Sign in

Rahul Bhargava

@rahulbot.bsky.social
685 followers 293 following 311 posts

Creative data & computational journalism. "Community Data" book eBook and pre-order available: communitydatabook.com

PostsRepliesMedia
Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 8h
It's increasing becoming hard to talk about "impacts of AI" without more narrowly specifying what industry or application is your focus. Do we talk about the "internal combustion engine"? No. We debate impacts of about cars, trains, lawn mowers, or leaf blowers as separate things. (useful metaphor?)
110
Reposted by Rahul Bhargava
Marco @mcognetta.bsky.social · 23h
🚨 [Token][ization] Paper Alert 🚨 Tokenization is a wildly understudied area of language modeling despite it having effects across all of NLP. Over the past ~8 months, 32 (!) tokenizer researchers put together the most comprehensive survey of the field. Check it out!
112033
Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Good news for @mediacloud.bsky.social users: our software speed-ups have enabled us to *double* the weekly default query quota. Hope this helps your work! We'll keep increasing if the servers can handle the growing usage.
screenshot of small area on profile page showing "Quota is 8000 hits per week" notice
001
Reposted by Rahul Bhargava
Catherine D'Ignazio (she/her/ella) @kanarinka.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
MIT spent $3 million on 500 AI-capable surveillance cameras while laying people off, shutting down libraries, and canceling journal subscriptions. In this article, 4 faculty & I discuss our new arts initiative to celebrate surveillance and repression on college campuses: fnl.mit.edu/how-we-learn...
fnl.mit.edu
How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Campus Surveillance – MIT Faculty Newsletter
6357166
Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Weekend read: I sat down and wrote up a version of my SciCAR keynote talk on "teaching data journalists in the AI era". This one is about how we learn and know things, and I hope it sparks relevant reflections for you. dataculture.northeastern.edu/2026/09/17/s...
dataculture.northeastern.edu
Learn CARefully (keynote on teaching AI for data journalism at SciCAR)
Interrogating our datafied society
010
Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Another SciCAR highlight: Prof. Francesca Morini from @uclab.bsky.social at FH Potsdam summarized insights from viz research for data journalists. I always enjoy a talk translating research findings into concrete and tips 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
010
Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
How can we learn & teach AI for data journalism? Honored last week to present a SciCAR keynote with new reflections. I think bringing back "computer assisted reporting" as a phrase might help here, to retain power and control by learning "CAR-efully" 😉
121
Reposted by Rahul Bhargava
Charlie Beckett @charliebeckett.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Could this be a turning point in the anti-MSM politics trend? Or is it just be an eddy in the ebbing of mainstream media political power? Seems to me that Trump's usual attempts to bypass and subvert the usual channels might not work this time. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
CNN, MS NOW and Politico file lawsuit against Trump's White House ban
Major US networks later suspended White House TV coverage of Trump as he headed to New York for a UN summit.
101
Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Weird billionaire media moguls should be criticized & mocked relentlessly. As usually, @theonion.com leads the way: theonion.com/the-onions-e...
theonion.com
The Onion’s Exclusive Interview With Larry Ellison
Larry Ellison is the co-founder and executive chairman of Oracle, as well as the largest shareholder of the Paramount Skydance Corporation. The Onion sat down with the billionaire to discuss his…
010
Reposted by Rahul Bhargava
james. @abacadabber.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
They really should be explicit in the headline that the rise in South Asian hate rhetoric is stemming directly from the united states government.
Screenshot from article: “A recent example came last week when the Department of Homeland Security posted an image on social media depicting an Indian man with the words "Get off our roads, you don't know how to drive Mr. Singh."”
241820700
Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Worth your listen: a solid episode of @theverge.com's Decoder podcast on the business of digital journalism and related AI impacts. www.theverge.com/podcast/9807...
theverge.com
It’s about ethics in journalism, with Ben Smith
Semafor’s editor-in-chief on billionaire owners, news influencers, and the anti-scale era of media.
000
Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
What do you think of the 80s? This op-ed will probably change your mind. Prof. Kaufman (my boss!) summarized the thesis of his new book for the NYT: "The Decade That Ruined Everything" www.nytimes.com/2026/09/09/o...
"Many look fondly at the 1960s — the protests, the music, the social revolution - and bypass the decade that is easily mocked but was just as consequential. It is time to set aside the wistful nostalgia for shoulder pads, Rubik's Cube, and Pac-Man and recognize that the 1980s actually built the architecture of the world we inhabit today.
