News Over Noise

Special thanks to our guest:For the past 16 years, Jim Rodenbush has worked with award-winning student media organizations, helping to mentor the next generation of journalists. Most recently, he served as Director of Student Media at Indiana University and taught in The Media School. During his time there, the Indiana Daily Student won 12 Pacemaker Awards and was twice named College Media Outlet of the Year. Before coming to IU, Rodenbush managed student media programs at Colorado State, Penn State, and Webster universities. Along the way, he taught courses in reporting, writing, editing and media management. Rodenbush is a frequent conference speaker and former president of WAUPM and executive director of the Indiana Collegiate Press Association. He holds a bachelor’s in journalism from Webster University and a master’s from the Newhouse School at Syracuse University. News Over Noise is a co-production of WPSU and Penn State’s Bellisario College of Communications.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This is a special crossover episode between News Over Noise and the Democracy Works podcast featuring guest co-host Jenna Spinelle. Jenna is the Communications Specialist for the McCourtney Institute for Democracy. She is responsible for shaping all of the institute’s external communication, including website content, social media, multimedia, and media outreach. She also hosts and produces the Institute’s Democracy Works podcast. She holds a B.A. in journalism from Penn State and is an adjunct instructor in the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications. Prior to joining the McCourtney Institute, Spinelle worked in Penn State’s Undergraduate Admissions Office and College of Information Sciences and Technology.Special thanks to our guests:Pamela Brunskill is a senior director of education design at theNews Literacy Project. Pamela joined NLP in August 2021 after 20 years of experience in education and education publishing. She was a teacher in Clarence and Williamsville, New York; a literacy coach at Enterprise Charter School; and an adjunct instructor at Bloomsburg University, Bucknell University and the University at Buffalo. She has written five books for the education market and co-authored Information Literacy: Separating Fact from Fiction. Pamela holds a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from SUNY College at Buffalo and a master’s degree in education from the University at Buffalo.Sean Marcus is the Interactive Learning Designer for MediaWise here he designs and develops learning material for a wide range of audiences and purposes, ranging from senior citizens to high school students, and traditional classroom lessons to asynchronous, online learning experiences. Sean spent over 20 years teaching high school in Tampa Bay, twelve in public schools and eight in local independent schools. He has taught journalism, television production, creative writing and graphic design, and advised nationally recognized publications. Marcus holds a bachelor’s degree in creative writing and a master’s degree in English education, both from the University of South Florida. As a lifelong learner, he has pursued learning opportunities ranging from bookbinding and letterpress printing to digital citizenship and internet safety. He has presented at the Florida Council of Independent Schools’ annual conference, as well as at journalism education conferences at the local, state and regional level.Jenna Meleedy is the Communication Coordinator at the National Association of Media Literacy Educators (NAMLE), where she manages the organization’s digital communications strategy. Her work includes running NAMLE’s social media channels, newsletters, website, and serving as a liaison to partner organizations. Jenna first joined NAMLE as a Social Media Intern in 2023 and later contributed as a member of the Youth Advisory Council for two years before stepping into her current role. A recent graduate of Pennsylvania State University, Jenna holds a Bachelor’s degree in Media Studies with minors in Civic and Community Engagement and Communication Arts and Sciences. Her passion for media literacy is reflected in her previous roles as a News Literacy Ambassador with the News Literacy Initiative and as an Education Advocacy Intern with the Media Education Lab. In 2024, she traveled to the Czech Republic as a Digital Citizenship Curriculum Development Intern, where she created and taught media literacy curriculum to secondary school students. Coming of age in the COVID-19 pandemic drove her to media literacy as a tool for empowerment, a combatant to political radicalization, and a framework for mental health and well-being. She is deeply committed to empowering digital natives to use media literacy as a means to foster critical thinking and engage in the democratic process. News Over Noise is a co-production of WPSU and Penn State’s Bellisario College of Communications.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Eoin Higgins, a New England-based journalist at IT Brew, discusses his new book about tech billionaires' influence on the media. He dives into how billionaire funding shifts narratives in journalism, particularly from right-wing sources. The conversation reveals the complexities of media coverage post-2016, the role of Twitter in amplifying radical ideologies, and the dangers posed by anti-democratic sentiments in politics. Despite these challenges, Higgins expresses optimism for independent media's potential to foster informed public discourse.

