#but it’s always such an issue in american literature/media

[chapricot]

there’s this prevalent american thing, or english speaking thing, where adults don’t curse in front of children, and i’ve always been curious if it’s a worldwide thing or not because in mexico we curse around children all the time. we even curse at children they’re just not allowed to repeat the bad words, if even that. so

[probablyasocialecologist]

In the context of what we’ve learned from our investigations into opt-in polls, we took particular notice of a recent online opt-in survey that had a startling finding about Holocaust denial among young Americans. The survey, fielded in December 2023, reported that 20% of U.S. adults under 30 agree with the statement, “The Holocaust is a myth.” This alarming finding received widespread attention from the news media and on social networks. From a survey science perspective, the finding deserved a closer look. It raised both of the red flags in the research literature about bogus respondents: It focused on a rare attitude (Holocaust denial), and it involved a subgroup frequently “infiltrated” by bogus respondents (young adults). Other questions asked in that December opt-in poll also pointed to a need for scrutiny. In the same poll, about half of adults under 30 (48%) expressed opposition to legal abortion. This result is dramatically at odds with rigorous polling from multiple survey organizations that consistently finds the rate of opposition among young adults to be much lower. In an April 2023 Pew Research Center survey, for instance, 26% of U.S. adults under 30 said abortion should be illegal in all or most cases. This was 13 points lower than the share among older Americans (39%). Our estimate for young adults was similar to ones from other, more recent probability-based surveys, such as an AP-NORC survey from June 2023 (27%) and a KFF survey from November 2023 (28%). We attempted to replicate the opt-in poll’s findings in our own survey, fielded in mid-January 2024 on Pew Research Center’s American Trends Panel. Unlike the December opt-in survey, our survey panel is recruited by mail – rather than online – using probability-based sampling. And in fact, our findings were quite different. Rather than 20%, we found that 3% of adults under 30 agree with the statement “The Holocaust is a myth.” (This percentage is the same for every other age group as well.) Had this been the original result, it is unlikely that it would have generated the same kind of media attention on one of the most sensitive possible topics. Likewise, our survey found substantial differences from the December poll on support for legal abortion. In the opt-in survey, roughly half of young adults (48%) said abortion should always be illegal or should only be legal in special circumstances, such as when the life of the mother is in danger. In our survey, 23% said so. These differences in estimates for young adults are what we would expect to see – based on past studies – if there were a large number of bogus respondents in the opt-in poll claiming to be under the age of 30. These respondents likely were not answering the questions based on their true opinions. The takeaway from our recent survey experiment is not that Holocaust denial in the United States is nonexistent or that younger and older Americans all have the same opinions when it comes to antisemitism or the Middle East. For example, our survey experiment found that young adults in the U.S. are less likely than older ones to say the state of Israel has the right to exist. This is broadly consistent with other rigorous polling showing that young people are somewhat less supportive of Israel – and more supportive of Palestinians – than older Americans. Rather, the takeaway is that reporting on complex and sensitive matters such as these requires the use of rigorous survey methods to avoid inadvertently misleading the public, particularly when studying the attitudes of young people.

[urimaginarygirlfriend]

hey marie!! how are you my love??

i miss you xx 🫂💗

hiii manny!!

i miss you too, i’m sure you’ve seen me subtly stalking your page every few days. i’ve got my first uni class starting on wednesday and i’m very nervous but also very excited. it’s an intro latin class and while i’m typically terrible with languages, i feel this will be different. no one here is studying classics but i am and i feel like i’ve already isolated myself.

also, i find it hard to eat 3 meals a day. just being on campus for the weekend has proven to me that i’d rather be productive or entertained than get up and eat a meal. it is very scary as someone whose always had body issues but never an ed. i don’t want uni to be the place where it starts (as much as i pretend to). i’ve bought some snacks to keep in my dorm but i also have tea and i’m worried it’s too effective at curbing hunger.

and finally, i’ve been thinking a lot about my art and my existence as an artist in general. i want to commit to being an artist. since i decided not to go to film school or study literature, i have to be serious if i ever want to be noticed. write and create obsessively as if i’d die without it. and i think following other artists on social media has been hurting me. because i just consume their content without creating any of my own. in joana rakoff’s memoir “my salinger year,” she works as literary agent. she spends so much time reading other people’s work that she forgot she was a writer herself. that’s slowly happening to me, in some weird way.

and i feel discouraged because no one is noticing me. not even my ‘so-called’ friends! they don’t watch my videos, they don’t read my short stories, and they sure as hell don’t watch the play that i took a lot of time recording and uploading so it’d be accessible. i feel like i’m doing all i can and just nothing is working. i’m a tree falling in a forest when no one is around…

i hope to submit to some literary magazines and screenplay/playwriting contests before the end of the year. maybe make another short film too that no one will watch. idk i just don’t know how to not stagnate. i know success isn’t overnight but i look at big creators and it feels like theirs is. or at least, they had some fans at the beginning. i’m literally starting from nothing.

i got accepted into a film program at the uni of edinburgh that only accepts 20-ish students per year. they wanted to take a chance on a weird american girl making weird art. i had to say no, but they chose me. before i clicked that reject button, i was someone. i was smart and cool and creative and worth something. they looked at me and thought i could go far with only a bit of guidance. now, i’ve got nothing. i’m an idiot with a camera in one of the worst cities in the whole US and i’m rotting away my life. do i still have the chance to be someone if there’s no one looking?

sorry if this got too deep and you didn’t read to the end. i’ve been writing about this in my diary for months with no one to tell because i wasn’t sure anyone cared. but i’m sure you care… right?

[olderthannetfic]

https://www.tumblr.com/olderthannetfic/740123102285086720/all-the-griping-about-ownvoices-claiming-to?source=share

Re: your response:

It's interesting because in the DS9 slash shipping fandom and particularly with Garashir, a lot of people DO write Julian Bashir, a character of color as their perfect woobie they projected on to - he probably gets that more than any other character in that fandom. And then there ended up being a backlash that people were "writing him as white," including in an actual academic paper I saw from someone who is on Tumblr, while they were willing to explore writing him as fully queer and neurodivergent headcanons in fic.

