fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
It’s the first day of the rest of my life.
Tags: Self-awareness, Reflections, Thoughts And Feelings, Personal, Fatherhood

It’s the first day of the rest of my life.

I received my father’s blessings while wishing that I could be as good of a father as he was. I told him about my doubts at one point that I felt like I may not even become as great of a father as he was for me…he laughed at the thought.

I always told myself that life is a continuous cycle of new beginnings. I realized that this new beginning will become a never-ending cycle of beginnings, and I will only be able to share every single one with a carbon copy humanoid replica of myself, while making a conscious contribution to society.

To my son…

I pray that you embrace yourself fully and choose to be yourself unapologetically, learn from my mistakes, and then own your own as you gain the fortitude to make decisions for yourself. I pray that your sense of humility matches your level of self confidence, and that you achieve everything in this world you could ever dream of.

You’ve only been here 3 days *(insert lil Uzi vert "I only been here 3 days meme)

but the world is already yours.

As we spend the rest of our days dying, remember to live. Purpose is that compelling force that reminds you that you are alive. you will find it when in the midst of it...and it will feel like nothing else in the world ever mattered. you can’t ask someone else to confirm it...you just have to know.

Always remind yourself that pain & adversity doesn’t last forever.

I gave up on a lot of things in my life...but I found my purpose...it was you. Lord willing, I look forward to the lessons I will learn from raising you from this day on.

Love.

SJ.
Daada -Father of my Father
By: Hina Vahidy
Tags: Death, Grandfather, Fatherhood, Love, Care

I was an orphan, then you showed me the sight of fatherhood. I never asked for my father as you are his father. I saw you and you were with me. You were with me before school time seeing me study like crazy. You were with me in those cold mornings when we have no gas and you put on electric heater, warm your water on it and give me almonds. You were there whenever chacha and daddi scolded us. You over protected us three with your wings. The day you left, I really felt I am orphan. I saw your soul going, ammi crying and chacha shouting. I saw everything and it was like my world has collapsed. I gathered myself and recited. In 9th class I used to study all night for your dream Dadda. “Meri hina doctor bunne gi” not knowing I have to go to doctors all my life. The day you were gone I started to freeze in my school. I had such severe depression that I forgot to live after you. You were the only hope at that time but Allah loved you more than us. You wanted best for us three. I remember that time; when we used to run between you and Daddi for three rupees. You always managed my new pencil. You were more than a father who walked with three heavy bags on your bicycle, with three grand children on foot - School. I never saw you complaining about it. With your health, knowing your son has gone in such a small age, You did it all for us. DAADA

You will be missed always and always.

9th DECEMBER, 2003
What digging an outhouse pit taught a teen — and lessons that stay with me today.
By: Devin D. Marks
Tags: Self-awareness, Self Improvement, Parenting, Family, Fatherhood

What digging an outhouse pit taught a teen — and lessons that stay with me today.

Photo Sourced via Canva

I was 6-feet deep in an outhouse pit. (You read that right.)

Swinging shovels of dirt. I was not a happy teen.

My parents relocated us from Boston. We’d exchanged an inground pool for a trout stream. Modern bathrooms for… Well, I was digging that.

Home was now on the Canadian border, 14 miles up a logging road. No electricity. No running water.

I was soft, spoiled — suburban style. Trashcan duty was a struggle. Lots of teenage eye-rolling. Embarrassing stuff, even to type today.

Dad assigned me the pit. He wanted it to be a face smack. It worked.

Lotta dirt moved for a 2-seater. A big pit.

Rocky terrain. Pickaxe. Shovel. Long sulky breaks. Sweat dripping. Blisters.

After 2 hard digging days, it was done.

We dragged the structure over the pit.

Then I tried it out.

I stood taller.

I was tasked to “maintain” it, summer and winter. (Let’s not get into all those details.) Hauling wood and water were added.

The family used it all through 2 winters before returning to the burbs.

Over time I became quietly proud of that pit. (I guess I still am.)

The lessons of grit and service stay with me.

In subsequent years, I’ve dug other pits, in other contexts — whether with a shovel or keyboard.

Now I ask you: What outhouse pits shaped you? What dirty jobs can begin shaping your kids?
I love Dr.
By: Rice
Tags: Fatherhood, Fathers, Advice, Running

I love Dr. Sheehan’s book! My favorite takeaway is “don’t take the lead unless you plan on doing something with it.” It’s so relatable to all aspects of life.
Fatherhood, Football, and Cheering for the Good Guys
By: Chad Prevost
Tags: Football, Life, Life Lessons, Parenting, Fatherhood

Football is a complicated sport, full of stops and starts. Eleven men end up in a pile of dust. It can get dull. I guess that’s why it’s a “quarterback driven league” now. It’s also brutal, and the changes they’re trying to put in place right now to make it less so are great in spirit but not in practice.

