to get access wherever you listen. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
If Then | News on technology, Silicon Valley, politics, and tech policy
In the immediate aftermath of the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota, federal authorities presented very different accounts of what happened from what videos from witnesses showed. Did having footage from multiple angles of each shooting make the truth clear?Guests: Jake Godin, researcher for Bellingcat.Julia Angwin, investigative journalist, founder of Proof News and contributing opinion writer for New York Times.Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to get access wherever you listen. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Welcome to In Reality, the podcast about truth and the media with Eric Schurenberg, a long-time journalist and media exec, now the founder of the Alliance for Trust in Media.It's not exactly news that the traditional news business is in decline. Most distressing to those of us who grew up in the profession: that audience levels of trust in the work we do has dropped to the lowest levels ever recorded. Today's guest, Julia Angwin, back for a second time on In Reality, is like Eric a product of the traditional news business. She worked at the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, and also founded startup newsrooms like the Markup and, most recently, Proof News. But that's not why she's here today though...Julia recently penned research for Harvard's Shorenstein Center about what traditional newsrooms can learn from online influencers about trust. According to her paper, you earn trust by convincing others that you are competent to do what you say; that you have integrity and that you have their best interests in mind. Julia and I discuss how influencers support those beliefs about themselves, without benefit of institutional brand names; how traditional newsrooms squandered trust; and ,what journalism needs to do about it.Read Julia's Paper! The Future of Trustworthy Information: Learning from Online Content Creators TakeawaysTrust in media has reached a historic low.The creator economy is significantly larger than traditional journalism.Content creators often have a closer relationship with their audience.Integrity and accountability are crucial for rebuilding trust.Journalism needs to engage more with its audience.The concept of objectivity in journalism is outdated.Benevolence is about serving the audience's needs.Transparency in journalism can enhance trust.The future of journalism may be more about practice than profession.Holding power to account is the core mission of journalism.Website - free episode transcriptswww.in-reality.fmProduced by Tom Platts at Sound Sapiensoundsapien.comAlliance for Trust in Mediaalliancefortrust.com
Ahead of President Trump's return to The White House, Meta is replacing its US fact-checking program with a new “user-driven” approach called Community Notes. Angie Drobnic Holan, Director of the International Fact-Checking Network, explains the implications of this decision and whether decentralising moderation can effectively address misinformation. Piers Morgan, broadcaster and former host at Rupert Murdoch's News UK, has announced his decision to leave and focus on his YouTube channel. Julia Angwin, investigative journalist and fellow at Harvard Kennedy School, explains how this reflects the broader rise of independent content creators. Joey Contino, TikTok news influencer, shares how he has built a loyal following through accessible and direct reporting. Alessandra Galloni, Editor-in-Chief of Reuters, considers how traditional media organisations can adapt to these trends. Grand Theft Auto 6 is shaping up to be a landmark release in gaming history. With its first female protagonist, advanced AI, and immersive gameplay mechanics, the game is expected to push boundaries in both technology and storytelling. Vic Hood, freelance gaming journalist, examines the franchise's enduring appeal and how this instalment could set new benchmarks in the gaming industry. Presenters: Katie Razzall and Ros Atkins Producer: Simon Richardson Assistant producer: Lucy Wai
We talk to Andrew Norfolk, one of the first journalists to report on the grooming gangs story, an issue now in headlines around the world because of the interventions of Elon Musk. Nazir Afzal, former prosecutor explains how journalists helped advise the Crown Prosecution Service about the case. Meta's decision to scrap US fact-checkers in favor of user-led "community notes," has proved controversial. We find out why. We ask what journalists in the so-called legacy media can learn from news influencers on TikTok. Plus get the latest on one of the most hyped releases of the year (if it happens) Grand Theft Auto 6.Guests: Andrew Norfolk, Former Chief Investigative Reporter, The Times; Nazir Afzal, former chief prosecutor for the North West England region; Julia Angwin, journalist and fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School; Angie Drobnic Holan, Director, PolitiFact; Joey Contino, TikTok news influencer; Alessandra Galloni, Thompson Reuters editor-in-chief; Vic Hood, games critic Producer: Simon Richardson Assistant Producer: Lucy Wai
