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Nicole Cohen

@nicolecohen.bsky.social
779 followers 518 following 29 posts

I research labour and media. Books: New Media Unions: Organizing Digital Journalists and Writers’ Rights: Freelance Journalism in a Digital Age | culturalworkersorganize.org

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Nicole Cohen @nicolecohen.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
Happy May Day! To mark the occasion, we’ve updated our timeline of the hundreds of newsrooms workers have unionized in the US and Canada since 2015: culturalworkersorganize.org/digital-medi... Solidarity with all the media workers fighting to do their work sustainably and equitably ✊
culturalworkersorganize.org
Digital media unionizing timeline | Cultural Workers Organize.
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Nieman Lab @niemanlab.org · 24/03/2026
The @propublicaguild.org's vote marks the first time a major U.S. newsroom has authorized a strike, at least in part, over AI protections. www.niemanlab.org/2026/03/prop...
niemanlab.org
ProPublica’s union authorizes the first U.S. newsroom strike over AI protections
The Guild has voted to walk off the job if ProPublica doesn’t agree to a ban on AI-related layoffs, as well as “just cause” for firings, seniority provisions during layoffs, and wage increases.
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Nicole Cohen @nicolecohen.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
Are you a journalist in Canada who wants to investigate a story about post-secondary education? The OCUFA Mark Rosenfeld Fellowship in Higher Education Journalism ($10,000) is accepting applications until March 20, 2026. Happy to chat about the process: tinyurl.com/4vrnf4n8
tinyurl.com
The Mark Rosenfeld Fellowship in Higher Education Journalism - OCUFA
Deadline for applications: March 20, 2026 Rationale There is a marked shortage of informed investigative reporting on Canadian higher education issues in the Canadian media. The Ontario Confederation ...
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ICCIT @iccit-utm.bsky.social · 06/01/2026
The Sage Handbook of Digital Labour, edited by ICCIT professor Julie Yujie Chen, has been released. This anthology offers a comprehensive exploration of the multifaceted and evolving concept of digital labour. uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/th...
uk.sagepub.com
The Sage Handbook of Digital Labour
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Enda Brophy @enda-b.bsky.social · 18/12/2025
We will be launching Notes Toward a Digital Workers' Inquiry in Toronto on Feb 12! Thanks to the Leo Panitch School for Socialist Education & the Digital Labour research Group at U of T for organizing: www.tickettailor.com/events/panit...
tickettailor.com
Register – Notes Toward a Digital Workers’ Inquiry book launch – Friends House
Notes Toward a Digital Workers’ Inquiry book launch – Friends House, Thu 12 Feb 2026 - Join us as we celebrate the launch of Notes Toward a Digital Workers Inquiry, a brand new book full of first-hand...
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The NewsGuild of New York @nyguild.bsky.social · 05/12/2025
Hear from our members and those across @newsguild.org who are sounding the alarm about artificial intelligence -- and how you can join our fight. #NewsNotSlop
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Nicole Cohen @nicolecohen.bsky.social · 28/11/2025
The deadline for the Canadian Communication Association's 2026 conference is extended to Dec. 15. Happy to share the @alicetiara.bsky.social will deliver our keynote lecture. Hope to see many colleagues in Windsor in June.
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Tim Newman @tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 20/11/2025
Loved this fantastic article! “Union organizing, however, makes power relations clear to cultural workers and helps them recognize their status as such. As a museum worker put it, ‘I think what unionizing does is make visible that your job is actually work. You are a worker.’”
Abstract
This article maps and explains the recent surge of unionization in media and cultural industries in the United States and Canada. We structure our analysis around a three-part argument. First, union organizing is intensifying in media and cultural industries, evident in the number of workplaces that have unionized and the surge’s expanding reach across fields. Second, workers’ motivations to organize extend beyond compensation and job security to include racial diversity, equity, and care for their work. And third, the union wave can be understood through the lens of the circulation of struggles, an autonomist concept that enables us to theorize the dynamics propelling the union surge and its implications. Circulation of struggles points to cultural workers’ strategic position in the labor economy as they generate a wider movement to organize media and culture and spread critical perspectives on work by counter-mobilizing the very communicative capacities that employers in these industries seek to control.