Which is interesting to me because most of the stuff that writes him as queer is stuff that just ships him with Garak or another dude, but doesn't spend a ton of time on his queer *identity*. And I'm personally fine with that; I've read enough coming-out stories and didactic identity explanations in both fic and professionally published/released original work to last me a lifetime. But if writing a COC without drawing attention to their racial/ethnic/cultural identity is "writing them as white," shouldn't writing a non-heterosexual character without drawing attention to their queer identity similarly count as "writing them as straight"?

Anyway, I go back and forth on this because I also understand how Islamophobia and general racism against MENA works, how the "good Muslim" or "good Arab" is one who is as assimilated as possible, and how it can feel with fic that has a COC but doesn't go into their background like that person is only ok with POC *up to a point*. As well as the issues with how in canon, Star Trek's diversity shows a lot of POC but has only started to recognize actual non-Western "cultural" touchstones very recently. (E.g. When they referenced literature, it was always Shakespeare or the ancient Greeks or Poe, never the Romance of the Three Kingdoms or Rumi.) I get that. At the same time, I've definitely read stuff especially by non-MENA people which wrote about "his culture" in a very exotifying way that seemed to suggest that that kind of cultural identity is only "real" if it happens in a very stereotypical way. And I also think especially with a character who is so heavily framed as British, with a British accent, played by an actor who is half-English and grew up there.... I've also seen the brainworms in fandoms from Star Wars to Bridgerton with how people can't accept European characters/actors of color as European, and I do wish people would consider how they're suggesting that English identity can only be "white" by acting like it's wrong to ever portray Bashir as English. Something I've heard plenty of British POC complain about as like an attitude in their country that actually harms them.

I think these questions are complicated, because you have racist phenomena on both ends. There definitely are racists who only accept POC if they are as un-POC as possible, if they are assimilated, and see them wearing or saying or doing things that mark them as culturally different as "threatening." But there are other racists who think the only right way to write "diverse stories" is to have them be heavily cultural and represent stereotypes - the poor, urban black American, the Arab who lives in the desert and wears a thawb and is a devout Muslim - and that POC who are not like that talking about their own lives are somehow not "authentic enough." The thing that the movie American Fiction is about.

--

Yeah. Fandom isn't nearly as bad about characters of color overall as some wank would say. Fandom fucking loves Asian characters who are the unmarked leads of Asian media (and no, I don't think it's just because they're pale or because some idiots in the 90s thought anime characters were white).

Bashir was treated in canon in a way that fandom likes. Naturally, fandom took note.

My own woobie blorbo is Rico from Miami Vice. He's much less the single perfect tear woobie than Sonny (his buddy cop partner who is white), but he still comes in for lots of whump and screen time and narrative focus. Ye Olde zine fandom was unkind to him, at least in the m/m parts (though a lot of that is because all of the old slash zines were edited by the same couple who were... like... kinning the ship that he's a rival to).

But a lot of fans who watch that show see a very pretty, very cultured man with epic buddy cop tension with his partner, nice suits, and tons of whump plots, and they're like "God damn, where is the fic???" If canon provides, the fannish interest will be there to at least some degree. (Getting enough good writers in the same fandom at the same time to launch it as a place readers will stick around is another story, unfortunately.)

My personal view, admittedly as a white girl, is that Sturgeon's Law means what we really need is a bunch of canons that dangle tasty blorbos at us and much less policing of fic. And then a solid reccing culture to sort through the bad stuff.

I've seen a lot of complaints about writing characters as "white", and they often strike me as clueless or disingenuous. I'd rather have a bunch of "Oopsie, Garak caught Bashir using the holodeck for kinky roleplay about himself" fics than people with no clue trying to inject MENA stuff that wasn't in the show and that they aren't personally competent to handle. And half the time, this complaint seems to be some sort of unintentionally racist bilge where the speaker thinks the fic is making someone too cultured or too upper class or too kinky or some other shit that has nothing to do with anything.

Honestly, I sometimes think that the real complaint is "How dare fandom sound like the upper-middle class suburbanite bookworms that so many of us are?!?!"

[femme-enby]

I am still seeing folks whine that Jodie Whittaker ruined Doctor Who.

Oddly enough they can’t seem to actually ever state something she had control over.

She’s an actor, playing a character. Her lines are written and her job is to simply bring that character from paper to life.

I think she did incredibly well! She was animated, she was emotional, she was clever as always and also silly, a happy medium between the tenth and eleventh if I had to compare her to past regenerations. She was new, she was figuring some shit out, and those writers threw thirteen PLENTY of revelations about her past.

Folks complained about the WRITING, and blamed that on Thirteen, on her being a woman. Saying that she made Doctor Who woke. It’s always been woke. Watch the show and pay attention.

Folks critique how heavy handed the “lessons” were, as many doctor who episodes of the past have had at least small lessons in the episodes even if the whole episode wasn’t a lesson.

Yet I can’t exactly fault the writers FOR being heavy handed… so many folks saying that a woman doctor is pandering and “woke”??? Well clearly y’all haven’t got the sense to comprehend media, since all the “wokeness” of the ENTIRE SERIES seems to just blow right over y’all’s heads, I’d probably get heavy handed too! It’d be hard to keep me from straight up having “Racism is wrong!” Written and said in an episode! Same for whatever other social issues they touched on during her time.

Hell, I just had to double check so I wouldn’t be speaking out my ass, but when the Twelfth doctor and Bill Potts went back in time and were at that festival on the Thames, immediately after telling Bill that she should leave the talking to him because she has a temper and diplomacy and patience wins, when the rich dude sees Bill sitting and calls her a “creature” and tells her to stand “in the presence of your betters” Doc taps him on the shoulder and LAID HIM TF OUT.

Doctor Who has BEEN “PC,” it’s been “liberal,” it’s been “leftist” or whatever the hell else folks are complaining about. It always has been, at least regarding “New Who.”

I don’t even hope they STOP glaringly pointing out that outdated beliefs are bad, I just wish they didn’t feel like they HAD to write like that so ignorant folks who skipped all their “literature Literacy” classes in middle school could get the memo!

Bigotry of any form has never made a bit of sense to me, and that is why Doctor Who appealed to me as a kid. It wasn’t like South Park or Family Guy or American Dad where every joke hinges on some sort of bigotry or outdated belief. It has always opposed those beliefs, and I’ve loved that.

[likealittleheartbeat]

hey!

this is more of a personal ask so if you do not feel comfortable answering it, feel free to ignore.

what did u mean in your previous post about 'finding your lane finally'? what profession/outlet did u find for writing about your interests if i may ask?:) it just sounds interesting!

