VIDEO: Information War Report - January 2025
Romania's TikTok election, hero cartoonist Ann Telnaes, zeros Musk and Zuckerberg, and more in this month's report on the Information War raging all around us.
Each month Milo and Brian bring you the Information War Report and other highlights from MAD's monthly member meetings. Be sure to watch until the end for a list of actions you can take to uplift and defend journalism and democracy.
Summary
In this month’s Information War Report, Brian and Milo discuss the ongoing information war affecting democracy and media. They explore the role of social media in shaping public opinion, the influence of wealthy individuals on media narratives, and the importance of media literacy. The discussion highlights the challenges posed by misinformation and the need for civic engagement to support democratic values. They also emphasize the significance of local journalism and the impact of corporate ownership on news coverage, urging listeners to take action in defending democracy and journalism.
Should Be Front Page But Isn’t
Mainstream, corporate media fails at sufficiently informing the public because its main goal is not to inform the public, but rather to make money for its owners and shareholders while pushing self-serving narratives. These pressures leads to front pages that ignore important information. The damage-by-omission that profit-seeking newsrooms perpetrate was made glaringly obvious recently when the owners of the LA Times and Washington Post censored candidate endorsements by their Editorial Boards because of their own personal agendas.
Every month we ask our attendees to vote on which under-covered stories were most deserving of front page emphasis. This month’s nominees are:
Attend a meeting!
You should come to MAD’s monthly Zoom meetings! We come together as a community to discuss the topics from the video in greater depth. Your great ideas could become the next MAD project. Sign up here!
Learn more!
We send the slides from our meetings to everyone who signs up. They contain links to the articles, commentary, organizations, and actions that we cover. Go deeper and get strong on issues of media and democracy by checking out this months slides here!
Grow the movement!
Be sure to like and restack this article here on Substack.
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Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.
67 of you took the poll so far but fewer have clicked through on the episode. How do we entice you to click? More outrageous thumbnail? Have a million dollar sweepstakes? ;)