Football is also often loud and obnoxious, subject to constant review, and over-commercialized. They can spend 5–10 minutes barraging you with more truck and phone commercials while musing on whether a toe touched the last white wisp of out-of-bounds fescue. If it weren’t for being able to fast forward and mute I don’t think I could stand it anymore.

You can also create compelling arguments that fandom is mindless jingoism: my city is better than yours. We can call it a type of tribalistic warfare. There are the fans who will cheer when their own struggling player goes down with an injury. There are fans who will attack and maim other fans. Yes, there is plenty to hate about America’s religious sports fanaticism.

In the end, what are we really cheering for?

With that said, there are plenty of intangible rewards. Call it the magical thinking of fandom. It’s something more common and necessary than whether or not one’s team wins a dramatic championship. Something like when we connect with the personalities when we feel like somehow we “know” the players. When identification happens, empathy happens. We somehow humanize these “role models” through our identification.

That’s the very idea and challenge of trying to be a good guy dad to your son, one he respects even if he doesn’t always like exactly. Sometimes that’s literally what I’ve said to my oldest, “Look, we’re on the same team here.”

Only after seeing The Book of Manning documentary a few nights ago did I realize the vicarious power of cheering for the same team with your family. Peyton Manning is one of those guys I naturally cheered for and hoped would do well. Mostly because the Mannings were really good at what they did and seemed quite humble about it.
This Year, Visiting Santa is Like Visiting Your Uncle in Prison Upstate
By: Joe Wilson
Tags: Santa Claus, Santa, Christmas, Parenting, Fatherhood

This Year, Visiting Santa is Like Visiting Your Uncle in Prison Upstate

Photo by Mike Arney on Unsplash

I never thought visiting Santa could be compared to taking a trip to see your black sheep uncle in prison upstate, but this year is granting us the opportunity to live our wildest reality.

This weekend, we booked a photoshoot with Santa. It will be my daughter’s third photo with Santa but first separated by plexiglass.

She won’t be sitting on his lap. Instead, she’ll wave to him through a see-through plastic divider that will likely be wiped down with a commercial-grade cleanser between children.

Santa, like your drunk uncle, will be sitting helplessly behind glass, waving good cheer and whatever else he has back there. My wife and I are trying to figure out how to explain this new reality to our toddler.

So far, here’s what I came up with:

Santa has a cold

Innocently enough, Santa is taking a precaution to sit behind the plexiglass to ensure all he spreads this holiday season is Christmas cheer. Having this divider will keep all of the children safe so they can enjoy Christmas morning without a runny nose or fever.

Santa is shy

Sometimes, Santa needs some distance. Delivering toys to every girl and boy takes a tool. Having the divider will give Santa the space he needs this year to mentally prepare for his big night of deliveries.

The Forcefield of Christmas Cheer

The transparent plastic wall is actually a forcefield used to capture Christmas cheer that Santa uses to fuel his sleigh on Christmas Eve. The more you talk and tell Santa what toys you want, the more the forcefield gets filled with Christmas cheer.

In Conclusion

I think Santa has a cold this year.

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Have you ever tried folding up a baby stroller in front of your wife?
By: Kevin Ervin Kelley
Tags: Men, Relationships, Parenting, Fatherhood, Marriage

Have you ever tried folding up a baby stroller in front of your wife?

Talk about pressure.

I’ve had some tough bosses before, but nothing like the silent stare of an impatient wife holding a crying baby and wondering why she didn’t marry the guy in school that was good with tools and geometry.

There was a time when I felt strong, confident, and smart. But now that I’m a father, I’ve never felt dumber than when I try to break down the stroller into a nice, compact shoulder strap carrying device. Or the worst part is watching me try to swaddle our baby. It’s the ugliest sushi/burrito roll you’ve ever seen.

My wife folds the stroller and swaddles our baby up so fast, neat, and clean it looks like a magic trick.

It’s time high schools start teaching mandatory parenting skills.
I completely agree.
By: Rice
Tags: Advice, Relationships, Parenting, Family, Fatherhood

…t their marriages fall apart because the gulf became too big to find their ways back to each other. Arguing, or better stated — -heated discussions, can be a positive force in a marriage.
ACIDABURN
By: Inspiration Lines
Tags: Fat Burning Foods, Weightloss Recipe, Weightloss Foods, Fatherhood, Weight Loss

Acidaburn Reviews: Does This Weight Loss Supplement work?

A shocking military science recently discovered that most Americans are full of … well, poop.

In a study of autopsies, examiners found that 90% of the cadaver’s colons held an average of 5 to 20 pounds of hardened, decayed feces which were encrusted in layers on the intestine walls.

Extrapolating this on the living population means that a staggering number of adults (including you) are walking around with a backed-up bowel that holds pounds of old, impacted feces that is protruding their bellies and secretly making them ill.

This was confirmed by a European medical study which found that a whopping 62% of adults whom doctors examined had an average of 10–12 pounds of residual fecal matter buildup in their large intestines and rectums.

