Professor Amanda Sturgill @drsturg.bsky.social · 14hLegal: Allowable under the law Ethical: Conforming to standards of conduct They are not the same. Societies consider being illegal and being unethical to both be bad. Bad-faith arguers will sometimes say that because something was legal, you are unfair to bring up ethics. Weaksauce. 3183
Professor Amanda Sturgill @drsturg.bsky.social · 21hDid you know that Baptists have a news outlet? (I study media and religion, so I do). Anyway, it published a piece about Cornell, and it will probably surprise you. baptistnews.com/article/dear...baptistnews.comDear men, it is time to wake the hell upAll this is horrible, but there’s one fact about this case that ought to keep you awake at night worried about the future of the world: 27383192
Professor Amanda Sturgill @drsturg.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Timely with the Cornell story. #GiftLink www.nytimes.com/2026/09/28/u...nytimes.comTrump Officials Revise How Title IX Sex Discrimination Rules Are Enforced (Gift Article)The change follows a court ruling barring Title IX from protecting L.G.B.T.Q. people and has angered advocates for sexual assault survivors. 082
Professor Amanda Sturgill @drsturg.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Um... Theories: Social media editor is having some kind of issue It's time to dial back on the AI adding art and posting Or... Really puzzled here 292
Professor Amanda Sturgill @drsturg.bsky.social · 28/09/2026What - you don't put paintings of food inside your refrigerator? 171
Professor Amanda Sturgill @drsturg.bsky.social · 28/09/2026I don't think @ddale8.bsky.social posts here anymore, but all the way back in his @thestar.com days, he was instrumental in developing the kind of live verification that is more effective in keeping lies from becoming deceptions. This is worth a read. www.cnn.com/2026/09/27/p...cnn.comI started fact-checking Trump 10 years ago. Here are 15 things I’ve learned | CNN PoliticsTen years ago this month, in my old job as Washington correspondent for the Toronto Star, I started what I believed would be a quick little side project: fact-checking underdog presidential candidate ... 24616
Professor Amanda Sturgill @drsturg.bsky.social · 28/09/2026So the thing about religous folks deciding they should be all up in politics is... the theology is so bad. It's like they don't really understand the thing they say they believe in and fight for. 2181
Professor Amanda Sturgill @drsturg.bsky.social · 27/09/2026I'm a little confused by this. Why are media outlets accepting this ad? He's not a candidate, so the equal time threats don't seem like they would apply? www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-f...cbsnews.comNew Trump-focused "Love Me" ad campaign paid for by taxpayers hits airwavesAds promoting President Trump and paid for by American taxpayers are now airing on network and national cable. 3245
Professor Amanda Sturgill @drsturg.bsky.social · 27/09/2026🧵End-of-month reminder to use your gift links if you subscribe. Here are some from my subscriptions. YOU add to the magic when you reshare. #GiftLink www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/202...theatlantic.comWhat Israel Knew Before October 7A conversation with Vivian Salama about her exclusive reporting that Egypt’s top spy warned of the coming attack. 4165
Professor Amanda Sturgill @drsturg.bsky.social · 26/09/2026Answers to question NYT headlines, without context. 1. Because people let him. 2. Use a time-limit app. 3. An episode of Saturday Night Live. 4. Probably, but it would be hard and costly. 5. Beats me. (I wish they didn't.) 6. The morality of some things makes them less controversial to tax. 071
Professor Amanda Sturgill @drsturg.bsky.social · 25/09/2026Hi there. You've been managed by distraction for a while now. How it works: Scandal brewing? 😲 Do something even more scandalous over there. 🤫 Problem solved! The issue: eventually, upping the stakes will get to be too much. What was entertaining outrage becomes real threats. 0206
Professor Amanda Sturgill @drsturg.bsky.social · 25/09/2026They essentially stopped teaching a lot of public school kids how to write legibly by hand about 12 years ago. As someone who teaches college, I can say it absolutely has mattered. Don't let your hubris block you from at least admitting that there might be unintended consequences. 2347
Professor Amanda Sturgill @drsturg.bsky.social · 24/09/2026We have news playing in my building, and I just saw a piece where a prediction market guy was trying to argue that those are better than polls. Poppycock. They are both bad. They manufacture news and don't tell you anything about what will happen. I wish media didn't commission and cover them. 0163
Professor Amanda Sturgill @drsturg.bsky.social · 24/09/2026It's difficult for university students to vote for several reasons. If you have a student or know people with a student, now is the time to ask them if they have a plan. For a lot of the largest graduating class in US history, this is their FIRST chance, so help them take it! 1183
Professor Amanda Sturgill @drsturg.bsky.social · 22/09/2026static.klipy.comWell Well Well Brian GriffinALT: Well Well Well Brian Griffin 0173
Professor Amanda Sturgill @drsturg.bsky.social · 22/09/2026Sigh. (And it's all political perspectives) www.nytimes.com/2026/09/22/u...nytimes.comAn Army of Paid Creators Is Carpeting the Web With Political Content (Gift Article)Unlike celebrity influencers with large followings, these creators produce a blizzard of videos for a fraction of the cost of traditional online campaigns and, in the process, shift public conversatio... 1104
