Welcome back to another edition of Hot Links! This time we take a closer look at recent events at Columbia University and the University of Virginia, as well as one of the way’s Google Search is getting worse, problems with TikTok’s algorithm, what Elon Musk posted on X over one week, the company behind the failed Rabbit R1 device, and possible reasons that fewer kids are reading for fun.
The Week That Student Journalists Put the Rest of the Media to Shame
from The Nation
Journalist Zito Madu writes about the ways that mainstream media outlets like CNN failed their viewers with their coverage of the student protests at Columbia University.
Link (Free*): https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/wkcr-columbia-media-coverage/
Our Campus. Our Crisis.
from Columbia Spectator
And if you’re curious to read some coverage of the event from actual student reporters, this oral history from Isabella Ramírez, Amira McKee, Rebecca Massel, Emily Forgash, Noah Bernstein, Sabrina Ticer-Wurr, and Apurva Chakravarthy should give you a better idea of the events of that day from the viewpoint of those who attend Columbia University.
Link: https://www.columbiaspectator.com/news/2024/05/04/our-campus-our-crisis/
What I Saw at the University of Virginia’s Protest Crackdown
from Reason
Emma Camp from the libertarian news site Reason offers up her perspective on the way that the University of Virginia handled the protestors on their campus and finds ti didn’t fare any better than Columbia.
Link: https://reason.com/2024/05/06/what-i-saw-at-the-university-of-virginias-protest-crackdown/
HouseFresh Disappeared from Google Search Results. Now What?
from HouseFresh
You’re not alone in thinking that your Google search results have gotten worse. Here, Gisele Navarro, the Managing Editor of the independent air purifier review site offers up a scathing expose at the ways that Google and private equity firms are destroying the internet.
Link (Free): https://housefresh.com/how-google-decimated-housefresh/
How TikTok Shop Ads Turned an Obscure, Inaccurate Book Into a Bestseller
from Vox
A.W. Ohlheiser examines the ways that TikTok’s A.I. allows users to bypass some content moderation by using the Shop function, which is heavily prioritized, using The Lost Book of Herbal Remedies as an example.
Link (Free): https://www.vox.com/24152358/tiktok-shop-ads-lost-book-of-herbal-remedies-bestseller
I Read Everything Elon Musk Posted for a Week. Send Help.
from Mother Jones
Speaking of the death of the internet, correspondent Tim Murphy of the left-leaning site Mother Jones analyzes the X activity of the increasingly controversial billionaire over the course of one week. The results are less than surprising.
Link (Free): https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/05/i-read-everything-elon-musk-posted-for-a-week-send-help/
Rabbit Holed
from Where’s Your Ed At?
In his newsletter, Edward Zitron investigates the origins of Rabbit, the company behind the recent, spectacular failure of a device, the R1. As it turns out, they appear to originally been behind a vaporware NFT project. So overpromising seems to be one of their specialties.
Link (Free): https://www.wheresyoured.at/rabbit-holed/
Not Lost in a Book
from Slate
The author of Vintage Contemporaries, Dan Kois, reports on troubling signs that fewer and fewer kids are reading for fun anymore.
Link (Free): https://slate.com/culture/2024/05/kids-reading-fun-books-decline-by-nine-crisis.html
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