How did a shy teenager from North Carolina become one of the biggest YouTubers in the world, making more than 80 million dollars a year? In this episode, Vanessa talks to Proof News founder Julia Angwin, plus MrBeast expert, her eight-year-old son, to discuss MrBeast's superfame and the new genre he pioneered: philanthropy as entertainment. Read more about Julia's new venture and how she is remaking news on YouTube, at proofnews.org. Click ‘Subscribe' at the top of the Infamous show page on Apple Podcasts or visit GetTheBinge.com to get access wherever you get your podcasts. A Campside Media & Sony Music Entertainment production. Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices A Campside Media & Sony Music Entertainment production. To connect with Infamous's creative team, plus access behind the scenes content, join the community at Campsidemedia.com/join Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Things do not look good for journalism right now. This year, Bell Media, VICE, and the CBC all announced significant layoffs. In the US, there were cuts at the Washington Post, the LA Times, Vox and NPR – to name just a few. A recent study from Northwestern University found that an average of two and a half American newspapers closed down every single week in 2023 (up from two a week the year before).One of the central reasons for this is that the advertising model that has supported journalism for more than a century has collapsed. Simply put, Google and Meta have built a better advertising machine, and they've crippled journalism's business model in the process.It wasn't always obvious this was going to happen. Fifteen or twenty years ago, a lot of publishers were actually making deals with social media companies, thinking they were going to lead to bigger audiences and more clicks.But these turned out to be faustian bargains. The journalism industry took a nosedive, while Google and Meta became two of the most profitable companies in the world.And now we might be doing it all over again with a new wave of tech companies like OpenAI. Over the past several years, OpenAI, operating in a kind of legal grey area, has trained its models on news content it hasn't paid for. While some news outlets, like the New York Times, have chosen to sue OpenAI for copyright infringement, many publishers (including The Atlantic, the Financial Times, and NewsCorp) have elected to sign deals with OpenAI instead.Julia Angwin has been worried about the thorny relationship between big tech and journalism for years. She's written a book about MySpace, documented the rise of big tech, and won a Pulitzer for her tech reporting with the Wall Street Journal.She was also one of the few people warning publishers the first time around that making deals with social media companies maybe wasn't the best idea.Now, she's ringing the alarm again, this time as a New York Times contributing opinion writer and the CEO of a journalism startup called Proof News that is preoccupied with the question of how to get people reliable information in the age of AI.Mentions:“Stealing MySpace: The Battle to Control the Most Popular Website in America,” by Julia Angwin“What They Know” WSJ series by Julia Angwin“The Bad News About the News” by Robert G. Kaiser“The Times Sues OpenAI and Microsoft Over A.I. Use of Copyrighted Work” by By Michael M. Grynbaum and Ryan Mac“Seeking Reliable Election Information? Don't Trust AI” by Julia Angwin, Alondra Nelson, Rina PaltaFurther Reading:“Dragnet Nation: A Quest for Privacy, Security, and Freedom in a World of Relentless Surveillance” by Julia Angwin“A Letter From Our Founder” by Julia Angwin
Misinformation, rumor, psy-ops and propaganda--whatever you want to call the four horsemen of today's media apocalypse—have been with us as long as the media itself. But you have to admit that the arrival of digital technology, led by social media, has given all of those forces outsized power. We still haven't quite come to terms with how tech has shattered things like a shared reality, democracy, civil discourse. That's why today's guest plays a key role in the journalism landscape. Julia Angwin majored in math at the University of Chicago before launching a remarkable career in investigative journalism. She's a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times on topics of tech and society, a winner and two-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory reporting. She's also an entrepreneur, the founder of the Markup, an innovative data-first online newsroom and just this year, she founded Proof News, which builds on the computational techniques of the Markup to hold tech companies accountable. Julia and Eric discuss how she uses the tools of technology to inform journalism; about why reporting is like finding mathematical proofs; how she hopes transparency at Proof will build trust in its journalism; about the role of independent creators in the news environment; and how to hold big tech accountable. Website - free episode transcriptswww.in-reality.fmProduced by Sound Sapiensoundsapien.comAlliance for Trust in Mediaalliancefortrust.com
Julia Angwin has built her career on the frontlines of the battle for data privacy. As an award-winning investigative journalist, she's exposed the hidden costs of our digital lives - from Facebook's privacy breaches to the algorithms that perpetuate racial bias in criminal sentencing. Now, as founder of Proof News, she's reimagining journalism itself as a tool for reclaiming agency in an era of surveillance capitalism. In this eye-opening conversation, Julia shares insights from her journey to empower individuals and hold the powerful accountable. She delves into the perils and promise of AI, the evolving role of journalists in the age of algorithms, and the critical importance of end-to-end encryption. Whether you're concerned about the erosion of privacy or eager to harness your data for good, you won't want to miss Julia's thought-provoking perspective.
Micah breaks down media hype about AI. According to Sam Harnett, a former tech reporter, journalists are repeating lazy tropes about the future of work that once boosted companies like Uber, Airbnb, and Fiverr. Plus, Julia Angwin, founder of Proof News, debunks fantastical claims by AI companies about their software. And Paris Marx, host of Tech Won't Save Us, explains how AI leaders like Sam Altman use the press to lobby regulators and investors. On the Media is supported by listeners like you. Support OTM by donating today (https://pledge.wnyc.org/support/otm). Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @onthemedia, and share your thoughts with us by emailing onthemedia@wnyc.org.