Obviously, the majority of people today are not completely emptying their bowels of noxious waste products every day as nature intended.

But when the doctors gave these poor people treatment of a special all-natural colon-cleansing substance (not a laxative!), their bowel mass was reduced from 42% to 17%. This is an amazing reduction!

Not only were they able to completely empty their bowels, but this do-it-yourself treatment re-established their natural bowel rhythm so they remained “clean and regular” afterward.

In addition to much easier bowel movements, the patients reported feeling thinner, lighter, healthier and more energized.

Click here to read about the powerful “colon cleanser” that’s so gentle, you can use it every day until you’re “naturally regular” again.
https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMJVcLm9U/
By: Leavie Scott
Tags: Boys, Tiktok App Development, Kids, Tiktok App, Fatherhood

In a world where separation is the law and where Love is freedom, but a dream, and hope... Well, hope https://vocal.media/poets/living-on-the-inside-looking-out
My Father’s Echo
Tags: Poem, Fatherhood, Grief And Loss, Poetry

Back when I was a child

I’d listen to my dad talk

So whenever I went to bed

But before I’d fall asleep

I could hear my father’s echo

When I started to grow up

I’d try to make my friends laugh

But even though it was my joke

I couldn’t help but cringe because

I could hear my father’s echo

Then I moved away from home and

I was too far away to hear him talk

But this meant I realised that

I was happy now, that behind my voice,

I could hear my father’s echo

So when he was laid to rest

The silence beating in his chest

The hardest part for me was

No longer did it feel like

I could hear my father’s echo

Until I held my own child

And she’d listen to me talk

How my dad had talked to me

So when I hear her voice

I hear my father’s echo
Those first few weeks are so tough.
By: Rice
Tags: Newborn, Advice, Parenting, Family, Fatherhood

Those first few weeks are so tough. I underestimated just how exhausting they would be. Looking back, this is the one thing that makes me hesitate when talking about a second child.
What interesting thing did you read today?
By: Ashish Badola
Tags: Motherhood Feminism, Motherhood, Mothers Day, Mothers Day Gifts, Fatherhood

Please, moms, learn to love yourself. love your body.

Some men even dare to tell their wives that she is not a woman because they delivered through the C section. They forget that she has to go through the pain. severe pain. She has to deprive herself of food for the day (at least 3 days). She cannot eat normal food for a month. She herself cannot even take a bath. Unlike vaginal birth. Pregnancy and labor is between life and death.
First of all, great article and easy read.
By: Rice
Tags: Relationships, Fatherhood, Advice, Parenting

First of all, great article and easy read.

This is a helpful reminder to evaluate your media and internet presence every once in a while. Honestly, I hate searching myself (mostly because I dislike any photos), but I realize it’s becoming best practice!
Ma-ra-donna
By: Ayoola Gbade-Bello
Tags: Announcements, Parenthood, Joy, Growth, Fatherhood

Ma-ra-donna

Diego Maradona dribbles past Austin J.J. Okocha at the FIFA 94 World Cup in USA

It has been 2 weeks since the demise of arguably the greatest ever football player the world has ever seen. In that time, I have also welcomed my son, Ayokunnumi ‘Yaseer Arafah’ Gbade-Bello to the world.

A name inspired by an overwhelming feeling

Born a few hours before the football legend passed, here are the 3 times that he displayed dribbling skills, even without a ball. Enjoy!

Love always, dimples and all

1.) To begin with, my wife and I were united in our preference to start our family with a girl child. I even had several dreams in that regard and believed it was already predestined. So imagine our ecstasy when at 20 weeks, the scan results came and the consultant told us to expect a girl.

We subsequently gave ‘her’ a name, and began shopping for female baby clothes. At this point, further scans were considered routine so we didn’t bother interrogating the sex any longer. By 34 weeks however we got the rudest shock of our lives when after a slight complication, the doctors recommended another scan to carry out their assessment. It was during this particular scan that we were reliably informed that it was actually a boy and not a girl, implying that we prepared for the wrong sex for all of 3 months and 2 weeks!

Cup cakes courtesy of The Kolades

2.) I had always envisioned and prepared for how my wife would go into labour and my follow-up reaction(s) thereon, based on movies and other educational materials that I had access to over time.

We carried this together

I had also managed to attend each antenatal sessions with my wife up to this point. How convenient therefore that he chose to arrive on a day of routine antenatal (the very first one that I missed as I got the house ready for his imminent arrival). Even my wife had no clue that she was already in the first stages of labor. It actually took the doctors to ascertain this situation during examination.

3.) We were not expecting him until the 1st week in December based on his EDD but he chose to arrive absolutely on his own terms and to top it off, his arrival not an hour later than 10:55pm on Tuesday, 24th of November ensured that his naming ceremony (usually 7 days after birth) conveniently fell on our 2nd Wedding Anniversary (Tuesday, 1st of December, 2020). How sweet!