So I really have never enjoyed the career I’ve been in, and I’ve been considering grad school for a long time (even did a semester in a professional track counseling program that I did fine in but really did not enjoy). I read academic texts for fun, which no one else I’ve met does, so it seemed like the best path. But I have always struggled to feel confident in figuring out which field would really let me integrate all my interests that I could reasonably break into without having to do a whole bunch of extra work. I’ve considered studying Literature bcuz I love literary fiction, thematic analysis, structuralism, and literary hermeneutics; Film Studies bcuz I love a lot of tv and film but I’m not super into the more masculine parts of the canon nor as many technical aspects of the craft; Gender and Sexuality Studies to get at the focus on queer subjectivity and dynamics that are a core interest for me; History since I was a history major in undergrad and still really enjoy that type of research; Religious Studies so ai can dive into Buddhist and Reformed Christian religious ideas; even American Studies so I can touch on indigeneity, colonialism, and gender in American contexts, which is another special interest of mine.

But none of those fields felt like they’d let me obsess over the contemporary tv and movies that form the hub from which all those other interests spring. American studies felt close, but I really wanted to study media beyond its American context when applicable, and I really don’t care about a lot of political and legal mechanisms tbh unless the stuff I’m watching is engaging with them.

Today while reading a book of essays on the development and impacts of the Boys Love genre in Asia, I was looking at what each of the scholars studied in (I’ve done this a lot as I’ve been trying to figure out what to do) and one of them, whose writing and analysis was inspiring me, had studied Media Studies. A lightbulb turned on.

It’s wild because media studies was my sister’s major in undergrad, and I even edited and helped develop her essays throughout college and her final thesis. It had never occurred to me, though. I realized media studies would let me explore the development, content, conveyance, and reception of all the stuff that makes me feel the most fulfilled 🥰 And I could take it toward working in the tv industry or, probs more likely, a career in academia (which I know has plenty of it’s own issues and criticisms but it also seems like it might possibly be a great fit for me personally).

But yeah, that’s the realization I had today. Just feels good to have some clarity.

[narcissa-black-supermacy]

you are absolutely right about what you said re: censoring jkr's name though. it's the same mindset that encourages those people who are like 'i don't care about hp i just care about the marauders' which i completely get in terms of like, caring about the mwpp era vs golden trio era but i feel like sometimes people lean so much into that mindset that they sort of... forget that the marauders are a part of the hp universe?

another one i can't stand is 'jkr didn't write hp! (insert) did!' because, to me, saying stuff like this doesn't really do anything in terms of disavowing jkr and her beliefs. no matter how much you clog your ears and pretend otherwise, jkr did write hp and it's very much her work.

maybe it's the fact that i believe that the 'ownwership' of published literature (and other media as well i guess, but i care more about literature than anything else so i'll only speak for that) is sort of... a balancing act between the writer and the reader. it can be jkr's thing just as much as it's mine, you know? and my interpretation of things/the parts of it that resonated with me is just as important as jkr's involvement. so the very act of liking hp doesn't make me or anyone else an awful person because hp is also mine.

that's a more impactful mindset to me than erasing jkr entirely from the work because that's just... blatantly not true and never will be lmao

you are absolutely right about everything you said.

i think this is a general issue of people seeking control that they'll never have. nobody can guarantee you that the person whose music/art/writing you like will never do anything problematic. you need to learn to be okay with that.

you see that beyond fandom, with the rejection of the "culturally christian" label (which has always been baffling to me bc in islam/judaism we only have "practicing" and "non-practicing" but you cant just remove that entirely when youre born into a culture, yknow?)

or with countries. like. you need to be okay with your country having a shitty president that makes shitty decisions and still feel okay about identifying as american/german/iranian/etc and be proud of that bc it's still your heritage and your culture and you're allowed to take that flag and make it into whatever it is to you regardless of what it means to other people, because you can't control that.

[quoteablebooks]

Genre: Fiction, Adult, Contemporary Romance

Rating: 5 out of 5

Content Warning: Death of a parent, Grief, Sexual content, Cancer, Infidelity, Child abuse  

Summary:

A romance writer who no longer believes in love and a literary writer stuck in a rut engage in a summer-long challenge that may just upend everything they believe about happily ever afters. Augustus Everett is an acclaimed author of literary fiction. January Andrews writes bestselling romance. When she pens a happily ever after, he kills off his entire cast. They’re polar opposites. In fact, the only thing they have in common is that for the next three months, they’re living in neighboring beach houses, broke, and bogged down with writer’s block. Until, one hazy evening, one thing leads to another and they strike a deal designed to force them out of their creative ruts: Augustus will spend the summer writing something happy, and January will pen the next Great American Novel. She’ll take him on field trips worthy of any rom-com montage, and he’ll take her to interview surviving members of a backwoods death cult (obviously). Everyone will finish a book and no-one will fall in love. Really.

*Opinions*

I know I say this at the start of almost every review, but this read was influenced by social media. However, I do think that almost everyone heard of Beach Read when it came out in 2020 so I can’t blame Tiktok and Youtube for this one too much. Beach Read follows January Andrews and Augustus Everett, two writers that are suffering from a number of crises in their lives as well as writer's block. There is also the added issue that January has always seen Gus, as he went by in college, as her writing rival because he dismissed her writing of women’s fiction and romance for his high-brow literature. One ill-fated book club meeting later and a deal is struck, they will both attempt to write a novel in the other’s genre. Whichever book sells first gets the bragging rights. However, living next door to her college rival, whom she spent one steamy frat party dance with while dealing with digging up all the secrets of her father’s past might be too much for even disillusioned January Andrews to handle. 

This was a five-star read for me and there were only a couple of hiccups in the story that I found. However, because I read this book three years after it was released, I had also been warned that there were some heavier topics in the novel that had such a light-hearted title. I can see how some people would have been taken off guard when they thought they were going into a light-hearted romance and were hit with a lot of not light-hearted issues. In the Author’s Note, Henry stated that she didn’t write a romance novel, so perhaps it was the marketing team that got it wrong. That being said, I really enjoyed that there was a lot going on in both January and Gus’s lives aside from their jobs and their evolving feelings for one another. It made them feel real and well-rounded. It also made some of their miscommunication make more sense than just ‘they won’t talk to each other’. 