A majority of Americans believe that the economy is in a recession even though it's not. On this week's On the Media, hear why there's a mismatch between facts and feelings about the economy. Plus, how the outlandish claims of AI companies often go unchecked by the press.[01:09] Host Micah Loewinger interviews Jeanna Smialek of The New York Times about whether the ‘vibecession' is back and the factors that are shaping negative perceptions of the economy.[14:41] Micah speaks with Gordon Hanson, economist at Harvard University's Kennedy School, about how President Biden has adopted, and even escalated, former President Trump's tariffs on China, and why the political narratives around tariffs don't always match up with the economic realities.[29:29] Lastly, Micah breaks down media hype about AI. According to Sam Harnett, a former tech reporter, journalists are repeating lazy tropes about the future of work that once boosted companies like Uber, Airbnb, and Fiverr. Plus, Julia Angwin, founder of Proof News, debunks fantastical claims by AI companies about their software. And Paris Marx, host of Tech Won't Save Us, explains how AI leaders like Sam Altman use the press to lobby regulators and investors.Further reading:“High Interest Rates Are Hitting Poorer Americans the Hardest,” by Ben Casselman and Jeanna Smialek“Washington's New Trade Consensus,” by Gordon Hanson“How Tech Media Helped Write Gig Companies into Existence,” by Sam Harnett“Press Pause on the Silicon Valley Hype Machine,” by Julia Angwin“AI is Fueling a Data Center Boom. It Must Be Stopped," by Paris Marx On the Media is supported by listeners like you. Support OTM by donating today (https://pledge.wnyc.org/support/otm). Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @onthemedia, and share your thoughts with us by emailing onthemedia@wnyc.org.
Kara and Scott discuss the Department of Justice's antitrust suit against Live Nation, News Corp's $250 million deal with OpenAI, and Nestle's new frozen food brand aimed at Ozempic users. Then, Scarlett Johansson alleges OpenAI copied her voice after she refused to license it to Sam Altman, though new reporting says a voice actress was hired months earlier. How does OpenAI move past these accusations, and regain trust? Plus, Nvidia shares blockbuster earnings, while Trump Media's numbers are lackluster. Finally, our Friend of Pivot is Julia Angwin, CEO and founder of Proof News, and a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times. Julia shares why she thinks AI hype is overblown, and why she opposes the TikTok ban. Follow Julia at @juliaangwin Follow us on Instagram and Threads at @pivotpodcastofficial. Follow us on TikTok at @pivotpodcast. Send us your questions by calling us at 855-51-PIVOT, or at nymag.com/pivot. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Julia Angwin, founder and CEO of Proof News, discusses how journalists can restore trust by adopting a scientific approach to their reporting.Visit the It's All Journalism website to find out how to subscribe to our podcast and weekly email newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Julia Angwin, founder and CEO of Proof News, discusses how journalists can restore trust by adopting a scientific approach to their reporting. Visit the It's All Journalism website to find out how to subscribe to our podcast and weekly email newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Big Tech companies have rolled out a new batch of AI-powered products, improving upon what came before. But as Wired's Will Knight and investigative journalist Julia Angwin explain, they're not even close to living up to the world-changing technology the Big Tech CEOs promised. This episode was produced by Amanda Lewellyn, edited by Amina Al-Sadi, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, engineered by David Herman with help from Andrea Kristinsdottir, and hosted by David Pierce. Transcript at vox.com/today-explained-podcast Support Today, Explained by becoming a Vox Member today: http://www.vox.com/members Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
In this bonus episode from For Tech's Sake, Elaine and Jenny assess where we're at with the current AI hype cycle (with some help from a scathing op-ed from tech writer Julia Angwin), though they still find some gen-AI to have fun with. There are also more robots to talk about, because we clearly have a type.For links to the stories discussed in this episode, check out fortechssake.info.The song, Triumph of the Tech Queen, was made with Suno. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
TikTok is one of the most popular social media sites on the planet. But concerns have been growing over TikTok's ability to collect massive amounts of information about its users, and its suspected ties to the Chinese Communist Party. Those fears recently prompted the U.S. House of Representatives to pass a bill that would force the Chinese company that controls TikTok to sell it to American interests. If not, TikTok would be blocked on the app stores that an estimated 170 million Americans have used to download the app. But there are many critics of the bill who argue it should never become law. They say the evidence China is using TikTok for nefarious purposes is scant. They also question why the U.S. is targeting one social media app, while others who similarly collect large swaths of data get a free pass. And they accuse Congress of using the pretense of national security to target a rival of American owned-social media giants, setting a dangerous precedent for future international business relationships. Arguing in favour of the resolution is Scott Galloway, He's a Professor of Marketing at NYU Stern School of Business and host of the Prof G and Pivot Podcasts. Arguing against the resolution is Julia Angwin. She is an investigative journalist, author, and contributing Opinion writer for the New York Times who writes about the impacts of technology on societies. SOURCES: CNN, FOX News, NBC News, Tucker Carlson The host of the Munk Debates is Rudyard Griffiths Tweet your comments about this episode to @munkdebate or comment on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/munkdebates/ To sign up for a weekly email reminder for this podcast, send an email to podcast@munkdebates.com. To support civil and substantive debate on the big questions of the day, consider becoming a Munk Member at https://munkdebates.com/membership Members receive access to our 50+ year library of great debates in HD video, a free Munk Debates book, newsletter and ticketing privileges at our live events. This podcast is a project of the Munk Debates, a Canadian charitable organization dedicated to fostering civil and substantive public dialogue - https://munkdebates.com/ Executive Producer: Ricki Gurwitz Senior Producer: Daniel Kitts Editor: Kieran Lynch
Spring has sprung and Madison is bursting with life! The City Cast Madison team is here to round up a few of our favorite things. Bianca Martin, Hayley Sperling and Molly Stentz share some of our picks for getting out and about in April.
