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News on COVID-19
The Covid-19 pandemic has confirmed yet again the importance of clear, reliable, and accurate information for societies. Throughout the pandemic audiences have turned to trusted sources for scientific information about the disease and its spread. Yet even as demand for their work has soared, journalists have been laid off and furloughed around the world. News […]
By Anya SchiffrinThe proliferation of social media has allowed the antivaccine movement to become more influential than at any point in history. Earlier studies have demonstrated that social media platforms such as Pinterest and Twitter are filled with antivaccine information. The consumption of antivaccine social media content could negatively impact vaccine attitudes and consequently vaccine uptake. Furthermore, […]
By Lu Tang, Kayo Fujimoto, Muhammad Amith, Rachel Cunningham, Rebecca A Constantini, Felicia York, Grace Xiong, Julie A Boom, and Cui TaoWhen the pandemic hit last March, 27-year-old Jennifer*, a childcare worker from Virginia, was furloughed from her job, leaving her with little to do but curl up anxiously on her couch with her phone. She’d spend hours a day scrolling through Facebook and Instagram posts about self-healing, spirituality, and trauma, mostly by wellness types she […]
By Clio ChangThe Google News Initiative announced it will give $3 million to news and fact-checking organizations in an effort to combat misinformation about the Covid-19 vaccine. The tech giant previously awarded fact-checking projects $6.5 million in April and $1.5 million in December, so Tuesday’s announcement brings the grand total flowing from their well-stocked coffers to organizations […]
By Sarah ScireAmerica is lurching fitfully toward a new racial and political landscape where whites will no longer be the majority of the U.S. population by 2044. At the same time, the economic backslide of the white working-class that has steepened since the 1970s is providing fertile ground for a resurgent white nationalism uniting people around explicit […]
Quantification is central to the narration of the COVID-19 pandemic. Numbers determine the existence of the problem and affect our ability to care and contribute to relief efforts. Yet many communities at the margins, including many areas of the Global South, are virtually absent from this number-based narration of the pandemic. This essay builds on […]
Digital technologies have disrupted most sectors of human life and activity, and war and conflict are no exceptions. Beyond military systems, the entire battlefield is transformed, with multi-media smartphones, messaging apps, and social media platforms especially creating a global, participative arena, in which the distinctions of combatant, civilian, and informational warrior implode. In an overview […]
Europe seems to be shaken by the Covid-19 pandemic. Germany does not contain centres of the outbreak, but has closed national borders. Italy is left alone as no one can spare any medical resources. Countries block each other’s delivery of medical supplies. Ursula Von der Leyen, President of the EU Commission, has stated that the […]
The National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC) is a 35-year old civil rights organization dedicated to increasing Latinx representation in media and entertainment, and protecting and expanding the digital rights of the Latinx community and other marginalized communities. The depiction of Latinx in the media affects the context in which we are viewed in society. It […]
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] Over the past several months, you’ve heard us say over and over: online hate turns into harm in real life.
On family WhatsApp groups and in Spanish-language media, misinformation paints 2020 as a zero-sum game.