Category Archives: Transhuman News

6:38 p.m. MT April 8, 2017

Is all editing censorship?

The question came up during a recent Sunshine Week panel discussion at New Mexico State University when I expressed my frustrations with Facebook and online news outlets that make no effort to verify that what they are disseminating is true.

An audience member disagreed, arguing that if Facebook were to weed out the untrue stories, that would be censorship.

No, I responded, censorship is when the government prohibits something from being published. County Attorney Nelson Goodin, a fellow panelist, correctly pointed out that the word has more than one meaning. But I still couldnt grasp her argument.

She was claiming that any exercise of editorial discretion is, in fact, censorship. The Associated Press sends out several hundred stories every day. We only put a few of them in our newspaper. Thats censorship. The AP chooses its several hundred stories from the many thousands it could have reported on. That is also censorship. Any attempt to organize and prioritize the events of the day is censorship.

Is that what the new media has come to?

A few years ago, author Michael Lewis wrote a book called Moneyball, in which he explained how analytics had revolutionized baseball. Oakland As General Manager Billy Beane had snookered opposing teams with much larger payrolls by eschewing the common wisdom espoused by old-time scouts and instead listening to a bunch of computer nerds running probability ratios on runs and outs.

Now, you cant watch a ballgame without hearing somebody blather on about launch angle or exit velocity.

Analytics have taken over, and not just in baseball. We used to gauge the interest in our work based on subscriptions and reader feedback. Now we have internet and social media analytics on everything, supposedly to help guide the way.

On Tuesday, a rumor spread that actor Jim Carrey was driving through Las Cruces when his car broke down. A local resident helped him get his car fixed and took him to lunch. Carrey was so impressed that he said he was thinking about retiring here.

We checked it out and ran a brief story reporting that it wasnt true. And that, based on the analytics, was our top story of the day. On a day when there was important breaking news in the Tai Chan murder trial.

When I say we checked it out, that suggests a level of investigation greater than what was required. The website WBN10 News, which ran the story, has a disclaimer right on its home page telling readers it is a satirical and fantasy website. And yet enough people believed it that the rumor spread throughout town.

The writers in Russia and Macedonia offer no such disclaimers for the satirical and fantasy stories they inject into our daily news cycle, sometime just for fun and profit, but often to sway public opinion.

Which is where editors come in. We looked at the analytics, and decided that the Tai Chan murder trial story was still more important.

Facebook doesnt have editors. That would be censorship. It only has analytics. And, the guys in Macedonia have figured out how to climb to the lead of each days news feed.

There has been some great reporting on Russias attempts to influence our election, with more undoubtedly to come.

But the story being overlooked is how easily our information stream was poisoned and how willingly our citizens were duped. Russian propaganda is nothing new. Our susceptibility to it is.

Walter Rubel is editorial page editor of the Sun-News. He can be reached at wrubel@lcsun-news.com or follow @WalterRubel on Twitter.

Read or Share this story: http://lcsun.co/2oOejMO

Originally posted here:
Rubel: Analytics, censorship and our poisoned information stream - Las Cruces Sun-News

After the death Kim Jong-Nam, the official state-run North Korean news organization Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) issued a statement accusing South Korea of conspiring with Malaysia in the assassination. According to Chosun Media, a South Korean newspaper, the incentive for the alleged collaboration would be to sabotage the North.

The KCNAs accusation serves as another piece of evidence in a long stream of aggressive language targeted at South Korea. Many articles are written in this hostile manner in the national newspaper, Rodong Sinmun. Kim Jong-Un and his regime maintain tight media control partly due to the fact that there are no independent news outlets. North Korea has 12 newspapers, 20 periodicals, and over a dozen broadcasters, but all of their content comes from the KCNA, which is based in the capital of North Korea, Pyongyang. The main focus of the KCNA is casting the regime in a positive light by reporting on Kim Jong-Uns activities and statements.

When reading through several KCNA published articles, traitor Park Geun Hye and puppet authorities appear frequently. Other language includes evil labor policy and fascist dictatorial rule. These themes of treachery and puppet rule stem from North Koreas historic competition over legitimate rule of the Korean peninsula with South Korea.

Language merges into action through North Koreas extensive propaganda program.

Its externally oriented propaganda, said Celeste Arrington, assistant professor of of the George Washington University, in an interview with MediaFile. North Korea, despite its isolationist practices, attempts to influence the mentalities of South Korean civilians in its favor. According to Vice News, this includes raining down leaflets, blasting broadcasts, and posting video content.

