News Over Noise

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

Special thanks to our guest:Andrea Wenzel is an Associate Professor of Journalism at Temple University’s Klein College. She is the author of Antiracist Journalism: The Challenge of Creating Equitable Local News (Columbia University Press, 2023) and Community-Centered Journalism: Engaging People, Exploring Solutions, and Building Trust (University of Illinois Press, 2020). A former journalist, her research focuses on initiatives to create more connected and equitable communities and newsrooms. She co-founded the Germantown Info Hub and has been a fellow with Columbia University’s Tow Center. Prior to completing her PhD at USC Annenberg, she spent 15 years as a radio producer and editor at NPR affiliates in Chicago (WBEZ) and Washington, DC (WAMU), and as a trainer/project manager for organizations including BBC Media Action and Internews in Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Iraq, and Ghana. News Over Noise is a co-production of WPSU and Penn State’s Bellisario College of Communications. 

Special thanks to our guest:Cory Barker is an assistant teaching professor in the Film Production & Media Studies department and co-host of News Over Noise. His research explores media industry convergence, focusing on legacy media's use of new technologies in production and distribution. His book, Social TV: Multi-Screen Content and Ephemeral Culture (2022), examines the U.S. television industry's failed social media revolution and won the 2023 Outstanding Book Award from the Media Industries Studies Interest Group. Before joining Penn State, Cory was a tenured faculty member at Bradley University and earned his Ph.D. from Indiana Universit News Over Noise is a co-production of WPSU and Penn State’s Bellisario College of Communications.