I related to January a lot more than I thought I would. While I don’t have a box of gin and an agent breathing down my neck for a new novel, the way her thought process played out was very familiar. While my outlook on the world might not be as happy and optimistic as January’s, I think I still try to find the happy ending, or at least the satisfying ending, in all the stories I tell myself in my head. Gus, at times, was a little too brooding, but understandable once you learn more about his background and past relationships. He also had some great romantic lines in this novel. 

The one gripe I had was that there were numerous miscommunications that, while cleared up usually pretty quickly, seemed to fall into a predictable rhythm. Gus would grow distant, January would blow it out of proportion (relatable) and then she would get emotional and he would comfort her. As someone with anxiety, my mind is constantly telling me that everyone hates me and will never talk to me again, but reading about it multiple times in a novel does get a little old. Luckily, I liked the characters enough and cared about their arcs enough that it didn’t really dampen my enjoyment of the novel. One more time and it probably would have knocked the novel down a star rating. 

Overall, I think that this is an interesting novel that takes a look at love and how our perception of our loved ones can change over time. How relationships don’t have to be perfect to be right for you. This isn’t a perfect novel, but it was perfect for me at the time I was reading it so it is a five-star read. I would suggest checking out the content warnings before going in though, so you aren’t caught off guard. 

[cindylouwho-2]

RECENT NEWS, RESOURCES AND STUDIES, November 2022

Welcome to what will likely be my last 2022 summary of the top news, studies and helpful resources for ecommerce (including Etsy), social media, marketing and SEO, compiled since my last update in October. 

The holiday shopping season is in full swing and like many of you, I need to spend the next month working for those customers, so I don’t expect to publish another news update until January. However, you can always follow me on Twitter for breaking news of importance to indie and microbusinesses, and I am also now posting short pieces on LinkedIn, so please follow or connect with me there!  Here’s a list of all the places you can find me.

Best of luck to everyone for the rest of 2022, and let’s hope that the new year brings good news for all of us. 

TOP NEWS & ARTICLES 

The top story for this edition is on Etsy Seller Protection - or more accurately, the lack of seller protection on some orders. While Etsy promises buyers they “... will receive a full refund for purchases that never arrive, arrive damaged, or do not match the listing description”, none of the literature specifies that Etsy thinks buyers deserve a refund even when tracking says the package was delivered. That is, however, what Etsy has been doing for buyers since the new program kicked in August 1 of this year. Sellers should note that if they don’t qualify for seller protection, Etsy is currently refunding the buyer out of the seller’s money, even if tracking shows the package was delivered. There is a long list of things a seller must do to qualify for protection, but the requirement shop owners are complaining about most is the complete lack of seller protection for orders over $250 USD (shipping included). Etsy has forced seller refunds on several orders that tracking shows were delivered, and even on orders still waiting for pickup at the post office. The good news is that Etsy has been refunding most of these sellers once a ticket is opened, but is warning them that this may not happen in the future. Some shop owners were told to insure all orders over $250, but of course most insurance companies will not cover packages where tracking states delivery occurred. I expect there will be some changes to the program in the new year, once Etsy analyzes the data to see how often claims are made, and for what reasons. 

Other important articles: 

Since it comes up in a lot of pieces I post, here is the definition of “marketing funnel”. 

Reminder that American sellers may be getting 1099-Ks from platforms and payment processors for this tax year. 

ETSY NEWS 

Some US Etsy sellers unable or unwilling to verify their bank accounts using Plaid have received a 70 day reprieve that allows them to sell through the holiday season. Were too many US shops going to be suspended otherwise? Or is this an Etsy admission that the technical issues were their fault? 

Etsy will once again update delivery times this holiday season if it believes there is a delay with the carrier, but it is not clear how many different carriers they are doing this for. (Previously it was only USPS.) Note they also offer digital cards on that link, which buyers can give to recipients when the present will arrive late. They put out a second notice a few weeks later, specifically stating that using the “other” option in shipping profiles is not recommended unless absolutely necessary. On that note, they have now introduced a Canada Post “regular mail” option for domestic shipping (oversized lettermail), which was never available before. 

Etsy started showing estimated delivery dates underneath listings on the search page - see my screenshot on Twitter. Even though estimated delivery dates are compulsory in most countries now, a few listings don't show them, so make sure you add dates to your shipping profiles if you want to benefit from this change. At this time of year, displaying speedy shipping can be beneficial, but it likely depends what you sell.

There are once again problems with Etsy picking up tracking in the UK, but Etsy insists this will not affect Star Seller ratings, and they have also supposedly released reserved funds from affected sales for shops with a payment reserve. 

I covered the Etsy 3rd quarter financial report, and the press release mentioned that Etsy is testing “prioritization of Star Seller listings“ in search. Strangely, that wasn't covered at all in the conference call, but sellers have spotted a few tests in the wild, including Star Sellers being used as a filter option. While that has concerned some folks, remember that reviews are already directly part of the algorithm, and Etsy says that violating “any Etsy policies” is part of the Customer and Marketplace experience score. Shipping on time and responding to Messages promptly are both Etsy policies, and were even before Etsy introduced Star Seller. Therefore, all of the Star Seller factors were already in the algorithm. Also remember that the priority placement for free shipping ended very poorly for Etsy 3 years ago, when they admitted that it reduced the conversion rate, and the stock tanked. There's no way they are going to make the same mistake again. Whatever search boosts are given to Star Sellers, they are likely to be minor, if they do become permanent. Very few elements of the algorithm have much weight these days, and it is unlikely that this will have a huge impact on ranking either.

If you use outside sites to check the feedback your buyers leave on Etsy, note that Etsy will be removing that data from its API next year, so those sites will no longer be useful for reading buyer feedback. The official date is not yet set.

Etsy has been pushing Google SEO very hard for the past few months, and the latest is this long article on optimizing your listings. This feels odd, since the company has made it very clear (through their actions) that they prefer organic Google searchers land on its Market pages instead of individual listings or even shop home pages. However, most of the recommendations will also help items rank better in Google Shopping, so maybe this is not so big of a surprise. It’s possible that the changes to Google Images in recent years - which make it more likely that listing pages will be shown as opposed to Market pages - have also spurred Etsy to aim for better listing SEO. After all, if the visitor doesn’t purchase right away, Etsy can then hit them with retargeting ads, which are part of Offsite Ads. 