The heart of North Koreas information manipulation focuses on its domestic media programs. According to the 2016 Freedom House Report on North Korea, the country is ranked as not free with a press freedom score of 97/100. North Korea is considered one of the most repressive media environments in the world through its state-run news outlet KCNA which produces propaganda-like content to ensure and maintain loyalty to the regime.

The Committee to Protect Journalists listed North Korea as the second most censored country in the world in 2015. Internet access is also highly restricted, which means no content from the outside world can be accessed unless the person using internet is a foreigner or a member of the political elite.

According to the New York Times, other restrictions include banning citizens from contacting family in South Korea through exchanging letters, emails or telephone calls.

As a result of Kim Jong-uns controlling media tactics, North Korean citizens are deprived of basic knowledge of the outside world which in turn reduces citizens opinions to blind loyalty to Kim Jong-Uns regime.

Arrington says such information restriction extends to basic accurate weather reports which affect farmers and those in trade. [Media] is a tool for changing citizens perceptions where they cant contemplate rising against the regime.

Human Rights Foundation communications specialist, Prachi Vidwans, echoed Arringtons comments. Kim Jong-Un has a formidable propaganda machine that is constantly telling North Koreans that their country is the best on eartheven as millions of them struggle for survival.

Vidwans goes on to describe the thorough censorship in the country where free speech, individual articles, blogs and social media are nonexistent.

The Human Rights Foundation has undertaken a combative project called Flash Drives for Freedom which sends North Korean citizens USB drives filled with preloaded Wikipedia pages, e-books and films from outside of the Hermit Kingdom.

North Korean citizens have also taken it upon themselves to gain forbidden knowledge through technology smuggled in from China and South Korea.

Kim Jong-un regime controls phone activity similarly to how it controls media; by providing only one source of communication. In the case of cell phones, North Korea owns its own mobile network company known as Koryolink. According to the New York Times, the three million subscribers under this network are prohibited from international calls and confined to domestic communication which is monitored by the government.

The only way to contact loved ones outside the country is by traveling to the Chinese border and using smuggled-in cell phones. Often times, family who have fled North Korea send those cell phones along with SIM cards and large sums of money. Other smuggled items include iPods, MP3 players and foreign films and TV series.

These illegal methods of contacting the outside world are slowly eroding North Koreans loyalties to the regime. In addition to connecting to family, citizens send messages and photos to reporters and activists.

As citizens within North Korea attempt to reclaim the information of which theyve been deprived, the regimes complete control over knowledge and media will gradually weaken.

Read this article:
North Korean Media: A Story of Language, Censorship, and Tech - MediaFile

LiveJournal, a blog community thats hosted a lot of science fiction authors and fans (including George RR Martin), has officially banned political solicitation which can mean anything that criticizes the Russian government, as well as pro-LGBTQ discussions. There are also concerns users can be subject to Russian spying.

The service grew in popularity as a social network in the early 2000s, especially among former members of SFF Net. LiveJournals popularity shrank with the rise of social networks like Facebook and Snapchat, and it was bought by a Russian company in 2007. However, since the servers were based in the United States, users werent subject to Russian censorship. Until now.

In December, the servers were relocated to Russia, and earlier this week the user agreements were changed to prohibit post[ing] advertising and/or political solicitation materials unless otherwise directly specified in a separate agreement between User and the Administration, or perform[ing] any other actions contradictory to the laws of the Russian Federation. In addition, any blogs that get over 3,000 visitors per days are now classified as media outlets, so they can no longer publish anonymously, use obscene language or share extremist materials. The new agreement is designed to put the site in compliance with Russias internet laws, which are subject to extreme censorship under the guise of protecting children.

The term political solicitation can be open to interpretation, as some have argued its not an exact term in Russian federal law. In the past, similar phrases have been used to condemn conversations about LGBTQ issues as gay propaganda, as well as prevent people from sharing the image of Putin as a clown in makeup. Specifically, in this case, the Washington Times mentioned how the Russian government censored five websites that were calling for a mass protest, including a LiveJournal posting. This happened two days before the updated rules were put in place.

Theres also a big concern about data and privacy. Critics have claimed the user agreement puts users at risk of having their data accessible to Russian intelligence, in accordance with anti-terrorism legislation. The agreement does say its not subject to federal laws requiring companies to store personal data on their users, but plenty of other information can be subject to observation and scrutiny... and thats not even going into Russian cyber espionage.