To say that we have been stretched since he came to and through us, is to understate the obvious. I actually can’t recall when last I have been so physically and mentally drained, all from supporting my wife to care for him but guess what, every time I watch over him while he sleeps proves his worth in our lives and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Who is your daddy?

Through it all, it is a pleasure to have you son. I am unable to hide my delight or quantify my feelings in finally getting to meet you. I love you immensely AJ (Ayo Junior)❤️
The first year of sleeping can be rough for any parent(s) and it’s gut wrenching to listen to your…
By: Rice
Tags: Fatherhood, Parenting, Family

The first year of sleeping can be rough for any parent(s) and it’s gut wrenching to listen to your kid cry it out. That said, we were just blessed to have a child that mostly sleeps well.

But there still are those nights at 2.5 years where we actually love having him sleep with us !
The Dad Hammer Times, 12/7/2020
By: Jack Heimbigner
Tags: Writing, Parenting, Family, Fatherhood, Newsletter

Today is my grandfather’s birthday. While he passed away some time ago, there is always something specials about my grandfather. His memory of love and devotion to my grandmother spurs me on in my marriage. Most of all, he was a teacher of life for many men.

He taught me how to work on cars and how to look at a problem and break it down so we could fix it. This lesson has applied to so many areas of my life. It has helped me in my day job, my writing, and how to work through things for my family.

His memory spurs on this publication. He was one who built into the next generations in his elder years. And many people learned from him. In the same way, I created this publication in order to help fathers become better fathers so they could build into this generation.

As I look over the last couple of years of stories, I think we are doing a good job at this. Thank you for reading.
Politics Today Will Be America’s Downfall
Tags: America, Social Media, Trump, Media Criticism, Politics

To correct myself, I believe the title can be changed to “is” America’s downfall. The two parties have never been more polar opposite than before the Civil War. Now, I am eighteen and don’t know quite much about the politics of America and what it is truly like to be an adult in this country. But, what I have learned this past year is that, frankly, the two-party system is not helping us out one bit.

What is becoming way too normalized during this era, is blindly identifying yourself with one party or the other. People are becoming brainwashed with whichever party they are affiliated with, and have really gone against thinking for themselves. People too often assume that they have to follow the same beliefs as their party, and often do not even have enough knowledge on the subject to have that belief, but just blindly follow it because that is what they are supposed to believe.

Brainwashed.

That is simply the only way to put it. Too many teens and young adults and being brainwashed into blindly following what they are told. Young people see it all over social media, for example on Tik Tok. Big creators are shamed for their political beliefs, more commonly if they are conservative views. So many young people on social media claim that they are liberal just because they are told that they are racist if they are not. Teens are being fed so much influence by social media that it is becoming almost impossible for them to form their own views.

Blinded.

Photo by REX WAY on Unsplash

Young people are being blinded by the media. We are becoming more divided than we are together. Simply put, this is why our system right now is damaged. People are less likely to think for themselves and formulate their own views. They are taught a certain belief is right, and the other is wrong. So, I encourage you to think about if you actually stand for what you believe. Open your mind and discover how you truly feel, not what you are told you should feel. America, we need to fix this clearly flawed system, or we will never be able to progress as a country.
Prophotos — developing a media portal about photo equipment & photography
Tags: Photographer, Media Criticism, Phototip, Web Development, Photography

Profotos.ru portal published reviews on photo equipment and articles about photography. The goal of the portal was to be the first to test equipment and publish an independent assessment of cameras.

The Profotos team wanted to make it the most respected Russian source of information about cameras. To do this, they developed a special assessment methodology and wrote detailed, multi-page reviews to give readers a complete picture of the products before buying.

The project continues to develop and achieve success, with 470,000 monthly visits, 68% of whom come from search engines for inquiries related to the choice of lens or camera.

After the initial successes, the project team needed a quick technical boost to maintain the site and develop new features on it. In order not to waste time looking for people on the staff, the management decided to hire outsource specialists.

This method of expanding a team is convenient if the scope of tasks is unclear, and project plans are only being clarified. If you hire a person into your own team, then in addition to the volume of tasks that they will need to do, the management will have to take care of the workplace, growth prospects, and involvement in the company’s culture, and it will be more difficult to complete the work.

In this case, together with the management advantages, the Profotos team liked our experience in using Ruby / Ruby on Rails to create media portals such as 420on.cz, for instance.

