The Chompsky Weekly #56
You're already involved in climate chaos, why not make it official by joining the climate movement?
Hello.
So, World War 3 and climate collapse it is, then!
I don’t have a huge amount to say today, so:
This week’s article: is The Trojan Horse Affair right or wrong? Those are the only two options.
I promise there is actually good stuff down below (heh…heh.)
It’s Sunday 27th Feb, 2022
Media News
In response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, both Google and Meta have blocked the country’s state media from receiving ad revenue via their platforms, while Twitter has paused its ads and recommendations functions in both countries to combat misinformation. The country has also been banned from participating in Eurovision after other participating countries protested. (Reuters/Engadget/Buzzfeed)
Russia is, of course, cracking down on any journalists who have taken an anti-war position in any way. (VICE)
Shortly after the first reports of invasion arrived, Instagram accounts @livefromukraine and @POVwarfare sprang up, claiming to be run by Ukrainian journalists. They were promoted by meme pages with millions of followers. Taylor Lorenz reports that they’re all operated by a young ‘meme admin’ in the U.S. called Hayden, who oversees a network of viral content across the web and ‘saw an opportunity’. Of the accusation that the channels have been posting inaccurate videos he says he “can’t verify them himself […] I’m putting up what I believe is accurate” and viewers “can draw an opinion based on that.” (Input)
Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries asked the UK media regulator Ofcom to audit the Russia Today (RT) news channel saying it’s "demonstrably part of Russia's global disinformation campaign". (BBC)
Anonymous “declared cyber war” on Putin, stating in a video that he will “face unprecedented cyberattacks from all over the world”. (LatestAnonPress via Twitter)
‘Google Topics’ is the latest proposal in the company’s attempt to revolutionise the way tracking and advertising work across its services. Topics would advertise to internet users based on the ‘categories’ of content that they browse, replacing third-party cookies, which Google has said Chrome will stop supporting in 2023. Previous cookie-replacing proposals by Google have been dropped after criticism over issues such as…privacy concerns. (Digiday)
A study by the Centre for Countering Digital Hate has found that, after claiming it would begin labeling posts containing climate denial, Facebook has failed to label just over half of those from “the world’s leading publishers of climate denial” such as Breitbart, The Daily Wire, and Russian state media. (CCDH)
An initiative from the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID), a Nigerian nonprofit, is mentoring and funding journalists across West Africa to produce impactful stories on climate chaos in their local communities. (Reuters Institute)
Reddit’s 2021 transparency report says the platform saw “a roughly 20% increase in the volume of content removed by our community moderators, and a 27% increase in the amount of violating content removed by Reddit admins”. It also received a “104% increase in copyright takedown notices; 15% increase in government removal requests […] and a 32% increase in law enforcement or government requests for user information”. (Reddit)
GB News will join the UK’s political broadcast pool. The pool allows the country’s biggest broadcasters (BBC, Sky News and ITN) to take turns covering the day’s political events and share all the footage and costs with each other. Previously GB News would have obtained that footage later - the channel’s editorial director called it a “game-changer” that will put them “on a level playing field with the establishment broadcasters”. (Press Gazette)
Netflix has confirmed that over 200 antique props have been stolen from crew vehicles during filming on Series 5 of “The Crown”. Around $200k in total, they include “a replica of a Fabergé egg, several sets of silver and gold candelabra, a clock face of a William IV grandfather clock, a 10-piece silver dressing table set and crystal glassware and decanters”. (NYT)
Campaigns + Content
I've been beavering away organising this year's Media Democracy Festival, and it’s almost here. Next month, the Media Reform Coalition will host a FREE week of online events before a day-long festival in London.
Keynote speakers are John McDonnell MP and the Colston 4, and there will be numerous workshops and talks about how to engage with and revolutionise the media industry.
Don't miss it! And please share on Facebook and/or all your other socials! Thanks.
Think you don’t need to join the climate movement? You’re wrong!
Here’s why: Boris Johnson has recently approved two new North Sea oil exploration licenses. Because of how long it takes to recoup the profits from this kind of venture, this signs us up to decades more fossil fuel use. At COP26, all scientists said that we needed to stop relying on fossil fuels… last year.
What we do in 2022 will determine our future.
Extinction Rebellion is launching another huge demo in London in early April, but there are other similar campaigns you can get involved in too. Start to get involved (PS you’re already involved). ❤️
Report for America has released a report on “community news funds”, which they say are an under-reported trend in local news across the US: “The new strategy involves community foundations working in conjunction with local news leaders in creating a single, permanent fund that draws upon donations from multiple sources” | Report for America spotlights important new trend – creation of ‘Community News Funds’
Check out this academic study of how journalists coverage of work during the pandemic challenged the status quo | Of essential workers and working from home: Journalistic discourses and the precarities of a pandemic economy
Climate writer Emily Atkin has put her wildly successful newsletter HEATED on hiatus, citing burnout and mental health issues. She has penned a quite lovely piece about resilience to update readers: “without personal resilience, strategies for systemic resilience are meaningless. The people running a system determine its success.”