Its unclear whether users in Russia can face prosecution from the government for violating the terms of the agreement (although it looks like they can), but anyone outside of the country isnt subject to the Russian legal bindings. However, they can be kicked off LiveJournal at any time for not complying with the new agreement.

[Global Voices AdVox]

Read the original:
Russian-Owned LiveJournal Bans Political Talk, Adds Risk of Spying - Gizmodo

Local report

Independent media producers, students, local activists and community groups will be celebrated next week duringIndependent Media Week, organized around the theme A well-informed citizenry is a cornerstone of democracy. This will be the 13th year for the week spotlighting grassroots media and its creators.

The locally sourced event began in April 2005 when, at the request of citizen media activists who launched KSKQ, the local low-power FM radio station, and developed the Rogue Valley Independent Media Center, the city of Ashland proclaimed its first Independent Media Week to celebrate efforts to make public records more readily accessible and to broadcast our community meetings and civic events.

Every year since, a coalition of local independent media organizations has asked the city to proclaim one week in April as Independent Media Week. And, in 2015, a bill introduced by then-Rep. Peter Buckley passed the Oregon legislature and was signed into saw declaring the third week of April each year "as Independent Media Week to encourage all Oregonians to seek out and explore the rich diversity of independent media available to and within their communities."

This year's celebration runs Sunday through Saturday, April 9 to 15. It includes discussions, workshops and a presentation by Project Censored director Mickey Huff.

On Sunday, April 9, there will be an open house breakfast from 10 a.m. to noon at the KSKQ 89.5/94.1 FM community radio station studio at 330 East Hersey St., No. 2, in Ashland. The public can meet producers and staff, learn more about KSKQ and enjoy a light breakfast.

There will be a panel discussion on "Cultivating a Culture of Peace in an Era of Trump: What's the Media's Role?" from 6 to 8 p.m. Monday, April 10, in the Arena downstairs at Stevenson Union on the campus of Southern Oregon University.

Local media representatives and the audience will discuss whether and how the media should play a role in advancing goals advocated by the Ashland Culture of Peace Commission (ACPC), including transforming attitudes, behaviors and institutions so they better foster harmonious relationships, particularly in time when the information landscape has been roiled by new national leadership with its own way of doing things.

Panel members are Jeff Golden, producer and host of Immense Possibilities on select PBS stations; Bert Etling, editor of the Ashland Daily Tidings; Jason Houk, publisher of the Rogue Valley Community Press and news director for KSKQ community radio; and Hannah Jones, editor of The Siskiyou, the Southern Oregon University student-run news website.

David Wick, executive director of the ACPC, will say a few words about the work of the commission. Also joining the conversation via a video link will be Dr. David Adams, the coordinator of the Culture of Peace News Network and former UNESCO director of the International Year for the Culture of Peace, proclaimed for the Year 2000 by the United Nations General Assembly, who will provide an international perspective on the Culture of Peace and the vital role media plays in its evolution.

Critical Media Literacy Education: The Antidote to Fake' News, Media Filters, and Propaganda in a 'Post-Truth World" is the focus of a lecture by Mickey Huff, director of Project Censored, who will speak at 6 p.m. Friday, April 14, in the Arena at Stevenson Union.

Huff is director of Project Censored, founded in 1976, and president of the Media Freedom Foundation. He has edited or co-edited eight volumes of "Censored" and contributed numerous chapters to these works dating back to 2008. Huff sits on the advisory board for the Media Literacy and Digital Culture graduate program at Sacred Heart University in Connecticut, and serves on the editorial board for the journal Secrecy and Society. He also represents Project Censored as one of the cosponsoring organizations for the National Whistleblowers Summit held annually in Washington, D.C.

Another highlight of Independent Media Week is presentation of the Hal Jamison Independent Media Award. Jamison was a long-time Ashland resident and supporter of independent, community media. This award is dedicated in his honor and showcases a community member who is dedicating their time and energy to support our independent media resources.

Independent Media Week sponsors include KSKQ 89.5/94.1 Community Radio, the Ashland Culture of Peace Commission, Southern Oregon Jobs with Justice and the UN Club of SOU. For more information, call Jason Houk at 541-841-8341.

See the original post:
Peace, Trump, censorship and fake news up for discussion - Ashland Daily Tidings