Josh Braun
@joshbraun.bsky.social
Associate Professor at UMass Amherst studying the civic impacts of media distribution. I work in our Journalism Department and also co-edit the Distribution Matters series for The MIT Press. Mastodon: @josh@sciences.social Banner text by F.E.D McDowell
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Maria Bustillos@mariabustillos.com · last mo.True. Please read, share, and support alternative media projects, which are growing fast and which, given enough support, will supplant the right wing propaganda mills in time Start with our journalist-owned cooperative. Subscriptions to our newsletter start at just $3/month. flaminghydra.com
Journal spammers really putting their back into it. (Volume II) #academicSky
Josh Braun@joshbraun.bsky.social · last yr.Journal spammers really putting their back into it. #academicSky
So, the front page of yesterday's Wall Street Journal…was an ad.
so preoccupied with whether or not they could
Josh Braun@joshbraun.bsky.social · 4mo agoWhat hath God wrought? 🤢
Hi, my name is Alex Goldman and I host the @hyperfixedpod.bsky.social I used to host the Reply All podcast, and I have found that so many people who liked Reply All have no idea Hyperfixed exists. It's super frustrating because I have no idea how to reach those people.
I was always excited to see what @agoldman.bsky.social's next big project would be, but never dreamed I'd find out about his new podcast by being interviewed for it. Really impressed with Hyperfixed, glad to have spoken with them, and thankful for their attention to this really pernicious problem.
Alex Goldman@agoldman.bsky.social · 4mo agoOur listener, Markus, lost a friend tragically a month or so ago, and when he went to search info about her online, he found a bunch of AI generated, deeply edited incorrect info about her. Looking into these took us places. Please listen.
Watching all four #Artemis II astronauts don their spacesuits simultaneously reminds me of the changing room scene from “The Cameraman.” 😂 youtu.be/4Tv8rG-3oq8
Buster Keaton The cameraman 1928 Trying To Change in Dressing Room
YouTube video by Classics
youtu.be
I mean I'm glad that I'm helping educate young people on TikTok and all that but also my 72 year old father just told me that he told all of his friends that he meets weekly at Waffle House in south Georgia to watch my Facebook videos about how large language models work.
Ever since Google and OpenAI announced the introduction of ads to their AI products, I can't stop thinking about an argument from @andrew-mcstay.bsky.social's 2018 book, "Emotional AI." 1/9
Emotional AI
The Rise of Empathic Media
us.sagepub.com
Updating my media criticism class for a new academic year and it's astonishing to me the night-and-day contrast between the number of accessible explainers on the finances and workings of US public media available before and after the US defunded it all. 1/2
There is a long list of things the administration has taken down or replaced. Some are like this, in public places. Others are displays within agency office buildings. I would really like someone to write something for us that tallies up as many of these examples as is possible to get info on
Philadelphia Inquirer@inquirer.com · 6mo agoThe newest book from @ajescoffery.blacksky.app, Reparative Media: Cultivating Stories and Platforms to Heal Our Culture, is out! It reimagines how movies, TV, and a broader array of media can be made and distributed in inclusive and non-extractive ways. #openAccess mitpress.mit.edu/978026255326...
What's the over/under on failed AI ventures becoming crypto-mining operations? www.reuters.com/commentary/b...
Breakingviews - Shaky data centre tenants could choke off AI boom
Much of the $3 trln splurge on server farms for artificial intelligence is coming from Big Tech firms. But developers are also building facilities for less financially robust middlemen like CoreWeave....
reuters.com
What's the over/under on failed AI ventures becoming crypto-mining operations? www.reuters.com/commentary/b...
Breakingviews - Shaky data centre tenants could choke off AI boom
Much of the $3 trln splurge on server farms for artificial intelligence is coming from Big Tech firms. But developers are also building facilities for less financially robust middlemen like CoreWeave....
reuters.com
Reading Marshall Rosenberg, then logging into any social media app will give you whiplash. 😅
@dianabutlerbass.bsky.social Stumbled across your 2018 podcast interview with Dan Harris yesterday and it was what I needed to hear in that moment. Thank you.
@chrislhayes.bsky.social I deeply love the argument in "The Siren's Call," but something's been nagging me about how you've deployed it. In the book itself, you make this thoughtful, well-sourced case for why and how we need to restructure our politics to avoid the logic of the siren's call…1/2
Speaking of which, the latest entry in MIT's Distribution Matters series (which I co-edit with Ramon Lobato) is "Reparative Media" by the ever-amazing @ajescoffery.bsky.social. It now has a gorgeous cover and a pre-order page (hint). So proud to have had the opportunity to work with Aymar. #commsky
Reparative Media
Can producing stories and developing platforms to support people who have been harmed by multiple, intersecting systems heal those systems? In Reparative Med...
mitpress.mit.edu
Annually, I prepare a list of books undergrads in my Media, Technology & Culture course can select for their final projects. Always fun to assemble and I get kick out of sharing it, too, so here it is! #commsky Pic of Seth Long's book, my favorite new cover. umass-my.sharepoint.com/:b:/g/person...
Now, as MSNBC spins off into its own company, distinct from NBC News, it seems like a good time to mention that I wrote a book on MSNBC. 1/2 www.nytimes.com/2025/08/18/b...
Goodbye, MSNBC. Hello, MS NOW.
nytimes.com
non-affiliated friends and colleagues this is good news!
BuffaloResearch.com@buffaloresearch.com · last yr.Heads up, you do NOT need to be affiliated with a college or university to get access to JSTOR! Here's how to sign up as an independent researcher! You can read up to 100 articles per month. You cannot download or print PDFs. All of this is FREE. support.jstor.org/hc/en-us/art...
I taught myself to type on an Olivetti portable manual typewriter in the 70's. People who didn't practice evenly hitting the keys so the z would come out just as dark as the f don't get to tell me how many spaces to put after a period, and need to get off my lawn.
@chrislhayes.bsky.social Just finished "The Siren's Call" and it's fantastic. In addition to being excellent on its own merits, it hit at the perfect moment for me, as I'm thinking more about attention in my teaching and research, as well as in my own life. Thank you.
The fear among academics and lawyers now talking on the record on just about any topic that involves the federal government or the White House is really extraordinary and worrisome, and getting worse, it seems to me, every week. Dissent by an establishment figures becoming verboten in the US