Etsy garnered media coverage for its announcement of image search (currently only available on the iOS app). Engadget reported that the new feature managed to find similar pieces for sale on the site, while Techcrunch noted that other sites introduced this feature a long time ago. NBC News mentioned it in passing. 

Sellers in Mexico will have taxes withheld from their sales starting January 1, 2023, to comply with new Mexican laws. Providing Etsy with your Registro Federal de Contribuyentes (RFC) identification number will reduce the amount withheld, but note that it apparently takes some time to get an application processed, so don’t wait to apply. 

Etsy will have a new Chief Technology Officer as of January 1 2023: Rachana Kumar will take over from Mike Fisher, who is leaving the company. 

Proving once again that complaints can go viral, a TikTok video complaining about Etsy’s Offsite Ads fees picked up some media attention. Also on TikTok: complaining about buying Kmart products for sale on Etsy.

SEO: GOOGLE & OTHER SEARCH ENGINES 

Moz has updated its Beginners’ Guide to SEO with a wonderful checklist for people new to SEO. The section will also be really useful for those who know a bit about SEO but not enough to figure out what they should be doing first. 

Links coming into your website (aka backlinks) are known to be great for SEO, but the search community has been divided on the value of outgoing links. Here’s a deep dive into the various opinions, the types of outgoing links you want to avoid or treat differently, and why “linking out” is ultimately good for SEO in most cases. 

Does removing low-performing pages help your website’s Google traffic? Maybe, but it isn’t necessarily required. 

Want to buy a used domain name? Here are 3 ways to check if it has a bad history.

SOCIAL MEDIA - All Aspects, By Site

General DeviantArt introduced a new AI art generator that uses images scraped from all over the web to understand requests - and many users of the site are not happy. 

Want to schedule posts on your social sites? Here are 4 options. 

Facebook (includes relevant general news from Meta) Meta’s stock dropped $80 billion (25% of its value) after a third quarter result showing that profit was down 50%. They promptly announced they were laying off 11,000 people, with Zuckerberg admitting he thought the pandemic ecommerce boom would continue.

Instagram If you want to appear on Instagram’s Explore page, first you have to understand how the algorithm works. Remember that the page is personalized, though, so there may be some users who will never see you, due to their preferences and history. 

A list of 28 different tools you can use for Instagram marketing. Most are free or have free versions. 

LinkedIn LinkedIn came out with a report on how to produce the best content for the site, most of it assuming that creators are buying ads there.

Reddit Don’t know much about Reddit? Here are some stats that might help you understand if it is right for your business. “Reddit is the fifth most visited website in the U.S” and “82% of Gen-Z people trust Reddit when learning more about products” are two key facts.

Snapchat Snap’s revenue was up 6% in the third quarter of 2022, but it is worried that Apple’s privacy changes will hurt Snap’s usual strong ad income in the fourth quarter.

TikTok If you want to be found on TikTok, you need to understand SEO on the site. 

“TikTok Shop” allows US users to buy products directly in the TikTok app; it launched in early November. Merchants can participate by invitation only. 

TikTok is using content moderators in each country they have a significant presence in, but some countries get paid far less for the same job, and the job is quite frankly, horrific. Time calls the company out for not supporting its employees. [graphic content warning]

TikTok is accused of tracking US citizens for reasons other than ad targeting. TikTok denies the claim.

Twitter It’s impossible for me to cover everything going on with Twitter lately, but I am sure those of you who care have been keeping up. Hope to have better news soon. 

If you want to do a bit of Twitter promoting without really promoting, consider participating in the Art Advent Calendar December 1-24. Any visual creations are allowed other than NFTs and AI art, and you do not have to be a “professional” artist. Sharing other work you like on the hashtag is a good way to meet people and build community.

ECOMMERCE NEWS, IDEAS, TRENDS (minus social media)

General  Pitney Bowes released a combo printer/scale/rate checker for ecommerce businesses in the US. It currently costs $269 but will eventually go up to $369.

Amazon Amazon said that the holiday season would be slower than expected, which took 20% off of the stock overnight. They also missed third quarter revenue estimates, which never helps. 

Social media posts indicate that Amazon has been cutting back on available space at its warehouses for Fulfillment by Amazon sellers. The company later said it would only affect 6% FBA sellers in the US who had a lot of stock in storage, but one seller pointed out “The problem for me (& many others) is that at an account level, it looks like I have a good amount of inventory, but at a SKU level, my best-sellers are going to suffocate.” The company is also laying off about 10,000 employees, from the retail, Alexa and human resources departments. 

Ads are everywhere on Amazon, making them one of the company’s two largest profit sources. If you didn’t like that article, the Washington Post did a similar one [gift link; should be readable by non-subscribers] just a few weeks later, with an interactive scroll showing how much of an Amazon search page was ads, and how many irrelevant results we get. 

In the continuation of a trend, Amazon is being sued in the UK under competition law. 

US shoppers can now pay with Venmo.

Amazon is testing facial recognition technology as a way of verifying seller identities. They currently use live video chat to do this instead.

eBay A huge glitch starting in mid-October meant that some eBay sellers were not charged final value fees after sales - then eBay charged them all as a lump sum weeks later. 

Sales on eBay were down 11% in the third quarter compared to 2021, but their ad revenue was up. 

An insurance company is suing eBay, claiming it should not have to pay out on policies when criminal activities are involved. This involves the civil suit by EcommerceBytes owners against eBay, regarding the cyberstalking incidents.

Poshmark Sellers can now get their Poshmark earnings faster.

Shopify Shopify had a relatively-good third quarter, although they still lost money. 

In the past few years, almost ⅔ of Shopify sites closed within 12 months. The article includes a decent analysis of this high churn rate. 

The Shop app from Shopify is currently testing a search of all Shopify sites. Will this lead to “search ads”? The company will almost certainly need to expend more effort to weed out scam sites. Also, Shopify sites may end up investing time chasing the app's algorithm in the future, which is always a double-edged sword - if you crack the code to appearing at the top of search, you can become dependent on that traffic.

If you change a page‘s URL/address on your site, customers and search engines won’t be able to find it without you doing a 301 redirect. Don’t make this mistake!

