Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Media and Culture Stories

Amazon is now a major force in literary translation

Risk-embracing culture driving successes, says outgoing AUSTRAC boss ... 
AUSTRAC has undergone a dramatic change, Jevtovic says, as it embraced new opportunities to fight against serious financial crime and terrorism, resulting in an organisation that is more agile, innovative, flexible and influential.
Risk Embracing Cultures


I tell my team that leadership is like this tree branch. The branch is always strongest where it connects with the trunk but it gets thinner and thinner. When leadership takes a walk on that branch and it gets thinner [and then] snaps, if you’ve brought your people on that journey, they are going to be there to catch you. But if they know nothing about you, why would they be there when it snaps?
Crime fighter Antipodean Serbian Paul Jevtovic follows the money at AUSTRAC


Behold the Thought Leader, a thinker so deft and deluded he can flatter great wealth even as he pretends to challenge it 

“Solving non-routine problems is a key competence in a world full of changes, uncertainty and surprise where we strive to achieve so many ambitious goals. But the world is also full of solutions because of the extraordinary competences of humans who search for and find them. We must explore the world around us in a thoughtful way, acquire knowledge about unknown situations efficiently, and apply new and existing knowledge creatively. The Nature of Problem Solving presents the background and the main ideas behind the development of the PISA 2012 assessment of problem solving ... 

SARITHA PRABHU: How The Left Distorted The Immigration Debate. “One thing they did successfully was blur the distinction between legal and undocumented immigrants.”
You mean, legal and illegal immigrants. “Undocumented” is just more blurring. But yeah. Plus:
The other way progressives distorted the immigration debate was to confuse the issue on whether immigration is a right or a privilege. Does the United States have a right, like any other country, to have a say in who, how many and what kind of immigrants (low-skilled, high-skilled) to allow into the country?
Do non-criminal, hardworking, law-abiding people all over the world have a right to immigrate to this country?
In a rational, commonsense world, the respective answers to the above questions are obviously “yes” and “no.” But somehow, during the last eight years the debate shifted so much that the answers seemed to become “no” and “yes.”
Which is how you got Trump.



We have good news and bad news about metadata retention
ATO hits snag following HPE storage hardware migration






"Used as an underhand attack on 'the deplorables,' post-truth is itself deplorable. But the term becomes useful if we read it as shorthand for life after the pursuit of truth – that is, a way of life in which there is apparently no way to separate fact from fiction." — Andrew Calcutt, University of East London, in The Conversation 


President Trump has frequently used the term 'fake news' to discredit media outlets. A report by a Duke University journalism student found that of the 111 times he used the term (or retweeted it) since his election, 43 were aimed at coverage of Russia's alleged meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign.

Man accused of sending radioactive packages faces life sentence

Writing for the School Library Journal, two libriarians argue that the focus on fake news is misguided, distracting and “doesn’t even qualify for Band-Aid status on the spectrum of media literacy challenges.” Lack of research skills is the real problem, they say.




What’s behind the lack of outrage over a reporter who’s accused of fabricating facts for major publications? Rolling Stone will tell you.


The Daily Texan fact-checks the claims about the health benefits of cucumbers as noted in a song by reggae rapper Macka B. If you would like to check his claims about avocados and watercress, go for it. 



(1) Help FactCheck.org win its 10th Webby. (2) The Ferret published its first fact check, on Scotland and the queue to join the EU. (3) Friends with a fact-checker? Full Fact has a book list for potential gifts. (4) The Fact-Checking Day guides for debunking urban legends and fact-checking political claims are now available in Portuguese. (5) Lupa launched its educational program.(6) Here's another academic survey you may want to participate in, from Colorado State University on the perception of fake news. (7) Enter your ideas for "TruthBuzz: The Viral Fact-Checking Contest." (8) See the keynote speaker signed on for Global Fact 4. (9) Snopes is now embeddable. (10) The University of Michigan is holding a free “Fake News, Facts and Alternative Facts Teach-Out” starting April 21. (11) This site gives you fake news and malware. Yay.

Do those post-debate discussions on cable news programs make any difference? Can fact-checking persuade people to change their minds about candidates? Here's some fact-checking, journalism and political research to watch for this year. 




  • On Thursday, Google announced it would be highlighting fact checks in search results. (Sloppy coverage ensued.)
  • The next day, Facebook launched a public service announcement in 14 countries asking readers to be wary of what it now calls "false news." (Full Fact is providing the tips on U.K. News Feeds).
Adam Mosseri, who is responsible for News Feed at the social network, told the Financial Times that third-party fact-checking could get paid. Later in the week, he gave journalists gathered in Perugia conflicting messages about the impact of the company's fake news fighting campaign

Tax Office commits to stop sharing personal data of its public servantsATO hits snag following HPE storage hardware migration