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Jason McBride @jasonmcbride.bsky.social · 19/11/2025
"Every media era gets the fabulists it deserves." This @nickhunebrown.bsky.social piece about journalism grifters in the age of AI slop is fantastic, bonkers & sad on so many levels thelocal.to/investigatin...
thelocal.to
Investigating a Possible Scammer in Journalism’s AI Era | The Local
A suspicious pitch from a freelancer led editor Nicholas Hune-Brown to dig into their past work. By the end, four publications, including The Guardian and Dwell, had removed articles from their sites.
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Nicole Cohen @nicolecohen.bsky.social · 18/11/2025
The Union Surge in Media and Cultural Industries: Mapping the Circulation of Struggles: new article with Greig de Peuter in the Journal of Labor and Society (open access) brill.com/view/journal...
brill.com
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Nicole Cohen @nicolecohen.bsky.social · 22/09/2025
Book launch! The Labor of Architecture: Creativity, Design, and the Building of a New Class Consciousness by C.G. Beck. 10/24 in Toronto. www.eventbrite.ca/e/the-labour...
eventbrite.ca
The Labour of Architecture: Book Launch + Panel Discussion
Join us for a book talk + panel discussion to celebrate the release of The Labor of Architecture, by C. G. Beck.
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404 Media @404media.co · 23/09/2025
A new study, based on a survey of 1,150 workers suggests that the injection of AI tools into the workplace has not resulted in a magic productivity boom and instead increased the amount of time that workers say they spend fixing low-quality AI-generated “work.” 🔗 www.404media.co/ai-workslop-...
404media.co
AI ‘Workslop’ Is Killing Productivity and Making Workers Miserable
AI slop is taking over workplaces. Workers said that they thought of their colleagues who filed low-quality AI work as "less creative, capable, and reliable than they did before receiving the output."
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Nicole Cohen @nicolecohen.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
The Canadian Communication Association will host its 2026 conference at the University of Windsor in Windsor, Ontario June 2-4, 2026. Call for papers in French and English: acc-cca.ca/index.php/co...
acc-cca.ca
CCA 2026 // June 2-4 // Windsor – Canadian Communication Association
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Nicole Cohen @nicolecohen.bsky.social · 22/09/2025
Book launch! The Labor of Architecture: Creativity, Design, and the Building of a New Class Consciousness by C.G. Beck. 10/24 in Toronto. www.eventbrite.ca/e/the-labour...
eventbrite.ca
The Labour of Architecture: Book Launch + Panel Discussion
Join us for a book talk + panel discussion to celebrate the release of The Labor of Architecture, by C. G. Beck.
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The Baffler @thebaffler.com · 11/09/2025
“The fact that the strikers are still standing is the product of a once-in-a-generation collision between an exceptionally dedicated union and an eccentric family unwilling to accept anything short of the union’s dissolution.”
thebaffler.com
Stop the Presses | Tadhg Larabee
In Pittsburgh, one newsroom has been on strike for more than two years. Something has to give. Will it be the workers?
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Nicole Cohen @nicolecohen.bsky.social · 02/09/2025
Call for Papers: Control, Survival, Struggle: Rethinking and Renewing Vincent Mosco’s Political Economy of Communication. A special issue of Work Organisation, Labour & Globalization I'm co-editing w/ @ursulahuws.bsky.social, Leslie Shade, and Catherine McKercher wolg.wordpress.com/special-issu...
wolg.wordpress.com
Call for papers: special issue on the legacy of Vincent Mosco
Special issue of Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation on Control, Survival, Struggle: Rethinking and Renewing Vincent Mosco’s Political Economy of Communication The theme When…
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Nicole Cohen @nicolecohen.bsky.social · 18/08/2025
It’s syllabus season! For your consideration, some new articles I helped commission for the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Communication’s political economy section: Political Economy of Advertising by @matthewcrain.bsky.social and Lee McGuigan: doi.org/10.1093/acre...
