Month: August 2018

United States (Conversation) – For decades, U.S. media companies have limited the content they’ve offered based on what’s good for business. The decisions by Apple, Spotify, Facebook and YouTube to remove content from commentator Alex Jones and his InfoWars platform follow this same pattern. My research on media industries makes clear that government rules and regulations do little to limit what television shows, films, music albums, video games and social media content are available to the public. Business concerns about profitability are much stronger restrictions. Movies are given ratings based…

World Wide (SurvivalSullivan) –  Preppers are really good at lots of things, and making “lists” is chief among them. Getting prepared and remaining prepared requires organization – that takes the making of lists, as well as with lists of lists – got to keep all of those lists recorded and updated, too! You absolutely do not want to be scrambling around to find survival gear and supplies AS the SHTF. The preps should be organized into specific survival kits, labeled, placed in a storage space noted on the preparedness plan master…

United States (TexasTribune) – By the time the federal government started sending immigrant children to Shiloh Treatment Center in 2009, the warning flags were waving blood red. Three children had died after being physically restrained at Shiloh and affiliated facilities in rural Texas run by the same man, Clay Dean Hill. A teenager from California died after running away and getting hit by a truck. Texas officials repeatedly had cited Hill’s residential centers for troubled youths after caretakers were found to have slapped, punched and kicked children. Yet nine years ago,…

Japan (GV) – One Canadian woman’s recent experience of sexual assault on a Tokyo train, including the way the police responded, has prompted discussions on Twitter about Japan’s ongoing problem with ‘chikan‘ (痴漢 or train-gropers in Japanese). The documented sexual assault experience resembles recent high profile cases in Japan involving journalist Shiori Ito, a blogger known as Hachu and stage actress Shimizu Meili. In July 2018, a woman who goes by the name ‘Jenna‘ on Twitter began sharing a series of tweets that described being stalked and groped by a man on a train…

United Kingdom (Conversation) – Who gets to speak? Who do we listen to? And whose opinions do we respect? These questions are always important, but even more so now, as the UK faces an uncertain future, and political leaders need to make some tough decisions. So it’s disappointing to learn that female voices continue to be marginalised in the nation’s news coverage. Women’s expertise is going untapped and unheard at a critical time. An analysis conducted by the Centre for the Study of Media, Communication and Power on behalf of…