Alice Hines

Journalists put more stress on accuracy than ever before. The problem is, accuracy is a slippery idea. Thoughtful piece on facts, accuracy and media trust (and distrust) by Fergus McIntosh, who runs The New Yorker's fact-checking department.

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At CES 2025, panel experts with backgrounds in law, government affairs, public policy and creative representation emphasized AI’s dual role as a powerful tool for enhancing creativity. But they also noted the potential threat to human authorship and consent, particularly in generative AI’s replication of voices and images. Dr. Moiya M., Lisa Oratz, Chad Hummel, Paul Lekas and Duncan Crabtree-Ireland all contributed important points on the importance of this topic.

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New pub: Myths of Origins: Literary and Cultural Patterns Myths of Origins explores the timeless power of origin myths in literature, spanning from ancient texts to contemporary works. This collection of essays delves into the six foundational models of beginnings in Western literature, examining how these frameworks shape narratives across eras. https://lnkd.in/eXDG9Cgu

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Editing pet peeve: the goofy obsession with the Oxford comma. Oxford enthusiasts—whom I often refer to as "Oxfordnistas"—insist that the serial comma is the ultimate arbiter of clarity and slayer of ambiguity. And they demonstrate this overstated power through a series of reductionist—albeit humorous—memes. Below on the left is one such example. Again, this meme assuredly suggests a moment where a lack of a serial comma may confuse readers. Rather than express a list of the three, the Oxford-less sentence seems to imply an appositive suggesting the exotic dancers are, in fact, Stalin and JFK. But what happens if you change strippers (plural) to stripper (singular). One good contrived strawman argument deserves another, right? On the right is the counterpoint. Here, the sentence with the Oxford comma introduces ambiguity. Is that JFK on stage three collecting singles, or is somebody else? The trick is simple: When in doubt, rewrite. "We invited JFK, Stalin and the strippers." See how this is clearly a list of three? See how I didn't need the comma to do so? Ultimately, the Oxford comma is a stylistic convention, so it is a matter of personal preference. You can also write, "We invited JFK, Stalin, and the strippers." That *also* works. Either way, stop pretending that your prescriptivist take on the Oxford comma is holy writ. #Oxfordcomma

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For this podcast, the Confident Retirement, there's a twist: I was the one interviewed, not the one asking the questions. (I like it better the other way - but that was fun - thanks for inviting me on, Kristopher Flammang CRPC®AIF®BFA®) Oh - and I'm not retiring :) Some of the things we talked about: * My early journalism career change to being a juvenile probation office for three years; • Why and how the Business Observer has made a transtions to #digitalfirst — and why we keep the focus on that; and • The lessons I've learned from interviewing hundreds of entrepreneurs ands business owners Take a listen!

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The 2025 Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) Journalism Excellence Awards open Deadline 12 February 2025 Journalists who have published stories in 2024 and are AAJA members can nominate themselves for the awards. The Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) is hosting the Journalism Excellence Awards. The awards have two main categories: journalism excellence by medium and by subject. Journalists who produce written reporting, digital reporting, photojournalism, video and audio reporting on various subjects, including investigative reporting, sports reporting, science/environment/health reporting and others, are welcome to submit their work produced in 2024. However, each entered work may only be submitted to one award category. Submissions that display outstanding storytelling, in-depth reporting that moves the industry and cultural understandings forward, and pieces that demonstrate impact are highly encouraged. Special consideration is given to top-notch journalism about the AAPI community, in the U.S. or abroad. Interested nominees must have a current AAJA membership and be committed to AAJA’s mission. They may join the organization prior to submitting their awards application. AAJA is open to all journalists, regardless of ethnic or racial identity. https://lnkd.in/gK6Nyrmv

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What I appreciate more than sharing this post about AI displacement of human writers is that LinkedIn offered to write this comment with its AI. :D > ... the internet is finite. And so too is the sum of every word on every page of every book ever written. So what happens when the last pamphlet, papyrus and prolegomenon have been digitised and the model is still not perfect? What happens when we run out of words? The date for that linguistic apocalypse has already been set. Researchers announced in June that we can expect this to take place between 2026 and 2032 “if current LLM development trends continue”. At that point, “Models will be trained on datasets roughly equal in size to the available stock of public human text data.” https://lnkd.in/d5KkTt4a

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Interesting POV for all stakeholders interested in the information disorder ecosystem.

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You're probably already taking in a lot of information on how to cover this year's elections. These guides are aimed at helping you talk through that information with your news organization, and strategize or decide on how you'll navigate different scenarios long before they arise and leave you thinking, "I wish we'd talked about how we'd actually handle this." Our first two guides help you consider your coverage of misinformation and polling, and we've got more in the works! Let us know if there are other topics you'd like to see addressed.

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Nice article about the three books I recently edited with my co-editor Gay Toltl Kinman. https://lnkd.in/ebTnx5Z2

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New pub: Conrad’s European Context by Andrew Busza. This book explores the extraordinary geographical and historical range of Joseph Conrad’s fictional worlds by examining the influence of the novelist’s literary and cultural background. https://lnkd.in/esuNMScB

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"I’ve spent the past few years reading tweets about articles, not full articles; reading screenshots of the bad part (highlighted); reading only the most outraging detail from a story." The world is a lot right now, which makes it a good time to reconsider your news habits. This blog from Nieman Lab has some good suggestions on where to start [like reconnecting with print!].

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FOR TODAY'S VIDEO: Journalism lessons are figuratively written on the wall and literally written on the whiteboard. Fact-checking, censorship, gatekeeping, bias and other related issues. How can these concepts be best taught? https://lnkd.in/gWjYBBuk

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What's the difference between babesiosis and bartonellosis? My latest blog post for Global Lyme Alliance explains the lived experience of the two. https://lnkd.in/ejjGmdBe

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These commentary on Robert Longo is my latest post on Cultural Capital-Art, Politics, and Everything Else https://lnkd.in/ezKYP5Nb

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