Dismantling it is the first step to escape."
000
Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Great use of @mediacloud.bsky.social data: @joshuabenton.com found few outlets have taken up "Gulf of America" renaming www.niemanlab.org/2026/09/trum...
niemanlab.org
Trump can’t get the media to use “Gulf of America.” Will “Lake America” be any different?
Even the news sites Republicans prefer have gone back to calling it the Gulf of Mexico most of the time. And the trend line is not in Trump's favor.
046
Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
I've long ranted against "big milk"s influence in the U.S. I'm lactose intolerant, like most of the planet, and that's not a deficiency. There's even more to this story about milk, racism, commerce, and "nutritional imperialism": theconversation.com/lactose-into...
theconversation.com
Lactose intolerance is actually the human norm – but racism, the US government and business interests have made it into a condition
The vast majority of people around the world are lactose intolerant. But American propaganda and scientific biases have made milk and dairy products a staple in global diets.
001
Reposted by Rahul Bhargava
John Oxley @joxley.jmoxley.co.uk · 09/09/2026
Also, why is this basically written up as "quirky crowd make an embarrassing mistake" and not "violent racists form mob because Asian people use hotel"?
5133661131
Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
UN: Let's use a more realistic map! 🎉👏🏽 US: Hell no to radicals and "equal area" projections! 🙈 Me: embarrassed & outraged 🤬 guess I need to keep showing that West Wing clip in my data storytelling class each year 🤦🏽‍♂️ news.un.org/en/story/202...
news.un.org
UN tells the world: Stop making Africa look small
The UN General Assembly has voted overwhelmingly to encourage governments, schools and tech companies worldwide to stop using maps that make Africa look far smaller than it really is.
010
Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Discussions of Flock surveillance cameras, privacy & misuse are growing across communities in the US. Local news coverage reflects this. I did a quick state-by-state dive into @mediacloud.bsky.social data from the start of the year and there is a clear growing wave of coverage.
Ridgeline chart showing rising local news coverage of Flock across U.S. states from February to August, with layered waves per state peaking in August. Colorado, Florida, New York, Texas, and Wisconsin show greatest numbers of stories.
131
Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
I knew this Amazon-book-eating story sounded familiar... I recently read "Service Model" by @aptshadow.bsky.social & there's a chapter where the protagonists discover robot "librarians" doing very similar things! Why does life keep imitating art in the wrong ways 🤦🏽‍♂️ www.404media.co/we-tracked-a...
404media.co
We Tracked a Shipment of Rare Books. It Ended at an Amazon AI Training Facility
We placed a tracking device in a shipment of rare books to see which AI company was buying it, and found an Amazon facility where Amazon scans and destroys books.
011
Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Problem gambling is a ballooning crisis, especially among young men.
011
Reposted by Rahul Bhargava
Mediagazer @mediagazer.com · 02/09/2026
NewsGuild of New York, representing 2,000+ NYT workers, urges NYT to drop a potential Athletic-Kalshi partnership, saying it threatens journalistic independence (Front Office Sports) Main Link | Mediagazer Permalink
087
Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
In Germany 🇩🇪 this month? Excited to share I've been invited to give a keynote at this year's SciCAR. Sept 17-18 in Dortmund. I'll be offering perspectives on "training data journalists in the era of AI". Review the schedule and register 🎟️ 26.scicar.de/scicar26/
26.scicar.de
SciCAR 2026
Schedule, talks and talk submissions for SciCAR 2026
110
Reposted by Rahul Bhargava
Wendy H. Wong @profwhw.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
📣 Join me on Tuesday, September 15 at UBC Okanagan, as I unpack what “Big Tech” really means, how your empower them, and why it matters. 🗓️ Tuesday, September 15, 2026 7:00pm–8:00pm 🔗 Register here: lnkd.in/gzNyShyJ
011
Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Congrats to my friend and mentor @ethanz.bsky.social on his move to McGill 👏🏽 The context? Global programs are recruiting away leading U.S. researchers. The result of decades of attacks on universities, major funding cuts, tech-facism, etc... 😢🤬 ethanzuckerman.com/2026/08/27/m...
ethanzuckerman.com
My personal contribution to the US/Canada trade war - Ethan Zuckerman
I've accepted a position at McGill University and will be moving my lab there from UMass in summer 2027... with excitement and some sadness.