Recently, the House passed a bill that could ban TikTok from the US unless the app's Chinese owners divest. On this week's On the Media, hear how the bill will likely fail to live up to its promise. Plus, a pulse-check on the book-banning movement, and a look into the larger mission behind Moms for Liberty. 1. Julia Angwin [@JuliaAngwin], opinion writer for The New York Time and founder of the new outlet Proof News, on why this TikTok legislation won't do what lawmakers claim it will. Listen. 2. Adam Laats [@AdamLaats], professor of education and history at Binghamton University, on the long history leading to Moms For Liberty. Listen. 3. Jennifer Berkshire [@BisforBerkshire], lecturer at Yale's Education Studies Department, on why Moms for Liberty election losses are not a reason to ignore the group's power. Listen.
Tonight on The Last Word: Trump must pay $83 million for lies about E. Jean Carroll; Carroll calls the verdict a “great victory.” Also, a fake Biden robocall highlights the risk of misinformation. Plus, Ukraine aid stalls amid senate GOP disagreements. Lisa Rubin, Faith Gay, Susanne Craig, Alondra Nelson, Julia Angwin, and Simon Shuster join Ali Velshi.
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 22, 2023 is: beholden bih-HOHL-dun adjective Beholden is a formal adjective that describes someone as having obligations to someone or something else, often (but not always) to return a favor or gift. Beholden is usually followed by to. // She works for herself, and so is beholden to no one. // Many believe the government is overfull with politicians who are beholden to special interest groups. See the entry > Examples: “We are living through an information revolution. The traditional gatekeepers of knowledge—librarians, journalists and government officials—have largely been replaced by technological gatekeepers—search engines, artificial intelligence chatbots and social media feeds. Whatever their flaws, the old gatekeepers were, at least on paper, beholden to the public. The new gatekeepers are fundamentally beholden only to profit and to their shareholders. That is about to change, thanks to a bold experiment by the European Union.” — Julia Angwin, The New York Times, 14 July 2023 Did you know? To behold something is to perceive or gaze upon it—therefore, to be beholden is to be seen or observed, right? Not so fast! It's true that behold and beholden share the same Old English roots, and also that beholden originated as the past participle of behold, whose original meaning was “to hold or retain.” But the two words weaved and wended their way down different paths into present-day English. Behold had settled into its “perceive, see” use by the 12th century. Meanwhile, beholden was called into duty as the “indebted, obligated” adjective we know today by the 14th century, as evidenced by its appearance in the Middle-English poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. In the ensuing years, beholden has continued to describe people who are obligated to others (often for a favor or gift), as well as people or things that are in figurative debt due to aid or inspiration, as in “many contemporary books and films are beholden to old Arthurian legends.”
This week, Our Body Politic host and creator Farai Chideya unpacks the latest indictment against former President Trump, with former Senior Investigative Counsel for the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Soumya Dayananda. Then, she digs into why political rumors thrive and how to challenge them with MIT Professor Adam Berinsky, author of the new book Political Rumors: Why We Accept Misinformation and How to Fight It. Plus, Farai talks with Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist Julia Angwin about how technology is changing our everyday lives through surveillance and fear speech.
EPISODE 1474: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to the veteran tech journalist Julia Angwin about her memories of 9/11 and why she was never quite taken by the blogging "revolution" Julia Angwin is an award-winning investigative journalist and New York Times contributing Opinion writer. She founded The Markup, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates the impacts of technology on society, and is Entrepreneur in Residence at Columbia Journalism School's Brown Institute. Julia was a previously a senior reporter at the independent news organization ProPublica, where she led an investigative team that was a Finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Reporting in 2017 and won a Gerald Loeb Award in 2018. From 2000 to 2013, she was a reporter at The Wall Street Journal, where she led a privacy investigative team that was a Finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Reporting in 2011 and won a Gerald Loeb Award in 2010. In 2003, she was on a team of reporters at The Wall Street Journal that was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Reporting for coverage of corporate corruption. She is also the author of “Dragnet Nation: A Quest for Privacy, Security and Freedom in a World of Relentless Surveillance” (Times Books, 2014) and “Stealing MySpace: The Battle to Control the Most Popular Website in America” (Random House, March 2009). She earned a B.A. in mathematics from the University of Chicago, and an M.B.A. from the Graduate School of Business at Columbia University. Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
EPISODE 1474: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to the veteran tech journalist Julia Angwin about her memories of 9/11 and why she was never quite taken by the blogging "revolution"Julia Angwin is an award-winning investigative journalist and New York Times contributing Opinion writer. She founded The Markup, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates the impacts of technology on society, and is Entrepreneur in Residence at Columbia Journalism School's Brown Institute. Julia was a previously a senior reporter at the independent news organization ProPublica, where she led an investigative team that was a Finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Reporting in 2017 and won a Gerald Loeb Award in 2018. From 2000 to 2013, she was a reporter at The Wall Street Journal, where she led a privacy investigative team that was a Finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Reporting in 2011 and won a Gerald Loeb Award in 2010. In 2003, she was on a team of reporters at The Wall Street Journal that was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Reporting for coverage of corporate corruption. She is also the author of “Dragnet Nation: A Quest for Privacy, Security and Freedom in a World of Relentless Surveillance” (Times Books, 2014) and “Stealing MySpace: The Battle to Control the Most Popular Website in America” (Random House, March 2009). She earned a B.A. in mathematics from the University of Chicago, and an M.B.A. from the Graduate School of Business at Columbia University.Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.