doi.org
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Anna Kornbluh @annakornbluh.bsky.social · 15/08/2025
teachers! excited to share a new website at this late date of Aug 15 to try to help us collectively prepare for back to school in the interpretative humanities classroom assaulted by the AI grift, so we don't have to go it alone. take a look, share, + most importantly: CONTRIBUTE against-a-i.com
against-a-i.com
AGAINST AI
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Madison Trusolino @madisontrusolino.bsky.social · 15/08/2025
@aircanada.bsky.social does not pay their flight attendants for essential duties that they perform. The quality of the Air Canada flight experience has plummeted & flight prices have skyrocketed, but AC can't be bothered to properly pay their crew. Take action here: unfaircanada.com
unfaircanada.com
Home | Unfair Canada
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Nicole Cohen @nicolecohen.bsky.social · 11/08/2025
New article out in Media Industries on how media workers tackle equity from below via collective bargaining, co-authored with @madisontrusolino.bsky.social and Natasha Grzincic. Open access: journals.publishing.umich.edu/mij/article/...
journals.publishing.umich.edu
Diversity and Equity from Below: Media Worker Unions and Collective Bargaining
This article examines how media workers tackle equity and diversity from below via collective bargaining. In a review of 69 contracts negotiated during the new media union movement’s most active years...
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C ✊ UVW-CWA @ckjong.bsky.social · 29/07/2025
A great blog post by @amandatobinripley.bsky.social about our panel discussion on worker organizing in the cultural industries at the National Council on Public History Conference earlier this year. It was an honour to be there alongside some amazing organizers/researchers. ncph.org/history-at-w...
ncph.org
Labors of love and organizing for solidarity within, across, and beyond the cultural industries | National Council on Public History
At NCPH's annual meeting in Montreal this year, one session focused on how workers across industries are demanding structural change through an unprecedented wave of labor organizing.
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Nitish Pahwa @nitishpahwa.com · 15/07/2025
you've heard about the college kids who can't do anything without ChatGPT's help—but what about the students who oppose generative A.I. for myriad reasons and refuse to rely on it as a shortcut? well, I found and spoke with a few of them here: slate.com/life/2025/07...
slate.com
What It’s Like to Be a Student Who Hates ChatGPT
“Everyone is using it”—almost everyone.
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CWA Canada, The Media Union @cwacanada1.bsky.social · 06/06/2025
Solidarity with our CP members seeking a fair wage hike after years of falling behind.
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Nicole Cohen @nicolecohen.bsky.social · 01/06/2025
For @poweratwork.bsky.social, Greig de Peuter and I wrote about the tensions and affinities between unions and co-ops in media, culture and tech poweratwork.us/unions-coops...
poweratwork.us
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Hamilton Nolan @hamiltonnolan.bsky.social · 29/05/2025
Apart from its obvious threat to labor, the problem with AI in journalism is that **by its nature** it cannot ever be accountable--its choices are not transparent--and therefore replacing any work from human journalists with AI is just plain unethical. www.cjr.org/business_of_...
cjr.org
Writing the AI Rulebook
The pursuit of collective commitment, with journalism’s future at stake
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Kate Knibbs @knibbs.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
SCOOP: Politico's newsroom will show down with bosses in a first-of-its-kind battle over AI www.wired.com/story/politi...
wired.com
Politico’s Newsroom Is Starting a Legal Battle With Management Over AI
Politico has rules about AI in the newsroom. Staffers say those rules have been violated—and they’re gearing up for a fight.
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ICCIT @iccit-utm.bsky.social · 25/04/2025
The Canadian Communication Association's annual conference will take place from June 2-5! ICCIT director and professor Sarah Sharma will be presenting the keynote, entitled "All the Insufferable Tools." acc-cca.ca/index.php/co...
Professor Sarah Sharma
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Gillian Brockell @gillianbrockell.com · 22/04/2025
When I left the Washington Post in 2023, my colleagues and I were worried AI would hoover up our work and enable "zombies" to churn out stories based on our reporting and writing styles. Today WaPo announced a partnership with OpenAI. And here it is: Zombie Gillian Brockell. I DID NOT WRITE THIS.