010
Reposted by Rahul Bhargava
Alondra Nelson @alondra.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Canada hires away nearly 50 US scholars File under: brain drain; academic freedom www.nytimes.com/2026/08/27/w...
nytimes.com
Canada Hires U.S. Scholars From Harvard and Other Top Universities (Gift Article)
A crackdown on American academia by the Trump administration has handed Canadian universities a rare opportunity to lure some top researchers north.
413564
Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Media Cloud update: a small change to how we de-deduplicate by URL made a *major* impact on our disk I/O, speeding up every interaction with the index! You should see more responsive and faster search results, and we should see less backlog build-up on story import 🎉 Thx to Phil for this!
000
Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Fun fact: for a prior last round of @mediacloud.bsky.social server purchases we named each after a journalist that inspired the team.... Nellie Bly was of those. This short video explains more about why. Occasionally I still type `ssh bly` into my terminal by habit 🤣
011
Reposted by Rahul Bhargava
Nick Diakopoulos @ndiakopoulos.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
🎺 Announcing the Agentic AI Investigative Journalism Challenge Winners! A few months ago we challenged journalists and computing/info/data scientists to develop agent skills for Claude that could be used to advance investigative journalism.
143
Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Did you know Boston buildings are required to report energy use & emissions to the city? @danzedek.bsky.social led our @northeasternu.bsky.social grad students into the data, finding surprising amounts of hospital energy use (for @cwbeacon.bsky.social): commonwealthbeacon.org/environment/...
commonwealthbeacon.org
With public health at stake, many Boston hospitals struggle to meet the city’s air pollution goals
“If the city wants to make real progress on climate goals, the building sector is where the biggest changes have to happen.”
000
Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
The way a stroopwafel should be eaten. My take: the fresh made ones are not worth it... they have no difference in texture and you can't dip them!
A pre-made thin dutch caramel pancake sitting on top of a cup of tea
000
Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
How does a museum of anthropology tackle climate change? The ways of knowing we privilege in our civic spaces matters, and produces different outcomes for visitors One of my fav museums in the world answers the question Wereldmuseum Amsterdam (formerly Tropenmuseum).
100
Reposted by Rahul Bhargava
OurCupBot @ourcup.info · 20/08/2026
🔔 What a World Cup! I hope this little project sparked a new connection to an immigrant neighbor. Going to sleep until the next tournament... next summer with the women in Brazil 🇧🇷 ⚽️🎉
021
Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Considering applying for our Data Theatre replication grants? The team has scheduled office hours to answer any questions from potential applicants on Aug 27th 1-2pm EDT. More background at www.athe.org/page/dtgrants
000
Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
C+J is again bringing together journalists and academics this fall for 2 days of talks, demos, workshops, and more! This is *the* place to stay up to date on computation and journalism. Oct 2-3 at Northwestern. Program and registration now live at www.cj2026.northwestern.edu/schedule/
cj2026.northwestern.edu
Schedule | Computation + Journalism 2026 Symposium
📍map
043
Reposted by Rahul Bhargava
Mark Jacob @markjacob.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Rep. Ralph Norman, who’s in a Senate runoff with Lindsey Graham’s sister Darline, secretly urged a military-backed coup in 2021 to keep Trump in power. But the NY Times thinks it’s no big deal. In its last 92 stories mentioning Norman over 3 years and 7 months, it hasn’t stated that fact once. 1/7🧵
Pix of Norman
9430081437
Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Lovely public data sculpture from the "Zero Flags" project in Amsterdam. The long row of flags attracts interest & attention... but then walking up you discover that they are all countries that outlaw homosexuality in some way! Details on the bottom of each flagpole. www.zeroflagsproject.nl
010
Reposted by Rahul Bhargava
Victoria Rose Richards @aerialembroidery.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
'You'll choke too' - an aerial embroidery landscape inspired by all the wildfires happening right now... I'm upset every time I smell smoke outside and somehow we have people starting them maliciously too! But we all breathe the same air so they'll choke too (1/2 - see thread for close-ups)
An embroidery hoop containing a sewn landscape from above. It shows a forest on the right, a line of fire and charred ground with smoke on the left. The smoke is felted wool.
7866662396
Reposted by Rahul Bhargava
Joseph Cox @josephcox.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Update: Google just sent me a statement saying it is “rolling back” this AI feature that let anyone make completely bullshit satellite images. Comes after our demos of the tool and those from OSINT researchers. One of the worst AI tools I’ve ever seen bsky.app/profile/jose...
6936601218
Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
I approve of the font options for customizing your Swiss Army Knife. I’d pick Futura… you?