All Other Marketplaces

Depop has added promoted/boosted listings, with the 8% fee only charged when the product sells. They’re also increasing payment processing fees as of January 5, 2023, to 3.3% + $0.45 per transaction.  Note that Etsy has previously stated that Depop has been a drag on its overall earnings, so these changes are not surprising. 

All Other Website Builders Wordpress is very popular, but one of its drawbacks is security. Make sure you secure your site as well as possible.

(CONTENT) MARKETING (includes blogging, emails, and strategies) 

Not sure what I mean by content marketing? This article covers it well, including why you should use it and how to get started. And by the way, content marketing and SEO should both be relied on for the best results.  

ONLINE ADVERTISING (NOT SOCIAL MEDIA OR ECOMMERCE SITES)

An economic downturn can lead businesses to change their advertising strategies and budgets.  Here are 5 mistakes you don’t want to make.

If you use Google Ads, you should also use the Google Ads Keyword Forecast Tool, which predicts what will be trending in the future.

STATS, DATA, TRACKING 

Still trying to figure out Google Analytics 4? These instructions on setting up customer reports might help. 

BUSINESS & CONSUMER TRENDS, STATS & REPORTS; SOCIOLOGY & PSYCHOLOGY, CUSTOMER SERVICE 

Black Friday and Cyber Monday broke sales records in the United States [gift link, Washington Post], with sales up from 2021 throughout the weekend. Cyber Monday was up 5.3%, to $11.3 billion. Note, however, that the numbers are not adjusted for inflation.

IMAGES, VIDEO, GRAPHIC DESIGN, & FREE ONLINE TOOLS

Ever need to copy the text out of a photograph or other image? There are free tools for that (and some paid ones too) [soft paywall; Wired]

MISCELLANEOUS

Google settled the US location tracking claims, for $392 million USD. The company must also make these choices clearer to users.

[magsstore2]

Commonweal Magazine

Commonweal Magazine is a prominent American publication that holds a unique place in the landscape of religious and intellectual journalism. Founded in 1924 by a group of Catholic laypeople, Commonweal has maintained its focus on the intersection of faith, politics, and culture for a century. Its mission is to provide thoughtful analysis and commentary on contemporary issues through the lens of Catholic social teaching while also offering a forum for diverse perspectives, fostering dialogue across ideological lines.

At its core, Commonweal seeks to engage with the moral and ethical dimensions of political and social life. The magazine covers a wide range of topics, including theology, politics, literature, art, and current events. In doing so, it appeals not only to Catholic readers but also to anyone interested in the deeper moral implications of society’s most pressing issues. The publication's approach combines intellectual rigor with a sense of social responsibility, making it a go-to resource for those looking to explore the intersection of faith and reason in a complex world.

One of Commonweal's defining characteristics is its commitment to independent lay Catholicism. Unlike many other Catholic publications, Commonweal is not affiliated with the institutional Church, allowing it to explore topics with a freedom and candor that are sometimes difficult to find in more official Catholic media outlets. This independence enables the magazine to take positions on issues like war, social justice, immigration, and economic inequality that may not always align with traditional Church views but are rooted in a broader, values-driven understanding of Catholic teachings.

[ramrodd]

Christian Reveals Super Villain Secret Origins! (feat Dr Bart Ehrman) (J...

COMMENTARY:

James White and Bart "Giggles" Ehrman are a perfect excaple of the opposite sides of the same theological coin of the dialectical Marxism of the Jesus Seminar v the Pro-Life solo scriptura Calvinism of the Totaal Deparvity doctrine. There is reaally  not a dime's worth of diffference between them, theologically. Apostasy is the essentialy dimension of Giggle's business model. It's got nothing to do with Jesus: it's all about the bucks and political power he has accrued by claiming apostasy, Popularity has always bee a cricial issue for Giggles: he succumbed to the peer pressure of the Born Again warriors of Bill Bright's Campus Crusade for Christ in the wake of the Late, Great Planet Jesus movement of the 60s and became "Born Again" because all the cook kids in school were going Salvation Gospel in reaction to the Sex, Drugs and Rock-and-Roll anarchy of the Liberal anti-war and civil rights cultural revolution on campus. I'll give Giggles credit for bing diligent in his convictions and service as a pastor until he met Dale Martin and discovered that being a Gay Episcopalian was a lot more popular at Chapel Hill than a Calvinist drudge and Apostasy turned out to be a very profitable Branding decision.  His tell for when he is spouting absolute theological trash is when he begins to giggle about  elements of the literature of the Bible which don't fit his Marxist template which is to say, any appeal to the paradox of Jesus and the validation of the God Hypothesis by Resurrection. Like James White, he genraally denies the Holy Spirit as  contradiction  of the material nature of historic analysis. Marxism is sort of the anti-Gnostic inquiry where the supernatural manifest in NOAA weather reports is dismissed as superstious behavior. In any evernt, Giggle's Apostasy business model satisfies his need for ppularity and made him rich, personally, and a singular power in the field of PhD scholarship. I followed James Wright's insights regardint Islam, along with Bill Warner and Jay Smith, American Evangelicals have a high need to crusade against Mormons for reasons that are completely incomprehensible to me and, to some degree, Wright, Warner and Smith extend that prejudice to Islam, I didn't know much about Islam until I went to the Million Man March here in DC because I knew the Main Stream Media couldnt  get past their racism to give an accurate report of what he said, so I wtood witness on the Mall, virtually the only white guy to be seen except for some very nervous white Park Policemen around the Metro entrances. The most important thing I learned was the centrality of the number nineteen to the divine onature of the Meccan verses of the Koran and Khadijah, The Holy Spirit is all over the Koran, generally, identified by whereever 19 pops up, Sura 74:30 is the clerest portrait of the mind of The One in literature; Above it is nineteen. 19 is the literal Alpha and Omega of the mind of God as presented in Genesis 1:1 and Revelation 4:2  But that's another story. But. like all Pro-Life apologists and evangelical anti-Theist like the Jesus Seminar, he's ultimately boring,  And he's gone a bit native with the standard Muslim palm's length combed out chin whiskers. All these pro-and anti-Jesus freaks get locked into their little echo chambers as a consequece of the glass ceiling of Post Modern Historic Deconstruction, I mean, when it comes to the theology of James White or Bart "Giggles" Ehrman, it comes down to a choice between Tweedle Dee and Tweeke Dumber.