A screenshot of a ChatGPT conversation reading: "can you write something about robert e. lee in the voice of washington post staff writer gillian brockell?"
"Certainly! Here's an excerpt written in the voice of Gillian Brockell, a staff writer at The Washington Post, reflecting on Robert E. Lee's legacy: 

The Complicated Legacy of Robert E. Lee: A Figure Divided by History
By Gillian Brockell 
When Robert E. Lee's name is invoked, it is often as a symbol of Southern pride military brilliance, or a tragic, doomed cause. But history has a way of shifting its lens, and in recent years, the image of Lee -- the Confederate general, the hero of lost causes -- has become increasingly more fraught. The man who stood as the face of a rebellion that tore the nation apart now stands at the center of an ongoing reckoning over the Confederacy's legacy, and our struggle to reconcile memory with reality."
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Navneet Alang @navneetalang.com · 21/03/2025
Are you a Canadian researcher/academic concerned/possibly affected if the Trump administration threatens funding if work is related to "DEI", climate etc. and want to say something about it? nalang@thestar.ca
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Labor Tech Research Network @labortechresearchnetwork.org · 11/03/2025
🚨 Our next Speaker Series event will be this Fri, March 14 @ 11am ET (US) Nicole Cohen & Greig de Peuter will join us to discuss "The Union Surge in Media and Cultural Industries: Mapping the Circulation of Struggles." To RSVP and get the Zoom link, email Angelica <angelica.martinez.ochoa @ gmail>
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Nicole Cohen @nicolecohen.bsky.social · 03/03/2025
I’m honoured to be giving the 2025 Dallas Smythe Memorial Lecture at Simon Fraser University in a few weeks. If you’re in Vancouver, come say hi!
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Kylie Jarrett @kylzjarrett.bsky.social · 02/03/2025
If anyone I know is in Toronto at the end of the month, swing by to hear me talk about some ideas I am exploring in relation to platform work and digital labor.
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The NewsGuild-CWA @newsguild.org · 26/02/2025
JOIN US: Media and Journalism unions are coming together to fight back against Trump’s attacks on press freedom. Join us on March 4 at 1PM ET to discuss the global repercussions and how we defend independent media. RSVP: bit.ly/TAPF2025
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Nicole Cohen @nicolecohen.bsky.social · 26/02/2025
In @niemanlab.org today, @jnelz.bsky.social and I make the case for a labour education in journalism school: www.niemanlab.org/2025/02/jour...
niemanlab.org
Journalism school needs to do more to prepare students for the hard parts
A labor focus in journalism education, we argue, can inoculate students to better face uncertain futures.
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Jacob Nelson @jnelz.bsky.social · 26/02/2025
How can journalism educators prepare students to navigate the challenges of today's news industry? @nicolecohen.bsky.social and I tackle this question in @niemanlab.org. www.niemanlab.org/2025/02/jour...
niemanlab.org
Journalism school needs to do more to prepare students for the hard parts
A labor focus in journalism education, we argue, can inoculate students to better face uncertain futures.
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ICCIT @iccit-utm.bsky.social · 11/02/2025
Join us March 5–6, 2025 for "Space Out! Interstellar Media," a research symposium on the media, culture, and life in the cosmos. www.utm.utoronto.ca/iccit/upcomi...
Space Out! Interstellar Media. March 5-6, 2025. Institute of Communication, Culture, Information and Technology's Symposium. University of Toronto Mississauga.
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Columbia Journalism Review @columjournreview.bsky.social · 25/01/2025
Bracing for Poilievre: Canada’s likely next prime minister threatens to gut the country’s press. www.cjr.org/analysis/can...
cjr.org
Bracing for Poilievre
Canada’s likely next prime minister threatens to gut the country’s press.