EPISODE 1442: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to the author of STEALING MY SPACE and DRAGNET NATION, Julia Angwin, about MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and how the medium of social media has become the message of our data rich, surveillant age.Julia Angwin is an award-winning investigative journalist and contributing Opinion writer at The New York Times. She founded The Markup, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates the impacts of technology on society, and is Entrepreneur in Residence at Columbia Journalism School's Brown Institute. Julia was a previously a senior reporter at the independent news organization ProPublica, where she led an investigative team that was a Finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Reporting in 2017 and won a Gerald Loeb Award in 2018. From 2000 to 2013, she was a reporter at The Wall Street Journal, where she led a privacy investigative team that was a Finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Reporting in 2011 and won a Gerald Loeb Award in 2010. In 2003, she was on a team of reporters at The Wall Street Journal that was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Reporting for coverage of corporate corruption. She is also the author of “Dragnet Nation: A Quest for Privacy, Security and Freedom in a World of Relentless Surveillance” (Times Books, 2014) and “Stealing MySpace: The Battle to Control the Most Popular Website in America” (Random House, March 2009). She earned a B.A. in mathematics from the University of Chicago, and an M.B.A. from the Graduate School of Business at Columbia UniversityNamed as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.
EPISODE 1442: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to the author of STEALING MY SPACE and DRAGNET NATION, Julia Angwin, about MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and how the medium of social media has become the message of our data rich, surveillant age. Julia Angwin is an award-winning investigative journalist and contributing Opinion writer at The New York Times. She founded The Markup, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates the impacts of technology on society, and is Entrepreneur in Residence at Columbia Journalism School's Brown Institute. Julia was a previously a senior reporter at the independent news organization ProPublica, where she led an investigative team that was a Finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Reporting in 2017 and won a Gerald Loeb Award in 2018. From 2000 to 2013, she was a reporter at The Wall Street Journal, where she led a privacy investigative team that was a Finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Reporting in 2011 and won a Gerald Loeb Award in 2010. In 2003, she was on a team of reporters at The Wall Street Journal that was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Reporting for coverage of corporate corruption. She is also the author of “Dragnet Nation: A Quest for Privacy, Security and Freedom in a World of Relentless Surveillance” (Times Books, 2014) and “Stealing MySpace: The Battle to Control the Most Popular Website in America” (Random House, March 2009). She earned a B.A. in mathematics from the University of Chicago, and an M.B.A. from the Graduate School of Business at Columbia University Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
What's truly behind the proposed bill in Congress to ban the TikTok app? Andy thinks it may have more to do with U.S.-China competition than national security or our children's mental health. He explores that opinion with investigative journalist Julia Angwin and Cornell's Tech Policy Institute director Sarah Kreps, who lay out the concerns raised about TikTok and explain why banning it won't keep us safe. Keep up with Andy on Post and Twitter @ASlavitt. Follow Julia Angwin and Sarah Kreps on Twitter @JuliaAngwin and @sekreps. Joining Lemonada Premium is a great way to support our show and get bonus content. Subscribe today at bit.ly/lemonadapremium. Support the show by checking out our sponsors! Click this link for a list of current sponsors and discount codes for this show and all Lemonada shows: https://lemonadamedia.com/sponsors/ Check out these resources from today's episode: Read Julia's opinion piece, “How to Fix the TikTok Problem”: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/20/opinion/tiktok-ban-big-tech-china.html Find vaccines, masks, testing, treatments, and other resources in your community: https://www.covid.gov/ Order Andy's book, “Preventable: The Inside Story of How Leadership Failures, Politics, and Selfishness Doomed the U.S. Coronavirus Response”: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250770165 Stay up to date with us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at @LemonadaMedia. For additional resources, information, and a transcript of the episode, visit lemonadamedia.com/show/inthebubble.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
On Freedom Unfinished, a new podcast from the ACLU of Massachusetts, we'll explore Big Data, Artificial Intelligence and emerging technologies through the lens of power and the broken systems that will determine the future of privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties. In the face of unprecedented threats to our democracy, our hosts Carol Rose, alongside Kade Crockford—of the ACLU of Massachusetts—will explore how we can protect our civil liberties in the 21st Century with guests Senator Ed Markey, Julia Angwin, Tim Hwang, and more.Join us this season wherever you get your podcasts and follow the ACLU of Massachusetts on social media @ACLU_Mass for the latest updates on Freedom Unfinished, Season 1: Decoding Oppression.