The combined Prophotos & Evrone team had to support the existing monolithic Ruby application, as well as introduce new features provided by the business model — the mechanics of voting in contests, interaction with the audience.
The Muslim Kid
By: S Khan
Tags: Social Issues, Muslim, Media Criticism, Netflix Originals, Islamaphobia

I am your typical Muslim kid, someone from a conservative family often ridiculed for my hobbies and outlandish outlook towards life, my religion defies me of my rights and I never get the opportunity to be my true authentic self, I want to eat pork and wear bikinis, I want to run my hands through a white man's blonde hair and tell him he's my only saviour and I want to destroy the ideals my judgemental, forceful family has thrust upon me. I want to be normal, in that I want what any white person wants, to flaunt my body because covering it means I'm oppressed, I want to smoke crack with my buddies in the backyard after I yell at my mom for how she cooked the bacon with less saturated oil and not enough crisp. I want to fuck who I want and when I want because unfortunately, my religion says “NO SEX YOUNG WOMAN.” I hate my hijab, oh how I wish I could easily have it removed so I could be accepted in a society that says “be yourself,” but only to the extent that it doesn't concern the ideals that have been put in place for years. I want it off, if not, how will I be considered beautiful, only hair can be considered attractive, ah the agony of wearing something my forceful religious home has been putting me through. I want to go clubbing with my much cooler, interesting non-Muslim friends who live colourful lives because of their constant consumption of alcohol and self implanting depression. I want the white man, the only man willing to find me beautiful with the hijab, whos doing me a favour for loving me even with the hijab on and removing me from my here now toxic household. Oh, the white man how he tells me my beauty is the only reason he could actually be seen with me, and that his hand in mine is causing tension in society, he tells me being seen with me might cause uproar but I don't care after all I am a Muslim kid from a Netflix original show.

“Most people’s perceptions of Islam and Muslims in the US are shaped by media coverage through stereotyping in movies, TV shows, cartoons, and other media. In general, Muslims are portrayed as an ‘alien other’ within the media.” — (Saeed, 2007).
Tackling Homophobia in Football
By: Philip Slade
Tags: Homosexuality, New Publication, Football, Culture, Media Criticism

We must keep on being persistent to squash these intolerable actions.

The Pride Flag representing the LGBTQ+ Community

It has been 22 years since English Premier Division footballer Justin Fashanu took his own life due to personal issues and homophobia. 22 years on and it still feels as if little to zero progress has been made. A report released by ‘Out on the Fields’ gave the first international study into whether sport is a safe place for lesbian, gays and bisexuals, 73% of people believed that it wouldn’t be safe. Currently in the English Football leagues zero footballers have come out as gay and according to Amal Fashanu, the niece of Justin Fashanu and the founder of the Justin Fashanu Foundation two current Premier League footballers are living in secret about their sexuality.

Personally, I find writing upon this topic very saddening and disappointed because we are supposed to be living within a progressive society but when you hear homophobic slurs screamed loudly throughout football stadiums its tells us how society has shaped peoples views. Being a Reading season ticket holder for five years I’ve experienced numerous occasions of hearing and witnessing homophobic slur and chants from both home and away fans. From my experience of watching and playing football since a child, the old culture of football is so entwined into the media and society that any change or differences is welcome with hate. Historically, the portrayals of the LGBT communities have been unsupported and slandered by the media and with the media setting that narrative within society they are largely to blame. Currently news publications such as BBC and The Independent have recently published online articles regarding homophobia in sport. Both publications are very informative upon the issue, but they need to publicly condone these actions to stop these actions.

From December 4th — 13th the Premier League and Sky Sports setup the campaign Rainbow Laces as they supposedly want to encourage diversity and ‘promote positive attitude towards the LGBT community.’However, I find most of these campaigns as being rather ‘a tick of the box’ then genuine care, if they were so serious about this issue I believe it shouldn’t be an eleven-day scheme, this is important and can only be accomplished through persistent action. Big companies such as the Premier League, Sky and news publications need to spread a consistent message that any homophobic abuse will not be tolerated and not just one headline a year!

References

https://pixabay.com/photos/flag-pride-the-lgbt-movement-2387854/

https://www.squawka.com/en/premier-league-rainbow-laces-stonewall-lgbt-awareness/
The Where, What, and Who of Black Media in the United States
By: Claire Boudour
Tags: Cuny, Media Criticism, Cuny J School, Data Visualization, The New School

The Where, What, and Who of Black Media in the United States

The Where:

Click on a region or state to see the Black media outlets located there. To return, press the black arrow.

A database of media outlets targeted towards Black audiences in the United States was created by the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY, which when examined closely offers many insights into where these outlets are located, what type of media they produce, and who owns them. Due to our nation’s history, it might be of no surprise to readers that more Black media in the United States is located in the South than any other region. However, adjusting the data for each state’s population of Black residents raises an interesting point.

Percentages of Black residents from 2019 population predictions.

As you can see above, California hosts by far the largest number of Black media outlets for its percent of Black residents: 37 newsrooms targeted towards Black audiences, but only 6.5% of residents in the state are Black according to Census Bureau data. Mississippi, on the other hand, has a population that is 37.8% Black but only hosts 6 Black media outlets.

The What:

Click on any circle to look more closely at that category. To return, press the black arrow.