[jclemuss]

Analytical Application 6: Race and Representation

Stereotype - Stereotype refers to a widely held but oversimplified and often inaccurate belief or idea about a particular group of people or things. Stereotypes are based on generalizations and can be perpetuated through various forms of media, such as literature, film, television, and advertising. They often serve to reinforce existing power dynamics and social hierarchies by reducing individuals or groups to a limited set of characteristics or traits. Stereotypes can be harmful as they overlook the diversity and complexity within groups, leading to discrimination, prejudice, and inequality.

"What Makes the Red Man Red" from Disney's "Peter Pan" is a prime example of how the media perpetuates harmful stereotypes. The song, featured in the 1953 animated film, reduces Native American culture to simplistic caricatures, reinforcing damaging and inaccurate portrayals. Firstly, the song's title itself objectifies and reduces Native Americans to a singular characteristic of their skin color. It ignores the diversity and complexity of Native American identities and cultures, reducing them to a mere color-coded stereotype. Also, the lyrics of the song perpetuate harmful stereotypes by presenting Native Americans as one-dimensional characters defined solely by their perceived attributes, such as their supposed penchant for painting their skin or their simplistic view of the world. These portrayals not only fail to represent the rich and diverse cultures of Indigenous peoples accurately but also serve to dehumanize and marginalize them. I also focused on the song’s melody and think that the song's upbeat and catchy melody serves to trivialize the serious issues at hand, masking the underlying racism and perpetuating harmful stereotypes under the guise of innocent entertainment, which Disney is always known for. In today's context, "What Makes the Red Man Red" stands as a stark reminder of the importance of critically examining media portrayals and challenging harmful stereotypes. While it may have been produced in a different era, its impact continues to resonate, highlighting the need for greater awareness and sensitivity in media representation, particularly concerning marginalized communities. Instead of perpetuating stereotypes, the media should strive to celebrate the richness and diversity of all cultures in a respectful and very authentic manner.

Cultural Dominant -  The term refers to a prevailing or predominant set of cultural values, beliefs, practices, or norms within a society or a specific cultural context. These dominant cultural elements influence how individuals and groups perceive, interpret, and engage with the world around them. Cultural dominants often reflect society's ideologies, power structures, and historical contexts, shaping social behaviors, institutions, and identities.

The song "When I See an Elephant Fly" from "Dumbo" is a prime example of how the media can reflect and perpetuate cultural dominance. In the context of the film, the song is performed by a group of crows who encounter Dumbo and Timothy Mouse. These crows are depicted using stereotypical African American dialects and mannerisms, which align with racial caricatures prevalent during the time of the film's release in 1941. The portrayal of the crows in "Dumbo" reflects the cultural dominance of the era, wherein the dominant culture (white people) shaped and controlled the representation of minority groups in media. The crows, as characters, are relegated to supporting roles and are depicted as comical and simplistic, reinforcing racial stereotypes rather than presenting a nuanced and realistic portrayal of African American characters and voice actors. The lyrics of the song, while catchy and playful, perpetuate racial stereotypes by presenting the crows as uneducated and using dialects associated with African American speech patterns. This portrayal reinforces the idea of cultural dominance, where the dominant culture defines and controls the representation of minority cultures in ways that serve to maintain its own power and privilege. Disney Animation is known for its racist action within its movies and the constant stereotypes that are only seen in movies because of the cultural dominance of the industry. Rather than continue critiquing films, we must diversify the industry and the creators in charge of releasing these films and media. We must change what happens inside the movies and not forget the outside as well. 

Popular Culture - Popular culture encompasses the everyday cultural practices, artifacts, expressions, and forms of entertainment that emerge from and resonate with a broad audience within a society. It includes a range of phenomena such as music, fashion, film, television, literature, sports, and digital media. Popular culture is often characterized by its accessibility, mass appeal, and consumption by diverse social groups. It reflects the values, beliefs, norms, and experiences of a society or particular social groups, and it is constantly evolving and influenced by various factors such as technology, globalization, and social change.

"I Wanna Be Like You" from Disney's The Jungle Book epitomizes the essence of popular culture. Composed by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman, it is an essential component of both the film and broader popular culture. Its catchy tune, lively rhythm, and playful lyrics have ingrained themselves into the collective consciousness of audiences worldwide. The song's popularity extends far beyond its initial context within the film. It has become a cultural touchstone, recognized and cherished by generations since its release in 1967. Its infectious melody and memorable lyrics have made it a favorite for sing-alongs, karaoke nights, and nostalgic moments. “I Wanna Be Like You" has transcended the boundaries of the film to become a standalone cultural phenomenon. Numerous artists featured in commercials have covered it, adapted it into various musical styles, and referenced it in popular media. Its enduring presence in popular culture is a testament to its universal appeal and timeless charm. The characters associated with the song, particularly King Louie, the orangutan, have become iconic figures in their own right. Their animated antics and memorable performances have cemented their place in the pantheon of beloved pop culture characters. Overall, "I Wanna Be Like You" encapsulates the spirit of popular culture, offering a blend of entertainment, nostalgia, and universal appeal that continues to resonate with audiences of all ages. Its enduring popularity ensures that it will remain a cherished part of the cultural landscape for years to come. No one could ever turn down or forget about the fantastic film “The Jungle Book.” 

Cultural Hegemony - Cultural hegemony refers to the domination or control over a society's beliefs, values, norms, and practices by a particular group or class, typically the ruling or dominant class. This dominance is achieved through disseminating and normalizing its cultural ideologies, which then shape the perceptions, behaviors, and worldviews of individuals within that society. Cultural hegemony operates subtly and often goes unquestioned as it becomes ingrained in the everyday fabric of society, influencing everything from media representations to educational curricula and social institutions.