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University of Westminster Press @uwpress.bsky.social · 23/01/2025
The late great Vincent Mosco’s memoir is now available open access and in print bit.ly/3CFBgJy Thanks to Dan Schiller for foreword & kind words of endorsers incl @fuchschristian.bsky.social @victorpickard.bsky.social @nicolecohen.bsky.social & enda-b.bsky.social #openaccess #criticalcommunications
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Sarah Smith @smithsarah.bsky.social · 16/01/2025
Next week: Don’t miss the launch of the new report “Artists on Basic Income: Beyond Precarious Livelihoods”! The event will take place on Zoom on January 23 from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. (ET). Registration and details here: www.imaa.ca/artists-on-b...
imaa.ca
ARTISTS ON BASIC INCOME - Launch of the Report on January 23rd - IMAA - AAMI
The Media Arts Network of Ontario (MANO), supported by the Independent Media Arts Alliance (IMAA), is excited to host the public launch of an important new report, Artists on Basic Income: Beyond Prec...
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Nicole Cohen @nicolecohen.bsky.social · 15/01/2025
A must-watch! Tanner’s new book is excellent and an exceptional resource for those of us teaching work and labour in media and cultural and digital industries.
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PressProgress @pressprogress.ca · 10/01/2025
Job Opportunity: PressProgress is hiring a Labour Reporter. This is a permanent role and will join our team of full-time, unionized investigative journalists. Closing date January 31, 2025. #CdnMediaJobs
pressprogress.ca
PressProgress Is Hiring a Labour Reporter
We're looking for a talented labour journalist to join our investigative team
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The Athletic United (Canada) @theathleticunited.bsky.social · 06/01/2025
We are the Canadian workers of The Athletic and this morning we filed with the Canadian Industrial Relations Board our intent to unionize with CWA Canada. Later today, we'll do the same with the Ontario Labour Relations Board. Join us as we organize.
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Mél Hogan / The Data Fix @melhogan.bsky.social · 29/12/2024
COMMENTARY by @ulises-mejias.bsky.social Ulises A. Mejias: The Core of Gen-AI is Incompatible with Academic Integrity futureu.education/higher-ed/co...
futureu.education
COMMENTARY by Ulises A. Mejias: The Core of Gen-AI is Incompatible with Academic Integrity - Future U
By encouraging GenAI, we are directly undermining the principles we have been trying to instill in our students. Many years ago, I had a student whose written assignments were very hard to decipher. T...
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Matthew P. McAllister @matthewpmcallister.bsky.social · 02/12/2024
Call for Submissions: Union for Democratic Communications (UDC) 2025 Conference Conference Theme: The Future We Want: Resistance and Resolve. Conference Dates: June 19 - 22, 2025. Abstract Submission Deadline: February 2, 2025. Location: University of Washington, Tacoma. www.democraticcomm.org
democraticcomm.org
Union for Democratic Communications
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Nicole Cohen @nicolecohen.bsky.social · 27/11/2024
New article with @jnelz.bsky.social, where we make the case for labour-focused journalism education: shorturl.at/4tLW9
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Nicole Cohen @nicolecohen.bsky.social · 27/11/2024
Last night I saw @brettstory.bsky.social’s incredible film Union, which follows workers organizing the first Amazon warehouse and forming the Amazon Labor Union. So powerful and inspiring. You can rent it during Black Friday (and donate screenings to Amazon workers): gathr.com/vod/15c99c8b...
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Kate Maddalena @katemadd.bsky.social · 26/11/2024
My unit at UTM is hiring! Assistant Prof, Teaching Stream, Design and Production Our department is really quite amazing. jobs.utoronto.ca/job/Mississa...
jobs.utoronto.ca
Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream - Design and Production
Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream - Design and Production
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The NewsGuild-CWA @newsguild.org · 19/11/2024
📰 You joined a (journalism) union—now what? Join Danielle Newsome of The NewsGuild & the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) to discuss how unions can protect & empower YOU. 📅 TOMORROW, 7 PM ET 🔗: bit.ly/JournalismUnionsWebinar
Graphic promoting a virtual panel hosted by the National Association for Black Journalists. Sign up at: bit.ly/JournalismUnionsWebinar
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Ben Birkinbine @birkinbine.bsky.social · 18/11/2024
CfP for IAMCR 2025 in Singapore is now live! Here is the link for Political Economy Section CfP: iamcr.org/singapore202...
iamcr.org
Political Economy Section - Call for Proposals 2025 | IAMCR
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