In this engaging discussion, Dr. Michelle A. Amazeen, a renowned expert in mass communication and misinformation from Boston University, tackles the evolving role of fact-checking. She dives into how fact-checking practices have evolved in journalism and the need for transparency in an age dominated by social media. Dr. Amazeen emphasizes the role of AI in identifying misinformation and the importance of pre-bunking to enhance media literacy. Her insights shed light on the disconnect between public expectations and the realities of fact-checking, making a compelling case for better audience engagement.

A special thanks to our guest:Bradford Vivian is Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences at Penn State. His latest book is Campus Misinformation: The Real Threat to Free Speech in American Higher Education (Oxford University Press). News Over Noise is a co-production of WPSU and Penn State’s Bellisario College of Communications.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A special thanks to our guest:Victor Pickard is the C. Edwin Baker Professor of Media Policy and Political Economy at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication, where he co-directs the Media, Inequality & Change (MIC) Center. Pickard’s research focuses on media history, journalism studies, and the normative foundations of media policy. He has published more than 150 articles, book chapters, and essays, and he often writes for popular venues such as The Guardian, The Washington Post, Jacobin, Harvard Business Review, The Atlantic, and The Nation. He has authored or edited six books, including the award-winning monographs America’s Battle for Media Democracy and Democracy Without Journalism? Confronting the Misinformation Society. Currently he is working on a book that historicizes how capitalist logics structure information and communication systems in ways that harm democracy. News Over Noise is a co-production of WPSU and Penn State’s Bellisario College of Communications.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A special thanks to our guest:Cory Doctorow is a science fiction author, activist and journalist. He is the author of many books, most recently “Picks and Shovels” and “The Lost Cause,” a solarpunk science fiction novel of hope amidst the climate emergency. His most recent nonfiction books include “The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation,” a Big Tech disassembly manual, and “Chokepoint Capitalism,” about monopoly platforms and creative labor markets. He coined the term “ensh**tification,” to describe the decay of online platforms. The word was named Word of the Year by the American Dialect Society, the Macquarrie Dictionary and the New Scientist. He works for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and serves as a MIT Media Lab research affiliate, a visiting professor of computer science at Open University, a visiting professor of practice at the University of North Carolina’s School of Library and Information Science, and he co-founded the UK Open Rights Group.”(https://craphound.com/)Episode art licensed by Creative Commons 3.0 by Jonathan Worth. News Over Noise is a co-production of WPSU and Penn State’s Bellisario College of Communications.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A special thanks to our guests:Davey Alba is a technology reporter for Bloomberg, based in New York City, covering Big Tech and its influence. Previously, Alba reported for The New York Times on online disinformation and worked at BuzzFeed News and WIRED, covering AI and technology’s societal impact. She has received multiple journalism awards, including the 2019 Livingston Award for international reporting and a Mirror Award for journalism in peril. Her work has also been recognized by the SABEW Awards, the Online Journalism Awards, and the Deadline Club Awards. Alba has spoken at institutions such as Oxford University and the University of Florida. Originally from Manila, Philippines, she studied science writing at Columbia University and now lives in Brooklyn, New York.Leon Yin is an award-winning journalist at Bloomberg News. He builds datasets and develops research methods to investigate technology's impact on society. He writes Inspect Element, a practical guide to data-driven investigations. His work quantifying Google and Amazon's self-preferencing has been cited numerously by legislators, the academy and popular media. In 2023, the series "Still Loading" received a Philip Meyer Award recognizing the best uses of social science methods in journalism. The piece was also cited by the city council of Los Angeles to outlaw digital discrimination. Leon got his start in news at The Markup, and his start in research writing Fortran scripts at NASA. News Over Noise is a co-production of WPSU and Penn State’s Bellisario College of Communications.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A special thanks to our guest:Gil Duran is a journalist and political strategist who has worked as a spokesman for Jerry Brown, Dianne Feinstein, and Kamala Harris. He later served as California opinion editor at The Sacramento Bee and editorial page editor at The San Francisco Examiner. His work has appeared in The New Republic, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the New York Times. He publishes two newsletters: The Nerd Reich, on tech authoritarianism, and FrameLab, on political language and framing.  News Over Noise is a co-production of WPSU and Penn State’s Bellisario College of Communications.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A special thanks to our guest:Bill King is a senior writer for Sports Business Journal. He’s the publication’s lead contributor to In-Depth stories, Special Report coverage and profiles and has won numerous national and regional writing awards since joining SBJ in 1998. News Over Noise is a co-production of WPSU and Penn State’s Bellisario College of Communications.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.