Ben Werdmuller helps leaders at newsrooms, non-profits, and mission-driven organizations to navigate their biggest technology challenges.
Media
[Taylor Lorenz at User Mag] Gen Z men have lurched to the right, which was one factor behind this month's election result. This is, in part, because they've been inundated with media that speaks to a right-leaning point of view - and there's almost
Media
[Mathew Ingram at The Torment Nexus] Mathew Ingram on blaming social media for the stratification of society: "In the end, that is too simple an explanation, just as blaming the New York Times' coverage of the race is too simple, or accusing more than half of the American
If you’re looking for signal, here are some non-profit newsrooms that speak truth to power on a national scale. You can follow all of them for free; all of them could also use your support. ProPublica ProPublica investigates abuses of power and betrayals of the public trust by government,
I’d like to share a hypothesis about the Democrats. It’s about money. It might not be true — it truly is a hypothesis — but I’d like to air it out and see what you think. We have a lot of people in America who are suffering greatly. Dick
Media
[Dick Tofel] Dick Tofel on where the press should go next: "We held a free and fair election, and the candidate who hates the press, who makes sport of threatening it physically and with censorship and muzzling, won. The campaign was fought across seven states and he won them
What a morning. I know this quote has been shared and reshared ad infinitum, but it gives me hope today, and I hope it will do the same for you: “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me,
Today I’ve been thinking a lot about my relatives who actively fought against nationalism as part of the resistance. What they and their colleagues did in the name of inclusion and opportunity. That's the name of the game: a world where everyone has the same opportunity to
In case you’re searching for things to take your mind off the immediate horrors of the real world for, you know, some reason, here are ten: 3D Workers Island is a horror story told in the form of late-nineties screenshots from forums, websites, and a mysterious screensaver. Practical Betterments
Technology
[Senator Ron Wyden at MSNBC] Senator Wyden has long been a loud voice for surveillance reform and stronger data protections, so this op-ed isn't really a surprise - but it's still nice to see him weighing in here: "Data brokers are selling the ability to
Notable links
[ProPublica] "With just days to go before Election Day, political coverage is everywhere. At ProPublica, we avoid horse race reporting and focus on telling stories about deeper issues and trends affecting the country. Here are some stories from the last year about issues that are important to voters."
Notable links
[Versha Sharma in Teen Vogue] This is a remarkable kind-of-sort-of-endorsement from Teen Vogue. "As the head of this publication, dedicated to young readers, I have been closely following younger generations’ collective disbelief at the Biden administration’s support of the Israeli government during its all-out assault on Gaza, following
Notable links
[Craig Silverman at ProPublica and Priyanjana Bengani at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism] "The network, which uses the name Patriot Democracy on many of its ad accounts, is one of eight deceptive Meta advertising operations identified by ProPublica and Tow. These networks have collectively controlled more than 340