Host Taylor interviews Dr. Andy Lee Roth–sociologist, professor, and associate director of Project Censored–about his work and research into the creation of news media and the 40-plus years of work Project Censored has done to highlight under-reported stories while spreading critical thinking skills for media literacy. Discussion includes the complications introduced to the news process by artificial intelligence and the proprietary algorithms of big tech companies, what censorship looks like in the 21st century, tools that regular folks can use to better interrogate the media we engage with, and much more.
This show is part of a series running through the end of 2020, new episodes published weekly, in which I revisit interviews taken during a radio show road trip in the summer of 2015—checking back in with those activists, organizers and artists I met to see how their lives and work have adapted to changing times. You can find more information about that project at praxisradio.com/praxis.
Find a full transcript of this episode here.
For more information on Project Censored and other information referenced in our conversation, roughly in order of appearance, check out the links below:
*Buy State of the Free Press 2021 from Seven Stories Press here: https://www.sevenstories.com/books/4247-project-censored-s-state-of-the-free-press-2021
*Project Censored website : https://www.projectcensored.org/
*”The Gate Keeper: A Case Study in the Selection of News” by David Manning White: http://www.aejmc.org/home/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Journalism-Quarterly-1950-White-383-90.pdf
*”Queer Erasure” article by April Alexander & Andy Lee Roth in Index on Censorship : https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0306422020917088
*Algorithms of Oppression by Safiya Umoja Noble: http://algorithmsofoppression.com/
*Further information on the LGBTQ+ creators Youtube lawsuit: https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/3/21278050/youtube-lawsuit-lgbtq-google-doj-section-230-trump-executive-order
*Alex Kotch’s reporting on Facebook profiting from hate groups referenced: https://www.alexkotch.com/writing/2019/9/25/facebook-is-making-millions-by-promoting-hate-groups-content-sludgethe-guardian
*The Anatomy of Fake News: A Critical News Literacy Education by Nolan Higdon: https://www.projectcensored.org/product/the-anatomy-of-fake-news-a-critical-news-literacy-education-pre-order-singed-copy/
*In These Times study on Democratic Primary 2020 coverage referenced: https://inthesetimes.com/press-releases/breaking-investigation-finds-bias-in-msnbcs-democratic-primary-coverage
*Deciding What’s News by Herbert J. Gans: https://nupress.northwestern.edu/content/deciding-whats-news
*Dahr Jamail’s Iraq reporting referenced: https://www.dahrjamail.net/category/iraq-dispatches/
*my interview with Dahr Jamail, 2019: https://praxis-archive-2012-2019.castos.com/episodes/praxis-235-dahr-jamail-on-the-end-of-ice
*Solutions Story Tracker: https://storytracker.solutionsjournalism.org/
*New article by Andy Lee Roth and Steve Macek at Truthout: https://truthout.org/articles/its-true-that-corporate-media-is-biased-but-not-in-the-ways-right-wingers-say/