Information Overload

Coming Storm in the Media

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review By Carolina Abbott Galvão, Ivan L. Nagy and Riddhi Setty, 9/23/26

Headline: “How Should We Cover the Climate Story?”

Subhead:  “Speaking with climate reporters about staying on the beat—because, as Bill McKibben put it, ‘for better or for worse, by this time next year, there’s no doubt in my mind that climate coverage will be at the forefront.’”

“. . .Climate journalism can feel like a series of devastating yet foreseeable tragedies, all happening against a drumbeat of bad news—like the United Nations report this month that global temperatures will rise past a dangerous threshold. Meanwhile, climate desks at legacy organizations have shrunk or disbanded, including at NPR. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/feature/how-should-we-cover-the-climate-story.php

How Do Media Cover “Name Change”

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Article in Poynter by Matthew Crowley, 9/14/26

Headline:  “Trump renamed Lake Ontario. Newsrooms still have to decide what to call it”

Subhead:  “The AP is sticking with Lake Ontario, as it did with Gulf of Mexico. Its decision shows why changing a name doesn’t necessarily change common usage.”

“For the Associated Press stylebook, Gulf of Mexico stayed. Lake Ontario will, too.. . .”

“But the AP kept Gulf of Mexico, saying the name had stuck for four centuries and that, as a global news agency, it needed to keep place names and geography easily recognizable to all audiences.

“On Tuesday, the AP again cited longevity when explaining why it will keep Lake Ontario. The new guidance, uploaded to the online stylebook, says, ‘Lake Ontario has carried that name for more than 400 years. Refer to it by its original name. If it is relevant to the story, acknowledge and explain the name Trump has chosen.’. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/ethics-trust/2026/trump-lake-ontario-lake-america-ap-style/

FCM Event Interview on 8/26/26

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Friends of Community Media conducted a workshop in August called, “How to expose media lies and have fun doing it.”

You can hear an interview about the event conducted by Spencer Graves on  of Terresa Wilke and Ann Suellentrop exploring the workshop.

You can hear the interview on KHOI community radio in Ames, Iowa at  http://khoifm.org  by scrolling down to Wednesday August 26th – 5 am.

Rt. Media Burrito Rage!

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Article in Media Matters by Jack Winstanley, Gideon Taaffe & Hanne MacDonald, 8/11/26

Headline:  “Right-wing media’s affordability burrito brawl”

Subhead:  “After a post complaining about a $20 burrito went viral, some right-wing figures accused those dismissing concerns about affordability of “giving the finger to voters” and driving them ‘into the arms of the socialists’ ”

“Last week, Turning Point USA’s Andrew Kolvet’s post about a college student noting the high price of a burrito sparked a debate among conservative commentators over whether food affordability is a real issue for voters.

“While some dismissed concerns over an expensive burrito, advising those complaining to ‘cry me a river’ and cook food at home, other right-wing personalities noted such responses were equivalent to ‘giving the finger to voters’ and accused those commentators of “trying to gaslight us into being happy that it’s unaffordable.”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/daily-wire/right-wing-media-figures-push-back-other-conservatives-mocking-concerns-about

Media Business Flying Without Pilot?

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Article in The Wrap by A. J. Katz, 8/10/26

Headline: “Where the Media Business Is Going”

Subhead: “In this week’s installment of The Media Front, we unpack what happens next as the streaming wars end and AI rises in newsrooms across the country”

“. . .For much of the past decade, Hollywood’s biggest media companies were chasing versions of the same goal: Build a streaming service, add subscribers and reach enough scale to compete with Netflix.

“This week’s earnings season offered perhaps the clearest evidence yet that the industry has moved on. . .”

“What the industry no longer agrees on is what comes next. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.thewrap.com/media-platforms/journalism/future-of-media-business-streaming-ai-news/

Media Sinking Into the Swamp?

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Article in AP by Bernard Condon, 8/10/26

Headline:  “Trump media company announces a massive loss and new turnaround effort”

“The president’s media company posted a massive loss in the second quarter and announced plans to ditch new business lines and refocus as a forum for users to post their views.

“Trump Media & Technology, the company behind the Truth Social platform, said Monday that it lost $238 million in the three months through June as it branched into businesses unrelated to media, including crypto. That was more than 10 times the loss from a year earlier. The per-share loss widened to 86 cents from 8 cents. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://apnews.com/article/truth-social-media-trump-djt-crypto-e86747f01cc12dbee0146c5f0e79012b

To Air or Not to air? That is the question

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Article in Mediaite by Michael Luciano, 7/14/26

Headline:  “AOC Says News Stations Have ‘Ethical Obligation’ Not To Air Trump’s Speech About Election ‘Lies’”

“Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said it is incumbent upon television news stations not to air a speech by President Donald Trump set for Thursday.

On Monday, Trump announced in vague fashion on Truth Social that he will deliver an address at 9 p.m. on Thursday, and did not elaborate as to its contents. Reporting indicates that the president will rehash his false claim that the 2020 election was rigged against him. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediaite.com/politics/aoc-says-news-stations-have-ethical-obligation-not-to-air-trumps-speech-about-election-lies/

Picture or Imagine That?

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Article in Poynter by Mark E. Johnson

Headline:   “Article about free images ‘contradicts everything I hold true about journalism’ “

“. . .With one post, two people who I have worked closely with attempted to raze everything I have done over the last quarter century.

“Their story, titled, ‘These tools will help you find the right images for your stories,’ contradicts everything I hold true about journalism — textual and visual:

“Journalism is specific, journalism is not generic.
Journalism is precise, journalism is not vague.
Journalism illuminates, journalism does not decorate.

“To believe otherwise is to demean visual journalists, to believe they are lesser, to establish a class system. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/ethics-trust/2018/article-about-free-images-contradicts-everything-i-hold-true-about-journalism/

Journalism in a Hall of Mirrors

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Article in The Guardian by Katherine Viner, 5/6/26

Headline: “How to survive the information crisis: ‘We once talked about fake news – now reality itself feels fake’ “

Subhead:  “In this age of crisis, technology is pulling us apart. At its best, journalism can bring us together again, writes Guardian editor-in-chief Katharine Viner”

“. . .As tech companies have prioritised capturing attention, truth has been downgraded. AI slop and deepfakes are now so rampant that it feels that your brain can no longer compute what it’s seeing. You start to question things that turn out to be true. It doesn’t help that reality itself has become so much stranger and more grotesque. . .”

“. . .Before I talk about Guardian journalism, I’m going to talk about what makes that journalism possible. Now, I’ll admit that the words ‘ownership model’ might not set the pulse racing. But it really matters. At the Guardian, we have no proprietor demanding political or commercial returns. We have no profit-driven shareholders demanding cuts or cash. The purpose of the Scott Trust, which owns the Guardian, is to keep the Guardian going in perpetuity, serving the public interest, not the interests of the wealthy. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/ng-interactive/2026/may/06/how-to-survive-the-information-crisis-we-once-talked-about-fake-news-now-reality-itself-feels-fake

News Gamble

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Article in The New Republic by Grace Segers, 4/29/26

Headline:  “The Media’s Embrace of Prediction Markets Could Be a Devil’s Bargain”

Subhead:  “New relationships between media organizations and Kalshi and Polymarket could raise serious questions about institutional trustworthiness.”

“As prediction markets rise in popularity and notoriety, several news outlets have recently engaged in partnerships with the most prominent of these companies, raising questions about how and why media organizations would want to become entangled with an industry essentially predicated on gambling. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://newrepublic.com/article/209602/media-ethics-prediction-markets-kalshi-polymarket