“Black media has been historically classified as newspapers — often weekly — owned by an African-American publisher that print in cities with significant Black populations,” according to the CUNY Center for Community Media. This dataset, however, includes other media outlets such as magazines, television programs, and online sources. When the data is sorted, like above, it becomes clear that newspapers still make up the vast majority of these outlets even with online news becoming more and more popular.

The Who:

When one hears the phrase “Black media,” it might be unclear what this actually means. While the CUNY database includes all outlets in the US targeted towards Black audiences, it is important to note that not all of these outlets are owned and operated by Black people.

While nearly all Black media outlets in the US are owned by Black individuals, there are a significant number that are not. Some outlets are owned by Black churches or universities rather than individuals, and several Black radio stations are now affiliated with iHeartRadio and thus are no longer considered Black-owned.
Sports Media Fights Back After Being Addressed As Pawns By Nets Superstar
By: Zhayron Nelson
Tags: Brooklyn Nets, Kyrie Irving, Stephen A Smith, Media Criticism

AP Photo/NIck Wass

Kyrie Irving is no stranger to media backlash .Being one the premier superstars within the NBA and a former champion he has faced his share of scrunity on the court. Recently he has found himself at odds with the media off the court. Due to his recent comments its intriguing to see how members of the media addressed him referring to them as pawns. An athletes love hate relationship with the media has been documented since the beginning of time . Alot of the time sports media finds a athlete that they love and they become a topic of discussion around the sports world. The same can be said when an athlete is deemed a “villain” in the public eye and is subject to scrutiny a majority of the time . The most recent battle is between the superstar Brooklyn Nets point guard Kyrie Irving and the sports media . Before the start of this NBA season all players were required to sit down with the media to answer questions about the upcoming season. Kyrie chose to abandon this duty and instead posted a instagram message referring to the media as pawns.

This created a media storm with the NBA fining both Irving and the Brooklyn Nets organization 2,500 due to him abandoning the responsibilities that is stated within this contract. With these fines came several outlets that started choosing sides on the matters . Some pieces even made light of the fact that he “burned” the media . However some journalists especially those who work closely within the NBA and have had conversations with Irving decided to express their thoughts on his comments. Rachel Nichols one of the biggest names of ESPN released a tweet highlighting that although she sees where Irving was coming from with his comment he probably wouldn't have said that without the financial security that comes with a NBA paycheck . Other media outlets such as the New York post decided to take another route when covering the story . In their piece about Irving’s comments they went into a detailed background of his already strange relationship with the media and past comments he made which put his more recent comments into context. This approach is different in the way that it makes it seem more plausible why Irving would make such comments due to the strained relationship with the media that he already had. Other members of the media however decided to take a different approach when covering this story . Stephen A Smith one of the top sports journalists in the world and somebody who has interviewed Irving on several occasions expressed his disdain towards Irving’s media hatred. He highlighted that all the media scrutiny that Irving created is a result of his own wrongdoing . He also agreed that its Irving’s right to not speak to the media but he should pay a hefty fine every time he doesn’t due to it being a contractual obligation for NBA players. This approach was completely different as opposed to other members of the media who simply didn’t address Irving’s comments in depth .
It’s hard to watch Americans unquestionably trusting their government when time and time again it’s…
By: Jane Stoll
Tags: Abuse Of Power, American Politics, Media Criticism

It’s hard to watch Americans unquestionably trusting their government when time and time again it’s been proven that neither is trustworthy. This is typical of an abuser/victim relationship. It’s also typical that the abuser’s mind control continues for years and years, becoming so normalized in the victim’s mind that they don’t even realize it’s happening.

We need to work hard on changing this!
Reactionary Sensationalism
Tags: Reactionary, Bias, Fake News, Media Criticism, Sensationalism

One minute headlines

Skewed perspectives

Journalism has lost its integrity

Sensationalism must be it

People buying in

10 second attention span

Enraged without the whole truth

Integrity has gone to hell

Making judgements

Starting wars

Round and round in circles

Fighting with the ones you love

What are you achieving with your pointless debates

And continuation of the media circus

Who’s perspective have you expanded

Who have you made more aware?

Cutting each other down

Dividing all of us up

Drawing lines in the sand

Building walls around your mind

Your heart has grown all cold

You have lost your sight

Thinking you are love and light

Your ego has made you blind

You will never be found

If you do not let go and open your eyes

Against extremism

Or are you the new-age version of it?

No critical thinking

Only judgement and brute force

Your voice

Above all

Calling yourself woke

While talking from your slumber

Saying you are doing this for the truth

All I see is inquisitiveness beyond measure

Taking away someone’s privacy

To expose the ‘’truth’’

Who have you appeased

With your knowledge of a half-baked truth?

Cutting in half

Whoever disagrees with you

Girl have you seen who you are speaking to?

Get off of your high horse

Disguising your stubbornness as righteousness

Calling names

Defaming your guides

How dare you say you are doing this for a better world

When all you have done is divide?