Congressman Ro Khanna (D-CA) looks at the digital divide in America and offers his suggestions on how to close the gap. He's interviewed by founder and editor in chief of the Markup, Julia Angwin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Investigative journalism and reporting are under threat. The future of journalism looks bleak without the reinforcement of the truth and the realignment of power and technology.One of the largest negative impacts of technology is on the media. Facebook effectively controls public discourse on a global scale and is legally self-regulatory in service. How can the truth prevail if this is the baseline?Julia Angwin joins Niko in this episode to discuss technology, data, and the impact of technology on society. Julia is incredibly impressive. She is a Pulitzer prize winner, winning investigative journalist, and the co-founder of The Markup, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates how powerful institutions are using technology to change our society.They discuss why bringing precise facts to the debate rather than hot takes is necessary to bring powerful conglomerates to justice, how using scientific journalism is raising the stakes and the future of media and technology at large.Technology has a bias that is used to the advantage of the elite. Julia and The Markup team are armed with a scientific approach and an open book policy on their data to help restore faith and support in investigative journalism.Looking to level up or enter a new field? Join TOA Klub for cohort-based learning. Four Klubs to chose from, each including Masterclasses, AMA's, and peer-to-peer learning. Apply now: toaklub.comSubscribe to our NL (go.toaklub.com/toaoa-nl), follow us on Instagram (@toaberlin), Twitter (@toaberlin), Linkedin (toa-berlin) and Facebook (TechOpenAir).Support the show (https://paypal.me/TechOpenGmbH?locale.x=en_US)
In this episode Jack and Paul speak with Julia Angwin, the co-founder and editor in chief of The Markup, a newsroom who uses technology to investigate technology (Big Tech). The conversation covered why The Markup is a non-profit, what their methods for investigating are, why digital privacy is important, and what the potential solutions are to fixing Big Tech's inclinations towards deviousness.
Julia Angwin is an award-winning investigative journalist and editor-in-chief of The Markup, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates the impacts of technology on society. She spoke with Aspen Digital's Executive Director Vivian Schiller on the issues around privacy, security and freedom in a world of mis and disinformation. This session is part of a video series of expert briefings on mis and disinformation hosted by the Aspen Institute in tandem with our Commission on Information Disorder to help make sense of the various facets of the information crisis. They are designed as a resource for the commissioners and the broader public. To learn more about Aspen Digital's Commission on Information Disorder, visit www.AspenInfoCommission.org. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook @AspenDigital.
David Dobrik was one of YouTube’s biggest stars. Now his career is in peril after an expose by Business Insider’s Kat Tenbarge; she talks to Recode’s Peter Kafka to talk about her story. Then The Markup’s Julia Angwin talks about her site’s efforts to peer into Facebook’s black box and an update on her non-profit newsroom. Featuring: Kat Tenbarge (@kattenbarge), Reporter for Business Insider Julia Angwin (@JuliaAngwin), Editor-In-Chief of The Mark Up Host: Peter Kafka (@pkafka), Senior Editor at Recode More to explore: Subscribe for free to Recode Media, Peter Kafka, one of the media industry's most acclaimed reporters, talks to business titans, journalists, comedians, and more to get their take on today's media landscape. About Recode by Vox: Recode by Vox helps you understand how tech is changing the world — and changing us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Julia Angwin is co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Markup. Founded in 2019, the nonprofit newsroom has pioneered open-source data journalism to hold Big Tech to account and assess its impact on society. A winner (and two-time finalist) of the Pulitzer Prize, Julia previously held senior positions at ProPublica and The Wall Street Journal, and is author of the best-selling book ‘Dragnet Nation,’ a searing exposé of America’s “surveillance economy.” In this in-depth interview, Julia shares the reasons behind their newsroom’s determination to tackle fake news, and give their readers the tools to decipher between truth and propaganda; expresses her concern that social giants’ decisions are taken behind a “veil of secrecy” and The Markup’s mission to “stem the power grab from these largely unregulated platforms;” and describes how witnessing the recent riots at the US Capitol has redoubled her passion, determination and commitment to journalism itself... as “necessary for democracy.”
U.S. President Donald Trump was permanently banned from Twitter after the platform cited “the risk of further incitement of violence” following the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol last week. Facebook previously banned him for the remainder of his time in office, and many other tech companies have followed suit. Today on Front Burner, Julia Angwin joins host Jayme Poisson for a conversation about Trump’s ban from multiple social media platforms and what consequences that might have. Angwin is editor-in-chief of The Markup, an American non-profit that takes on data-driven investigations about the ethics and impact of technology.