Photo of sign with options like Modrome, Futura, Futura Italic, and Avant Garde. You pick a font to etch your name in the blade and case of the Swiss Army knife Poster with examples of each font option available for etching onto the Swiss Army knife case and blade
010
Reposted by Rahul Bhargava
404 Media @404media.co · 27/07/2026
As tech backlash hits the mainstream, the ‘Summer of Ludd’ proves we don’t need social media to hang out and have a good time.
404media.co
Being a Luddite Is Fun Again
As tech backlash hits the mainstream, the ‘Summer of Ludd’ proves we don’t need social media to hang out and have a good time.
224262
Reposted by Rahul Bhargava
Brandon Friedman @brandonfriedman.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
Musk calls for the assassination of a reporter who embarrassed him with basic questions
14049781589
Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
As a US citizen in Berlin, it's impossible to overstate how hard the Nazi and Stasi museums hit right now. The first few parts of *every* exhibit echo what is happening in the US. I know people are saying it, but seeing it here is different. 🧵
12311
Reposted by Rahul Bhargava
Charlotte Clymer @charlotteclymer.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
This story is crazy. It would appear Trump admin officials rigged their nationally televised high school civics contest to keep a young man from a Sikh family out of the finalists. www.notus.org/national/ame...
notus.org
Suspicion and Doubt at the National Civics Contest
America’s finest young scholars competed to mark their country's birthday. It led to a disputed finish in the age of mistrust.
10558972287
Reposted by Rahul Bhargava
dr. thrasher, an american writer in ex(archia)(xile) @thrasherxy.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
“The AAUP stands in solidarity with Steven Thrasher, the inaugural Daniel H. Renberg Chair of Social Justice in Reporting at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, who last week filed a lawsuit against Northwestern and against partisan government actors” www.aaup.org/news/northwe...
aaup.org
Northwestern University’s Campaign against Free Expression
The AAUP stands in solidarity with Steven Thrasher, the inaugural Daniel H.
221574
Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Great example of interactive exhibit design at the Disgusting Food Museum in Berlin. This box releases a terrible smell and captures how your reaction changes in photos. A delightful piece I'll use in my future interactive exhibit design teaching 👏🏽 disgustingfoodmuseum.berlin/en/disgustin...
130
Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Powerful data mural in Berlin: artist Susanne Kunjappu-Jellinek commemorates the 136 people who were killed while trying to escape over the wall from GDR. Each flower represents one individual, and the text highlights escape as a form of resistance. www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/sites/184...
020
Reposted by Rahul Bhargava
J. Nathan Matias @natematias.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
HUGE: This summer, countless scientists & technologists can travel to hug their families again after a federal court suspended a Trump administration censorship-at-the-border scheme targeting people working online safety. 🎉 Many thanks to all who worked on this 🎉 knightcolumbia.org/content/fede...
knightcolumbia.org
Federal Court Suspends Trump Immigration Policy Targeting Technology Researchers
16019
Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
New work from SDU using Media Could to help study where Danes get their news in an election season, where political elites post (& partisanship), and related chatbot use. Great example of cross platform work to understand an information ecosystem more. findresearcher.sdu.dk/ws/portalfil...
010
Reposted by Rahul Bhargava
Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
Comments due by Monday on the attempt to politicize science/aka kill American research as we know it. Do it at the link (counter the ton of Heritage-foudnatoin-prompted comments): www.regulations.gov/document/OMB...
25440315
Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
This is the kind of World Cup reporting I love: local, contextual, and joyful in the way it connects us to our neighbors. This massive media event has been a welcome break from all the violent nationalist rhetoric in the US. www.bostonglobe.com/2026/06/22/m...
bostonglobe.com
In Worcester, a Ghanaian community ready to celebrate the World Cup - The Boston Globe
At one eatery, Ghanaians opined about the meaning of the tournament ahead of Tuesday's Ghana-England match in Foxborough.
010
Reposted by Rahul Bhargava
Fabian Offert @zentralwerkstatt.org · 23/06/2026
Excited to share that we are now inviting proposals for our upcoming Critical AI Studies? conference at @ucsantabarbara.bsky.social on Oct. 9&10, 2026. Please see the full CfP here: huml.ucsb.edu/conference. Submissions are due July 31, 2026. For questions DM me or @owenleonard.bsky.social.
Poster for the conference "Critical Artificial Intelligence Studies?" at the University of California, Santa Barbara, October 9&10, 2026. The subtitle says "An interdisciplinary conference on a field in formation."
49642