Wisdom, age and experience can go to hell

Everyone wearing their own crown

Declaring themselves God, let me know who you’ve found

You will never measure up

If you don’t learn

Be courageous and step out

Or you will burn

Respect has no place

Self-importance is all there is

Bending lies and the truth

To make it fit your version

You will learn when you live

And experience the other side

If you don’t wake up

Life will force you up

Till then I will pray

And hold you in my loving space

Your jagged blade cannot penetrate

What is impervious
膠事錄各大社交媒體測試報告
By: Jeromy-Yu Von 寰雨膠事錄
Tags: Test, Social Media, Media Criticism, Analytics, 中文

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A Bored News Media Is a Good News Media
By: Tony Case
Tags: Press, Trump, Media Criticism, Politics, Cnn

The circus is leaving town. Ain’t it grand? (PHOTO: JOURNALISM.ORG)

The handwringing, oh the handwringing my brothers and sisters in journalism and punditry have been doing as the era of Trump (if not Trumpism) winds down.

What, pray tell, will we do without the great orange one to kick around anymore?

Nobody will need MSNBC the way they needed it the last four years, proclaimed Vanity Fair. CNN and MSNBC are fretting over a post-Trump future, went the New York Times’s headline.

I’m just so bored with all this talk of boredom on the part of the news media.

The way I see it, journalists can get back to covering the dull, workaday stuff like Jeff Bezos getting richer or some congressman’s booty call, or a nursing home fire — as opposed to the raging dumpster fire that has been the Trump presidency. And from a news consumer’s point of view, won’t it be nice for a change to not cringe while scrolling Twitter or the Times’s homepage in anticipation of our dear leader’s latest public embarrassment?

But seriously, not only have the Trump years been a low point for our country —they’ve brought out the very worst of the media’s tabloidesque instincts. Trump is nothing if not a circus act for our times, commanding center stage in a world gone bonkers, his every lament disseminated for wide public consumption via Twitter, his emissaries at Fox News and Breitbart, and, yes, even the so-called legitimate press. And that is a shame for the trade of journalism, which has allowed itself too often to get dragged down in the muck of Trump. The spectacle that is this president is matched only by the nightly, hyperventilating coverage of him by the cable networks. (By the way, if you think that’s going to end just because Trump’s departing the White House, you amuse me.)

Even if it were the case that all Trump coverage would come to an abrupt halt as of January 20th, I, for one, would be quite pleased to be bored for a while for a change, as both a perpetrator and a victim of this thing we so lovingly call “content.” At least until four years from now, when we’re all covering President Donald Trump Jr.
A New Perspective on Propaganda
Tags: Propagand, Communication, Leap 3, Media Criticism

Prior to COM 416, I never truly analyzed propaganda. I was always under the assumption it was there, but I did not understand how much of an impact it actually has on my day to day life. Learning about the history of propaganda really opened up my eyes to how much of an asset this truly is for governments and major media corporations. Seeing how people like Hitler used propaganda as a main tool in propelling his political party made it clear how all politics is actually just propaganda. We saw a lot of it in this past year between the coronavirus pandemic as well as the presidential election. This class has been critical in my newfound understanding of the means by which we are subliminally attacked on a daily basis. The fact of the matter is, we cannot stop propaganda. Although, what we can stop, is contributing to it. Something seemingly benign is actually far more evil that I would’ve imagined. As an American and as a student, I find it a grave matter to be aware of how much misinformation we consume in our day to day lives. As a person who uses the internet and social media, I find it morally critical to not spread false news and to try my absolute best to recognize when I’m absorbing media that is framed in a certain light.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LffOVaxrwGtbQ3RZ7AE5gQtI2Cofu2GUU2n630fxuto/edit?usp=sharing
How do journos get paid to write such dreck?
By: Manny Otiko
Tags: Covid 19 Crisis, Covid 19, Trump, Media Criticism, Politics

How do journos get paid to write such dreck? Kathleen Parker said that no one could have predicted COVID-19. Actually, experts had been predicting an epidemic for years, I read their articles. Also, the CDC used to have experts on the ground in China, but Trump slashed that department.
Objectivity does not exist by default, we have to learn how to become objective
By: Zsolt Hermann
Tags: Political Correctness, Media Criticism, Society, Perception, Truth

Question from the Internet: Subjectivity versus objectivity? I wonder, how in the current atmosphere, the greatest “corruption” occurs as the participants in any observation are classifying the opposing views as “evil” disallowing objectivity?

Yes, today “freedom of speech” means that others are “free to speak” about what is within the boundaries of the “politically correct dogma” they establish. And whoever speaks outside of those boundaries is haunted, ridiculed, attacked incessantly until they are silenced.

But again this tendency is engraved in all of us, as we are all born within our own, egocentric, subjective prisons and we treat anybody we do not understand, agree with as “others”, “aliens”, ones we do not trust and we have to suppress, erase silence.

