The US military has been showering CNN’s retiring Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr with effusive thanks and praise for her lifetime of service, giving some insight into the cozy working relationship between the media and the war machine inside the US empire. “Today closes a remarkable career for CNN’s Barbara Starr, a leader in the Pentagon Continue reading »
Media
Treasury may consider the news media professional standards test is adequate, but hopefully the Communications Minister Michelle Rowland and her department think differently. In its November report on the first year of the News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code, the Treasury concludes that the registration tests for news businesses have, overall, worked effectively. Continue reading »
In how we respond to allegations of genocide, there are double standards and hypocrisy in Washington, London, Ottawa and Canberra. We keep hearing allegations about Xinjiang but we never hear about Khalistan’s genocide, or human rights abuses. Many people have died, allegations of HR abuses persist and Indian media talks of “deradicalisation”. There is documented Continue reading »
The meeting between Anthony Albanese and Xi Jinping put me in mind of the public reaction in Australia when Whitlam met Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai in 1971. A repost from November 17, 2022 The meeting in Bali is potentially more than just a diplomatic reset. It could be a pivotal moment for Australia, in the Continue reading »
Capitalism and “liberal democracy” are failing and destroying our world. In this, the third in a three-part series, I explore how Australia must embrace a new future by emphasising trade and cultural relationships in foreign policy, managing mass media concentration and the military/industrial complex, and addressing social inequality. We have the means. Do we have Continue reading »
A groundbreaking new report From Outrage to Opportunity: How to Include The Missing Perspectives of Women of All Colours in News Leadership and Coverage has found that women continue to be significantly underrepresented in editorial leadership roles and news coverage worldwide – with their voices muted in a global news industry still dominated by men. Continue reading »
The head of cybercrime prevention in France tweeted yesterday that any attempt by Elon Musk to prevent linking to sites or comments which do not break the law is in fact, the assertion of editorial control. Musk seems to be preventing links partly to anyone he personally has a problem with, but in particular to... Read more
Capitalism and “liberal democracy” are failing and destroying our world. In this, the first of a three-part series, we explore the failure of this system and the case for change. Failure of US Western Liberal Democracies Wars are continuous and the risk of nuclear escalation is increasing. Governments seem incapable of grappling with the climate Continue reading »
Polish version of this entry has originally been published by Oko Press.
Excessive use by the media of words “hacker”, “hacking”, “hack”, and the like, whenever a story concerns information security, online break-ins, leaks, and cyberattacks is problematic:
- Makes it hard to inform the public accurately about causes of a given event, and thus makes it all but impossible to have an informed debate about it.
- Demonizes a creative community of tinkerers, artists, IT researchers, and information security experts.
Uninformed public debate
The first problem is laid bare by the recent compromise of a private e-mail account belonging to Michał Dworczyk, Polish PM’s top aide.
This post was written for and originally published by the Institute of Network Cultures as part of the Dispatches from Ukraine: Tactical Media Reflections and Responses publication. It also benefited from copy editing by Chloë Arkenbout, and proofreading by Laurence Scherz.
Tackling disinformation and misinformation is a problem that is important, timely, hard… and, in no way new. Throughout history, different forms of propaganda, manipulation, and biased reporting have been present and deployed — consciously or not; maliciously or not — to steer political discourse and to goad public outrage. The issue has admittedly become more urgent lately and we do need to do something about it. I believe, however, that so far we’ve been focusing on the wrong parts of it.