In this episode I speak with librarian Barbara Fister about the growing role of algorithms in our daily lives, why the architects of these systems matter, and how the move to online learning in expanding student awareness of surveillance culture. Project Information Literacy (PIL) is a nonprofit research institute that conducts ongoing, national studies on what it is like being a student in the digital age. In the past decade,EPISODE NOTES:Information Literacy in the Age of Algorithms: Student Experiences with News and Information, and the Need for Change, Head, Alison J.; Fister, Barbara; MacMillan, Margy, Project Information Literacy - https://projectinfolit.org/publications/algorithm-study/ Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook%E2%80%93Cambridge_Analytica_data_scandal Was software responsible for the financial crisis? - https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2008/oct/16/computing-software-financial-crisis Subprime Attention Crisis, Tim Hwang - https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374538651 Age of Surveillance Capitalism, Shoshana Zuboff - - https://www.publicaffairsbooks.com/titles/shoshana-zuboff/the-age-of-surveillance-capitalism/9781610395694/ Software that monitors students during tests perpetuates inequality and violates their privacy, Shea Swauger - https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/08/07/1006132/software-algorithms-proctoring-online-tests-ai-ethics/ Google and advertising: digital capitalism in the context of Post-Fordism, the reification of language, and the rise of fake news - https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-017-0021-4 The History of Google Ads 20 Years in the Making (Infographic)https://instapage.com/blog/google-adwords-infographic How Bezos built his data machine, Leo Kelion, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/extra/CLQYZENMBI/amazon-data Automating InequalityHow High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor, Virginia Eubanks - https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250074317 Machine Bias: There's software used across the country to predict future criminals. And it's biased against blacks, by Julia Angwin, Jeff Larson, Surya Mattu and Lauren Kirchner, ProPublica - https://www.propublica.org/article/machine-bias-risk-assessments-in-criminal-sentencing Algorithms of Oppression, Safiya Noble - http://algorithmsofoppression.com/ Edward Snowden NSA FILES: DECODED, By EWEN MACASKILL and GABRIEL DANCE - https://www.theguardian.com/world/interactive/2013/nov/01/snowden-nsa-files-surveillance-revelations-decoded The Fiduciary Model of Privacy, Jack M. Balkin, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3700087 VPN Usage Surges During COVID-19 Crisis [Infographic], Niall McCarthy- https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2020/03/17/vpn-usage-surges-during-covid-19-crisis-infographic/?sh=7ac8e6ab7d79 Failure to Disrupt, By Justin Reich - https://failuretodisrupt.com/ CONspirituality: A weekly study of converging right-wing conspiracy theories and faux-progressive wellness utopianism - https://conspirituality.net/about/
The Guardian reportsA total of 2.2m ads on Facebook and Instagram have been rejected and 120,000 posts withdrawn for attempting to “obstruct voting” in the upcoming US presidential election, Facebook's vice president of global affairs and communications Nick Clegg has said. warnings were posted on 150m examples of false information posted online,Facebook has been increasing its efforts to avoid a repeat of events leading up to the 2016 US presidential election, won by Donald Trump, when its network was used by Russia for voter manipulation. The US election is 15 days away, so four years well spent? Once again, stopping ads is good, but it's the individual posts and groups that go viral. The Markup, a nonprofit newsroom today announced the development of The Citizen Browser Project—an initiative designed to measure how disinformation travels across social media platforms over time.a custom web browser designed by The Markup to audit the algorithms that social media platforms use to determine what information they serve their users, what news and narratives are amplified or suppressed, and which online communities those users are encouraged to join. Initially, the browser will be implemented to glean data from Facebook and YouTube.A nationally representative panel of 1,200 people will be paid to install the custom web browser on their desktops, which allows them to share real-time data directly from their Facebook and YouTube accounts with The Markup. “Social media platforms are the broadcasting networks of the 21st century,” said The Markup's editor-in-chief, Julia Angwin. “They dictate what news the public consumes with black box algorithms designed to maximize profits at the expense of truth and transparency.I would sign up for the plugin myself if it were available to the publicYou're going to have to log-in to watch ABC iview Over at The SMH, Zoe Samios reports, ABC sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the plans are confidential, said the broadcaster intends to make password-protected access compulsory from mid- next year.The commercial broadcasters do this so they know who you are, and show you ads related to your demographic and beahviour. The play here seems to be about personalising the Iview platform, These logins create a profile that allows broadcasters to tailor the types of programs and films that appear on the app to a person's interests. It also gives a broadcaster access to personal data, so may raise privacy concerns. TPG is launching a low cost mobile brand called Felix that looks set to compete with Belong, Telstra's low cost alternative. ... we don't know the prices yet... But TPG says it will increase comeptition in the market. The TPG-Vodafone merger was finalised in July. It was originally held up over concerns the deal would reduce competition. The products announced at the last Apple event havent even shipped yet, and there's already rumours of the next Apple event. This event, slated for November 17, is expected to see the introduction of ARM based computers - Apple promised an Arm Mac before Christmas. This will see the company moving away from intel in some of its line up. The big question amongst my nerd friends - which Mac first? The highest selling computer in the line up, the Macbook Air, or the lowest selling, the Mac Mini. There are good arguemtns for both Finally, someone has come up with a use for smart lights. Zilzie, near Rockhampton in Queensland, is using colourful lightas to safely guide hatching turtles to the sea. It's bloody adorbale and well worth clicking through. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
As a consumer, it can be really difficult to figure out who's tracking your data online. Many companies hide behind algorithms claiming they're the "secret sauce" to their business model, which sometimes frustrates regulators and laymen alike. That's why award-winning journalist Julia Angwin and investigative journalist Surya Mattu, both of the non-profit news organization The Markup, recently developed and released Blacklight, a web site that allows users to scan any site for potential privacy violations, including what's being tracked and who's sharing your personal data. In this episode of The Privacy Advisor Podcast, Angwin and Mattu talk about the tool and why the team is passionate about user empowerment.