We have no chance of “objectivity” until we learn how to acquire a truly selfless, objective point of view through a special method that can teach us how to perceive reality through the desires, viewpoints of others.
Diamond and Silk are a pair of uneducated fools.
By: Manny Otiko
Tags: Trump, Election 2020, Media Criticism, Politics, Justice

Diamond and Silk are a pair of uneducated fools. I’ve written about them several times, and I’m loath to do it again. But this is one of the dumbest things they’ve ever said. (And they’ve said a lot of stupid stuff.) The real crime is that these two monumental ignoramuses were ever given a national platform! How? They’re thousands of educated black people out there, and Trump and the right-wing media decided to elevate this pair who have never opened a thesaurus.
5 Things I learned About Propaganda
By: Alex Gomes
Tags: Leap 3, Social Media, Media Criticism, Propaganda, Technology

In this paper, I explain the many takeaways I had from my COM 416 course at URI, from political ads to conspiracy theories. I feel as though this is a good read because it summarizes many of the things I found most important when learning about the media form we learn the least about in elementary through high school. I urge people to read this specifically for that reason, because without me persuing a higher education, I never would’ve learned about how the government, as well as any other company, tries to get on your side through advertisement.

It was genuinely frightening to see how many ways propaganda affects us in our daily lives, and how many people are out to manipulate the general public for money, power, and anything in between. The five main points I talk about are propaganda for good, political propaganda, memes, how propaganda is made, and conspiracy theories. My favorite two topics are the last two. Creating propaganda really got me into the mindset of trying to convince someone else to make immediate, drastic lifestyle changes for the greater good (according to me).

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1o-fyAR-KXJIOuU_9K07JlA0SsKcVi8hH5U6pVhJkwH8/edithttps://docs.google.com/document/d/1o-fyAR-KXJIOuU_9K07JlA0SsKcVi8hH5U6pVhJkwH8/edit
Ukrainsk högerextremist bygger Bulletins sajt
By: Max V Karlsson
Tags: Politik, Web, Media Criticism

Union activist w/ special interest in people, power, working class communities and jazz. I tell stories and laugh often.
Violence is Not Sexy
By: Jonathan Hawkins
Tags: Normalization, Media Criticism, Opinion, Violence, Sex

Violence is not sexy. Sex and violence are two totally different things. Let’s treat them that way for a change, and stop lumping them together.

They operate on completely separate wavelengths, and offer very different feelings. Sex is meant to be an enjoyable experience. Violence only brings pain and suffering.

It’s time to change course.

Let’s show violence as the atrocity that it truly is, and teach peaceful resolution to problems. Let’s stop normalizing body shaming and sexual phobia, and embrace the activities that feel good to us in positive, beneficial ways instead.

De-censor sex and the naked human body. Our own natural bodies are beautiful as they are. Let us freely enjoy feeling good in them without judgments.

Let’s start treating violence and other things that produce feelings of pain or discomfort, shock or horror, as inappropriate and unacceptable.
I grew up listening to shortwave radio during the height of the cold war.
By: Jake Brodsky
Tags: Médiá, Verdict Platform, Propaganda, Media Criticism

I grew up listening to shortwave radio during the height of the cold war. I also listened to broadcasts in the Middle East from all sides. All around me I was surrounded by people who “believed” this one true media source of everything. If it was printed in that newspaper or it was announced on that radio station, then it must be taken for face value.

However, I discovered that although many news outlets were not lying, they weren’t telling the whole truth, either. Many stories that were regular reports in one media outlet were completely squelched in others.

Other stories would be reported without key facts to completely change the implications and context of the event.

And that’s when I realized that the news outlets were preaching to their audience. As long as you understood who they thought their audience was and what that audience expected to hear, you could figure out what happened. Even the vaunted BBC World Service often had a slant to their reports.

This is not an accident. This is what supposedly impartial “journalists” do. Why? It may be political, to gain favor; or it may be for salacious outrage to sell more advertising. Often it is sheer, honest ignorance of history, politics, traditions, and basic understanding of the place where they were reporting from.

But we do not teach this in schools. We teach that they’re supposed to be impartial. This is absolutely wrong. Even the very best and most honest people have to report from what they know and from their life’s experience. We’d like to think they can be more circumspect, but you can’t be circumspect if you do not understand what is going on around you — and most reporters do not. In fact, they revel in the fact that they are NOT technical, politically aware, or even understand the basic philosophies of combat. So while they may think they’re reporting accurately, they may not understand what they have seen.

We need full disclosure of who these journalists are. We need full disclosure of any editing that goes on behind closed doors. I won’t hold a journalist’s bias against them as long as they disclose what background they are writing from. I’ll even read reports from a hard-left communist or a hard-right believer in Ayn Rand’s ideas — as long as they are up front and honest about their views of the world.

We cannot change the reporting we see every day, and frankly, I think that it would be highly unethical to do so. But we can educate the public on the news they are consuming. And if there is one thing we have to acknowledge it is that there are a lot of people running around with a lot of misconceptions about what business and politics of journalism is.