Author: TheConversation

By R. Kelly Garrett, Professor of Communication, The Ohio State University; Robert Bond, Associate Professor of Communication, The Ohio State University; and Shannon Poulsen, PhD Student in Communication, The Ohio State University People have long mistaken satire for real news. In July, the website Snopes published a piece fact-checking a story posted on The Babylon Bee, a popular satirical news site with a conservative bent. Conservative columnist David French criticized Snopes for debunking what was, in his view, “obvious satire. Obvious.” A few days later, Fox News ran a segment featuring The Bee’s incredulous CEO. But does everyone recognize satire as...

By Jeffrey W Ladewig, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Connecticut and John J. Green, Professor of Sociology, University of Mississippi The U.S. is still months away from the start of the 2020 census, but the decennial count of the country’s population is already controversial. After the Supreme Court’s decision at the end of June, President Donald Trump conceded that the administration would no longer pursue a citizenship question on the 2020 U.S. Census. Instead, Trump announced that he signed an executive order instructing the executive branch to share all citizenship data with the U.S. Census. He suggested...

By Laurel Leff, Associate Professor of Journalism, Northeastern University During the Nazi era, roughly 300,000 additional Jewish refugees could have gained entry to the U.S. without exceeding the nation’s existing quotas. The primary mechanism that kept them out: the immigration law’s “likely to become a public charge” clause. Consular officials with the authority to issue visas denied them to everyone they deemed incapable of supporting themselves in the U.S. It is not possible to say what happened to these refugees. Some immigrated to other countries that remained outside Germany’s grip, such as Great Britain. But many – perhaps most...

By Jennifer Grygiel, Assistant Professor of Communications (Social Media) & Magazine, News and Digital Journalism, Syracuse University Facebook’s News Feed algorithm determines what users see on its platform – from funny memes to comments from friends. The company regularly updates this algorithm, which can dramatically change what information people consume. As the 2020 election approaches, there is much public concern that what was dubbed “Russian meddling” in the 2016 presidential election could happen again. But what’s not getting enough attention is the role Facebook’s algorithm changes play, intentionally or not, in that kind of meddling. A key counterpoint to...

By Nidia Bañuelos, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of California, Davis In response to calls for police reform and accountability, some U.S. police departments are partnering with colleges and universities to develop anti-bias training for their employees. In Washington D.C., for example, officers will take a critical race theory class at the University of the District of Columbia Community College. The idea of providing liberal arts education to officers to improve police-community relations and productivity is not new. As early as 1967, a federal commission charged with finding solutions to rising crime and police brutality recommended that all police “personnel with...

By ernd Reiter, Professor at University of South Florida The idea of paying reparations for slavery is gaining momentum in the United States, despite being long derided as an unrealistic plan, to compensate for state violence committed by and against people long dead. The topic saw substantive debate in the July 30 Democratic primary debate, with candidate Marianne Williamson calling slavery “a debt that is owed.” Some Democratic congressional representatives are also pushing for financial recompense for the descendants of enslaved people. Calls for reparations in the U.S. are generally met with skepticism: What would reparations achieve? Who should...