Professor Amanda Sturgill @drsturg.bsky.social · 22/09/2026Good morning! For UnSpun this week, I'm changing up the journal club a little bit to look at a book. It's a good framework for understanding why the US president thinks he can dismiss the press. You - smarter in about 20 minutes! Find it here or where you pod. bit.ly/UnSpunPodbit.lyUnspunListen to Unspun on RedCircle 185
Professor Amanda Sturgill @drsturg.bsky.social · 22/09/2026Fine. Since everyone is doing it, here's mine. 2160
Professor Amanda Sturgill @drsturg.bsky.social · 21/09/2026The need relationship in politics works both ways. News orgs NEED politicians NEED news orgs. Particularly in election season. Will be interested to see if this works, or if presidential event coverage will devolve into influencers, Newsmax, and friends. 2116
Reposted by Professor Amanda SturgillJoshua Foust 🪖🎮 @joshuafoust.com · 21/09/2026Not for nothing, but there’s some pretty interesting research about this!academic.oup.comLearning to Like the Likes and the Hate: The Labor of Internet Fame in the New Attention EconomyABSTRACT. How do people experience internet fame? Whereas public visibility and reputation were once tightly coupled, these can be decoupled in the new med 1196
Professor Amanda Sturgill @drsturg.bsky.social · 21/09/2026Maybe someone should tell them that students making their own "content" from the material would be much more effective for learning... Even if you're not into learning theory, think about it. What's your own desire for AI content on things you don't care about? techcrunch.com/2026/09/20/s...techcrunch.comScrollEd wants to turn textbooks into TikTok | TechCrunchScrollEd turns textbooks into a scrollable, Instagram-like feed with video, audio, and quizzes. The Palo Alto startup, founded by student co-founders (and spouses) Utsav Gupta and Rebecca Neff, pitche... 151
Professor Amanda Sturgill @drsturg.bsky.social · 21/09/2026Half-caff thought: We're not always great at counting the real cost. Examples: You want your news without a paywall AND no data collected. Cost: biased information. You want low taxes so YOU don't pay for others to have things. Cost: potholes; diseases, ignorant workforce. 5275
Professor Amanda Sturgill @drsturg.bsky.social · 20/09/2026National security is a common trope for federal officials to get their way/avoid accountability. (David McCraw wrote about this in Truth in Our Times, talking about gov not answering journalists.) Now it's the ballroom/bunker and the like. What will the Kennedy Ctr. security piece be? 142
Professor Amanda Sturgill @drsturg.bsky.social · 20/09/2026I think they could tell, but don't think the audience will care. Which says a lot about what they think/assume about that audience. 082
Professor Amanda Sturgill @drsturg.bsky.social · 20/09/2026I'm far from a military strategy expert, but don't you usually hide tempting targets, not put gold statues on them and place them in flight paths? 1520731
Professor Amanda Sturgill @drsturg.bsky.social · 20/09/2026🤫This is especially hard when public opinion is crossing borders. 060
Reposted by Professor Amanda SturgillSocial Media Lab @socialmedialab.ca · 20/09/2026Put another way, social media is good at showing what people are talking about (the direction of public attention or sentiment), but it doesn’t reliably convey how many people feel that way (intensity) or how strongly they feel it (speed/force of change). 096
Professor Amanda Sturgill @drsturg.bsky.social · 19/09/2026I so want to say something snarky about some of the student work I see. I must say that although I am thoroughly trained/experienced in critical thinking, I occasionally get very close to being fooled by bad takes. It's at the point where I'm starting to pretend the repost button doesn't exist. 192
Professor Amanda Sturgill @drsturg.bsky.social · 19/09/2026🧵I realized in writing #WeAreAltGov that the national parks have a unique ability to capture the American imagination. Information about what the 45th president was doing to protected lands and culture inspired community action like nothing else. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/19/c...nytimes.comHow Trump Has Disrupted National Parks (Gift Article)Maintenance projects have been put off around the country and resources diverted to the president’s favored projects in Washington. 12310
Professor Amanda Sturgill @drsturg.bsky.social · 19/09/2026A worthy goal could be to live your life so well that it inspires an obituary like this: www.npr.org/2026/09/18/n... I've written quite a few in my time. You put in the extra work on people who mean a lot to you, and Rose Friedman obviously did.npr.orgEditor Rose Friedman, who helped shape NPR's cultural coverage, dies at 38Friedman was in her early 20s when she landed her first position as an editorial assistant at NPR. She became an editor and reporter, and a co-creator of the annual Books We Love reading guide. 0344
Professor Amanda Sturgill @drsturg.bsky.social · 18/09/2026On the Internet, no one knows you're a bot... www.nytimes.com/2026/09/18/t...nytimes.comIran and China Create First-of-Their-Kind Autonomous A.I. Influence Campaigns (Gift Article)The countries, along with Israeli firms, combined Chinese open-source A.I. models and A.I. agents for the campaigns, foreshadowing future online manipulation. 055