August 11, 2019: S.E. Cupp, Jane Coaston, Tim Archuleta, Enrique Acevedo, Jackie Kucinich, Nicole Chavez, Noah Shachtman, Julia Angwin, Julie K. Brown and Mark Brown join John Avlon.
Julia Angwin, the former editor-in-chief of The Markup, talks with Recode's Kara Swisher in this live podcast recorded in Washington, DC. In this episode: How Angwin got into journalism; why weren’t people always angry about tech privacy?; ProPublica’s investigations into tech companies; the "ungovernable" tech giants; leaving ProPublica to co-found The Markup; Angwin’s co-founders, Jeff Larson and Sue Gardner; what the hell happened?; what part of it was Angwin’s fault?; the difference between being skeptical and negative; Larson’s Medium post and Craig Newmark’s reaction; is it easier to raise money for advocacy news?; media literacy for young people; "scientific journalism"; and what Angwin will do next. This special episode of Recode Decode with Kara Swisher was taped in front of a live audience at The LINE DC to celebrate Vox’s fifth anniversary. If you enjoyed it, we think you’ll also enjoy this live taping of The Weeds, and this special episode of The Ezra Klein Show featuring Vox’s co-founders Ezra Klein, Matt Yglesias, and Vox Media’s Publisher Melissa Bell. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Facebook is under fire for allowing Russian propagandists to buy ads during the 2016 election. This week, how we do and don't hold tech giants accountable. 1. Max Seddon [@maxseddon], Moscow correspondent for The Financial Times, on the push by the US government to register RT and Sputnik under the Foreign Agents Relations Act and why the effort to "do something" about Russian propaganda is misguided. 2. Julia Angwin [@juliaangwin], investigative journalist for ProPublica, on their new crowdsourcing project that aims to monitor otherwise inscrutable Facebook political advertisements. 3. Matt Stoller [@matthewstoller], Fellow at the Open Markets Institute, on understanding Silicon Valley's behavior through the lens of monopoly and why he believes Americans can, and must, demand more. 4. Utsav Sanduja [@u], Chief Operating Officer of the alt-right-favored social media network Gab, on their antitrust lawsuit against Google and why they see a need for a pro-free speech social media platform. 5. Paul Ford [@ftrain], tech author and commentator, on the difficult ethical questions that surround massive tech platforms. On the Media is supported by listeners like you. Support OTM by donating today (https://pledge.wnyc.org/support/otm). Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @onthemedia, and share your thoughts with us by emailing onthemedia@wnyc.org.
Algorithms operate everywhere in our daily lives. Using the information we give them, they're constantly learning about who we are and what we're more likely to buy. (Remember how that pricey coffee maker you looked at online showed up in your Facebook ads for the next two weeks?) Most of the time, it's no big deal. But in an era where more than 40% of Americans get their news from Facebook, these algorithms can have a real impact on how we see the world. They may even have the power to shape our democracy. (Cue ominous music.) So here's the thing: every time you "like" something, share something, tag yourself in a photo, or click on an article on Facebook, the site collects data on you and files it away in their folder of YOU. And it's not just your activity on Facebook that they're keeping track of. They also track what device you used to log on, what other app you came from, other sites you've visited, and much more. All that data helps Facebook paint a detailed picture of who you are and what you like for advertisers. The problem is that we don't know how, exactly, that picture is formed. The algorithms at work are a "black box." We don't know how these algorithms decide whether we're a "trendy mom" or a "frequent traveler." And we don't know how they decide which ads to show us. In short, no one is really accountable. On this week's episode, we talk with ProPublica investigative journalist Julia Angwin about how Facebook collects data and uses it to categorize us. And here's where you come in, dear N2S listener. We are collaborating with ProPublica on their Black Box Data Project, which has just launched. You can take part in this important digital experiment. So go download the Google Chrome extension for your web browser at propublica.org/blackbox. Tell us what you find out and how it makes you feel. Reach out in the comments section below; email us notetoself@wnyc.org; holler at us on Twitter or Facebook; and fill in ProPublica and Julia Angwin too. For more Note to Self, subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn, I Heart Radio, Overcast, Pocket Casts, or anywhere else using our RSS feed. Support Note to Self by becoming a member today at NotetoSelfRadio.org/donate.
It's a scenario familiar to many of us: We go online and search for a product we're interested in purchasing. Moments later, we click on our favorite news site, only to be bombarded with ads, including some for the product we were just viewing. So how did this happen? And what else might we unwittingly be sharing about our behavior, activities and tastes?