HCRHS Media Lit

"In this hour, TED speakers explore the art of storytelling - and how good stories have the power to transform our perceptions of the world."

"In this hour, TED speakers explore the art of storytelling - and how good stories have the power to transform our perceptions of the world."

"Excerpted from the book Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. The rest of the book is about another tale - one that's not fictional and not yet written: the tale of our own future with AI. How would you like it to play out? Could something remotely like the Omega story actually occur and, if so, would you want it to? Leaving aside speculations about superhuman AI, how would you like our tale to begin? How do you want AI to impact jobs, laws and weapons in the coming decade? Looking further ahead, how would you write the ending? This tale is one of truly cosmic proportions, for it involves nothing short of the ultimate future of life in our universe. And it's a tale for us to write."

"There are three reasons you shouldn't check your notifications. All three are bad, and all three are avoidable by the simple expedient of not checking our phones. But this is hard. Why?"

"A marketer for a dog food company might decide that the secret of more dog food sales is to make a food that tastes better. But that requires understanding how a dog thinks, which is awfully difficult. It turns out that the right formula is to make a dog food that dog owners want to buy. The purpose of this example isn't to help market dog food better. It's to understand that there's almost always a disconnect between performance and appeal. That the best price/performance combination is rarely the market's choice."

"IMAGE: AFP/GETTY IMAGES BY KARISSA BELL SEP 24, 2018 For all its behind-the-scenes innovation, Google Search has looked more or less the same for the last 20 years: You type some words in a search box and get back a list of links.  The company's added lots of bells and whistles over the years, but the core concept has remained the same and the experience has pretty much looked the same. But that will soon be changing. SEE ALSO: Google Search gets a slew of new features on its 20th anniversary   At an event marking the 20th anniversary of search, Google revealed a suite of updates that are meant to fundamentally change the way we search, and how search results look and feel. You'll still see lists of links but, increasingly you'll also see features typically thought of as being squarely in the territory of social media companies: news feeds, vertical video, photo-centric content, and, yes, Stories. A quick recap of some of the specific updates: Google's personalized feed feature, now called "Discover," will be rolling out to all mobile users and to its homepage on desktop. The feed surfaces content based on your interests and search history. You can also save stuff from your feed to topic-based "collections." The company is "doubling down," on Stories, which will start to appear more frequently in search results. In addition to the publisher-created AMP Stories (Mashable is a partner on the initiative), Google will now use AI to automatically create tappable Stories about specific topics, like celebrities.  Google Images is getting a total overhaul, including a new ranking algorithm that will emphasize "evergreen content," like recipes and DIY content.  Google Lens will be integrated directly into Google Images so you can search for specific items within photos."

"Ring, an Amazon-owned smart doorbell company, wants to help you and your neighbors gossip about "suspicious activity" on your street with a standalone app called Neighbors. The app, which was introduced in May, encourages people to bring the surveillance state home by uploading video clips and publishing reports about neighborhood activities, which are then broadcast to other users and participating police departments. Ring markets Neighbors as a modern version of an old-school neighborhood watch program, encouraging communities to band together to protect one another and combat crime."

"Mindfulness teaches individuals to be present in and embrace the moments of life, rather than be suffocated by the constant self-criticism and anxiety that so often plagues our minds. 12 Mindfulness Hacks in 24 Hours Practicing mindfulness isn't just for the Zen Buddhists, sitting in lotus flower positions on the tops of snow-capped mountains. In fact, you can practice numerous mindfulness techniques in a single day."

"The company will match up to $7 million in donations to U.S. nonprofits on Giving Tuesday"

"Most people cite as culprits the tone set by our leaders and the media's adoption of rage as a business model. No doubt. But I believe the real fire starter is the tobacco of our generation, social media. It's the algorithms that have determined that the path to more engagement, clicks, and Nissan ads is paved in rage. The algorithms sense if you lean left or right, then begin shoving you to the poles and serving you increasingly provocative and extreme content you can't turn away from, to scratch a tribal itch. Social platforms did not realize that "connecting the world" could lead to very bad places, and they've been paid to ignore the problem. Some lowlights:"

"What do internet-born urban legends tell us about deep-rooted societal anxieties? "

" Artificial intelligence is fueling the next phase of misinformation. The new type of synthetic media known as deepfakes poses major challenges for newsrooms when it comes to verification. This content is indeed difficult to track: Can you tell which of the images below is a fake?"

"The reason companies are getting so good at getting us hooked is that the incentives to do so are so high. The business model that drives corporate behavior has negative effects on everyone. Making money off attention, rather than off actual goods and services, is part of what Harvard professor Shoshana Zuboff describes as a move from market capitalism to a new kind of "surveillance capitalism," which relies on the extraction of customer data. In Zuboff's eyes, the "deals" we make with internet companies do not establish constructive producer-consumer reciprocities and are closer to selling our souls to the devil than they are to standard exchanges of goods and services in traditional market economies."

Good advice for blog posts: "Last night, I was editing an article for a client of mine. I had somewhat of an epiphany as I was reading her writing. I realized that writing is similar to putting together a puzzle. That's really all it is at it's simplest form. A puzzle. A Beautifully Constructed Puzzle = Fantastic Writing"

"The promise of Facebook was to create a more open and connected world. But from the company's failure to protect millions of users' data, to the proliferation of "fake news" and disinformation, mounting crises have raised the question: Is Facebook more harmful than helpful? On Monday, Oct. 29, and Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2018, FRONTLINE presents The Facebook Dilemma. This major, two-night event investigates a series of warnings to Facebook as the company grew from Mark Zuckerberg's Harvard dorm room to a global empire. With dozens of original interviews and rare footage, The Facebook Dilemma examines the powerful social media platform's impact on privacy and democracy in the U.S. and around the world."

"For more than a year, Facebook has endured cascading crises - over Russian misinformation, data privacy and abusive content - that transformed the Silicon Valley icon into an embattled giant accused of corporate overreach and negligence. An investigation by The New York Times revealed how Facebook fought back against its critics: with delays, denials and a full-bore campaign in Washington. Here are six takeaways."

"Social media influencers ply their trade in realms far beyond fake lashes. Marketers of literature, wellness, fashion, entertainment, and other wares are all hooked on influencers. As brands have warmed to social-media advertising, influencer marketing has grown into a multibillion-dollar industry. Unlike traditional television or print ads, influencers have dedicated niche followings who take their word as gospel. There's another plus: Many users don't view influencers as paid endorsers or salespeople-even though a significant percentage are-but as trusted experts, friends, and "real" people. This perceived authenticity is part of why brands shell out so much cash in exchange for a brief appearance in your Instagram feed."

"Don't like the media? Think it's all "lies" or "fake"? Then you're probably not as good at reading the news as your less perpetually annoyed peers. That's one finding from a new study from the News Co/Lab at Arizona State, in collaboration with the Center for Media Engagement at the University of Texas. Those who have negative opinions of the news media are less likely to spot a fake headline, less likely to differentiate between news and opinion - but more confident in their ability to find the information they need online."

"Phones, email, and texting have reduced these wait times to almost zero, but delays are still instrumental to understanding how people communicate, argues Jason Farman, a media scholar at the University of Maryland. "Waiting is seen as an antiquated practice that needs to be eliminated," he writes in his new book, Delayed Response: The Art of Waiting From the Ancient to the Instant World, before suggesting that something gets lost in a culture that prizes instantaneousness."

"This software engineer let an algorithm pick where he lives, what he does-even what tattoo to get. Is he onto something?"