Professor Amanda Sturgill @drsturg.bsky.social · 18/09/2026Todays adventure in thoughtfulness: Thinks - I would love to get an idea of interest in a topic Looks - To see if @bsky.app has an embedded polling tool Writes/deletes - Skeet to ask them to consider one Looks - To see for sure there is not Finds - 3rd party tool more... 172
Professor Amanda Sturgill @drsturg.bsky.social · 16/09/2026Half-caff thought: Content creation is spending a lot work making things you then have to exhort people to take, even though those things are free to them. And for the great majority, the payoff is $0. What a hobby. 162
Professor Amanda Sturgill @drsturg.bsky.social · 16/09/2026New UnSpun Episode on how Christian nationalists use, create and are affected by media was inspired by this video resurfacing. bit.ly/UnSpunPod (I'm not linking to the video - you can find it by searching "God made Trump." You might note who has shared it, if you do) 1146
Professor Amanda Sturgill @drsturg.bsky.social · 15/09/2026The visual style suggests this is NotebookLM. People have this weird, and not correct, belief that it's the "safe" AI because you upload content yourself to get things like graphics and slides. If you believe this, I'd urge you to try it with stuff you wrote and see how accurate it is. 0135
Professor Amanda Sturgill @drsturg.bsky.social · 14/09/2026I know the profs moving to Canada made a splash, but did you know there are quite a few countries courting top US academics? Just saw a new one today. #BrainDrain 0100
Professor Amanda Sturgill @drsturg.bsky.social · 14/09/2026Things I learned recently: Want to remake something the way you want it, but you don't have the power/people fight back? Easy. Just use the power you DO have to sabotage it. Then, claim it was always bad. Finally make a new thing the way you want and put your name on it. 050
Professor Amanda Sturgill @drsturg.bsky.social · 14/09/2026(Sipping slowly this morning) One more half-caff thought: Wondering why journalism and academia aren't doing their jobs and assessing and making you aware of issues? You might want to check out the pressures on those sectors over the last few years. There's just less watchdog to go around. 0112
Professor Amanda Sturgill @drsturg.bsky.social · 14/09/2026Half-caff thought: The Radio Act of 1927 was an example of industry needing the government to regulate because signal interference is bad and without an arbiter, stations were trying to use the same parts of the spectrum. They could not manage themselves. AI. 0123
Professor Amanda Sturgill @drsturg.bsky.social · 14/09/2026Half-caff thought: Opioids. Folks took something with helpful properties in some contexts and tried to get it everywhere and got people addicted, causing dreadful harm to people, communities, and societies so they could make obscene amounts of money. AI. 264
Reposted by Professor Amanda SturgillProfessor Amanda Sturgill @drsturg.bsky.social · 11/08/2025I use this one with students: www.ibm.com/think/videos...ibm.comGenerative Models Explained | Technology Explained | IBMIBM expert Kate Soule explains how a popular form of generative AI, large language models, works and what it can do for enterprise. 291
Professor Amanda Sturgill @drsturg.bsky.social · 13/09/2026Whether you think the ends justify the means depends a lot on where you are in the pipeline. 060
Professor Amanda Sturgill @drsturg.bsky.social · 13/09/2026I play games on NYT and on LinkedIn. I take the hints on the LinkedIn ones and don't feel guilty, since using resources is how to get ahead in business. I feel like there's some bigger lesson there, but I have not yet had enough coffee. What's your favorite free little online game? 741
Professor Amanda Sturgill @drsturg.bsky.social · 12/09/2026It looks like they are going for a "go away green" effect... 010
Professor Amanda Sturgill @drsturg.bsky.social · 11/09/2026There are days where for a journalism professor class pales in comparison to world events, so you drag everyone to a TV to watch what is going on (you can always discuss the coverage later). Sept. 11, 2001 was one of those days, made complicated by having a family member working in the Pentagon. 192
Professor Amanda Sturgill @drsturg.bsky.social · 11/09/2026Thought for the day: Which is worse...having people with ill intent use AI to create and post misinformation at scale or having the AI tools do it autonomously?static.klipy.comPudgy Penguin PonderingALT: Pudgy Penguin Pondering 243
Reposted by Professor Amanda SturgillProfessor Amanda Sturgill @drsturg.bsky.social · 09/09/2026In this week's UnSpun journal club, a paper that looks at how people from different education and income levels get value from news. There are some important things publishers are missing. Here, or where you pod. bit.ly/UnSpunPod 043
Professor Amanda Sturgill @drsturg.bsky.social · 09/09/2026Heard on this morning's @nytimes.com The Daily podcast ..."turning the US Postal Service into an arbiter of which states can have mail voting"static.klipy.comApril Fools Joke: 'It's Fine' MemeALT: April Fools Joke: 'It's Fine' Meme 13610
Professor Amanda Sturgill @drsturg.bsky.social · 09/09/2026In this week's UnSpun journal club, a paper that looks at how people from different education and income levels get value from news. There are some important things publishers are missing. Here, or where you pod. bit.ly/UnSpunPod 043