Media Literacy

Social Media and the Debate

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Article In The Guardian by Alaina Demopoulos, 9/10/24

Headline: “How the Trump-Harris debate played out on social media: ‘Maga mad libs’ “

Subhead:  “Users react to viral moments as Democratic and Republican candidates face off in presidential debate”

Social media users responded in many ways as to how the moderators kept people to account during the Harris/Trunp debate.

“ABC moderator “David Muir countered Trump’s assertion that Haitian immigrants abducted and ate pets in Springfield, Ohio – a rumor that began on Facebook, but was quickly shot down by city officials, even as JD Vance and other Republicans repeated the claims this week.

“ ‘They’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats, they’re eating the pets of the people that live there,’ Trump rambled, adding more pet lore to an election season filled with talk about ‘crazy cat ladies’.

. . . “But overall, the feeling on social media was that the former president floundered, and that Harris successfully baited him. A rare, bipartisan statement we might all be able to agree on: from Trump’s batty zingers to Harris’s lack of a poker face, both sides delivered enough meme fuel to last until November.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/sep/10/trump-harris-debate-reaction

Media Control, A Problem for Right-Wing

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From an 8/6/24 article on Media Matters by John Knefel.

Headline:  “MAGA Media Figures Launch Desperate and Weird – Attacks on Harris Vice Presidentiral Pick Tim Walz”

“As governor, Walz has pursued a robust pro-worker and pro-child agenda, two public policy areas where conservatives have attempted to make superficialinroads. While some conservative pundits attempted to level attacks on Walz for his progressive record as governor, many of their initial reactions to the news have been strange, bizarre, and — some might even say — weird.”

Read it here:

https://www.mediamatters.org/tim-walz/maga-media-figures-launch-desperate-and-weird-attacks-harris-vice-presidential-pick-tim

Looks Interesting

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Training Session for Netroots Nation 2024! Will you please help choose the title?” – Sue Wilson
 
1. “How Local Communities can Hold TV and Radio Stations Accountable”
2. “Empowering Local Communities by Holding the FCC Accountable”
3. “Making Local Broadcasters Accountable to Your Community”
4. “How to make Local Broadcasters Accountable to Your Community”
5. “How to Stop Local TV and Radio from Poisoning Your Air” Don’t like any? I’m open to suggestions. THANKS!

Sue Wilson may be contacted on Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/SueWilsonTV

 

How to Translate the Media

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From Daily Kos, May, 2023 :

“. . . when a reporter relays information from “a source close to” someone important, we’re probably looking at a shopped story—one the source was explicitly asked to give to the media. When they say “who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly,” that just means the source doesn’t want their own name attached. And yes, “source close to ‘(newsmaker)’ can often just mean ‘(newsmaker)’ themselves.”