 "The Siamese Cat Song" from Disney's Lady and the Tramp can be analyzed within the framework of cultural hegemony because it reinforces existing power dynamics and perpetuates harmful stereotypes. The song features Si and Am, Siamese cats depicted as cunning and manipulative characters with exaggerated facial features and stereotypical speech patterns. This portrayal aligns with broader cultural stereotypes of Asian people, particularly those of East Asian descent, as conniving and deceitful. By perpetuating these stereotypes, the song reinforces the cultural dominance of the ruling class, which, in the context of Disney's films, often represents white society over marginalized groups. The song's lyrics and imagery exoticize Siamese culture, reducing it to superficial and caricatured representations for entertainment purposes. This exoticization serves to reinforce power imbalances by portraying non-Western cultures as mysterious, inferior, and suitable for consumption by the dominant culture. Additionally, "The Siamese Cat Song" can be seen as an example of cultural appropriation, where elements of a marginalized culture are commodified and used for entertainment by the dominant culture without regard for the cultural context or significance. In this case, the use of Siamese cats and references to Siamese culture are exploited for their exotic appeal, further reinforcing the cultural hegemony of the dominant group. Overall, "The Siamese Cat Song" contributes to cultural hegemony by perpetuating harmful stereotypes, exoticizing non-Western cultures, and appropriating elements of marginalized cultures for entertainment purposes. It underscores the importance of critically examining media portrayals and challenging dominant narratives reinforcing power imbalances and marginalizing certain groups.

​​Essentialism - Essentialism is a philosophical concept that asserts the existence of inherent, immutable qualities or characteristics that define the essence of a particular entity, such as an object, idea, or identity. It suggests that these essential qualities are intrinsic and necessary for classifying or understanding the entity, often implying a fixed and unchanging nature. 

The songs "Everybody Wants to Be a Cat" and "The Aristocats" can be analyzed within essentialism's framework, particularly concerning their portrayal of identity and desire. In philosophical terms, essentialism suggests that entities possess inherent and immutable characteristics that define their identity. In the context of "Everybody Wants to Be a Cat," the song explores the desire of various characters, including the alley cats and even the Duchess and her kittens, to possess cat-like traits and characteristics. The lyrics of the song emphasize the joys and freedoms associated with being a cat, such as living carefree, having fun, and enjoying music. This portrayal suggests inherent qualities specific to being a cat make it desirable and fulfilling. Also, the song presents a dichotomy between being a cat and being something else, such as a dog or a mouse. This dichotomy reinforces essentialist notions by suggesting that specific characteristics are essential to being a cat and that these characteristics define the identity and experiences of the characters. But, it's important to note that "Everybody Wants to Be a Cat" is a lighthearted and whimsical musical number intended for entertainment rather than conveying profound philosophical messages. But other than that, its portrayal of identity and desire provides an interesting lens through which to explore essentialist concepts within popular culture.

Sources

Hall, Stuart. "What is this ‘Black’ in Black Popular Culture?" Representations, vol. 1, no. 1, 1993, pp. 468-478.

Said, Edward W. "Orientalism." Orientalism, Vintage Books, 1979, pp. 9-57.

Shohat, Ella, and Robert Stam. "Stereotype, Realism, and the Struggle Over Representation." Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings, 1999, pp. 178-215.

[o-kye]

My OCs (at request of @pretentious-media)

Avery: hypersexual self/depreciating adhd man. Is an annoying ass but in a very respectful, politically correct way. touches and wants to make out with everyone but prefers fems because. well have you seen fems. refuses to wear anything that is not brightly colored or black, likes to wear really stupid tshirts or band shirts. or cropped tank tops. depressed, has every medical condition in the book (and several that aren't), and very frequently has existential crises.

Kaime (Boo): very traumatized, reppressed homosexual. copes by being a ball of sunshine. lets everyone walk all lover him, but doesnt let anybody touch him except for avery. as i said, repressed. extremely smart, knows a lot about bio and chem but his favorite is physics, especially theoretical physics. dresses in a mix of light academia and cottagecore, and always wears long sleeves because of. trauma. his favorite article of clothing is his blue corduroy jacket with pins or his duck sweatshirt. he loves ducks, especially the american wigeon.

Thames: a reclusive romantic. likes to spend his time reading classical literature and learning his friends' favorite songs on the guitar. likes things to be black and white when they're often not, and ends up stereotyping a lot of people because of it. also has anger issues. hes an extremely stubborn man. very sensitive to people thinking hes a bad person; hes used to it, as he grew up rich with his whole (controversial, cuz hes trans) life in the spotlight. this also contributes to the fact that hes extremely private. constantly having sexuality crises, thanks to avery being such a good kisser. hell figure it out eventually. he dresses like a newspaper in a coffee shop, which is funny because neither of those things exist in 2265.

Alle: spends way too much time in their head with the person of their dreams, but learning to be better about it. very quiet and observant - somehow, they seem to just know everything. it took them two seconds of meeting kaime to tell that he was a traumatized homosexual. theyre also traumatized, albeit in very different ways. they tend to question themself and others a lot, leading to a very pristine set of morals. they like to spend their time being in quiet places, exploring. they're definitely a lone wolf and try to figure things out on their own since they were taught not to trust people. dresses, as avery likes to say, like a "bagel."

Anyway if you have questions about them I would love to answer them! I've made character profiles and wardrobes for all of them, they are literally what keeps me going <3

[alyssaolson02]

Book/Photographer research #6

Gillian Laub is a photographer and filmmaker based in New York. She was born in 1975 and raised in Chappaqua, New York. Laub obtained a degree in comparative literature from the University of Wisconsin-Madison before pursuing photography at the International Center of Photography. Her passion for visual storytelling and family narratives developed during her time there. 

Laub's first monograph, titled "Testimony" and published by Aperture in 2007, originated as a response to the media coverage of the second intifada in the Middle East. This body of work consists of portraits and testimonies from individuals directly and indirectly affected by the conflict, including Israeli Jews, Israeli Arabs, Lebanese, and Palestinians. For over a decade, she focused on exploring issues of persistent racism in the American South through her work in Georgia. This project eventually led to her directing and producing her first feature-length documentary film, "Southern Rites," which premiered on HBO. In conjunction with the film, Laub released a monograph called "Southern Rites" (published by Damiani in 2015) and a traveling exhibition of the same name. These resources are currently being utilized for an educational outreach campaign in schools and institutions across the United States. Her book entitled "Southern Rites" received critical acclaim and was recognized as one of the best photo books by TIME, Smithsonian, Vogue, LensCulture, and American Photo. It was also nominated for a Lucie award and Humanitas award.  

Gillian Laub's photography, similar to Gabriele Galimberti, often features posed subjects and lacks a candid aspect. Upon reviewing multiple projects, I noticed a lack of storytelling in her work. Typically, photographers rely on their images to convey a narrative, supplemented by captions providing background information or contextual relevance. However, in Laub's case, the photographs seemed to lack a cohesive narrative, making it difficult to understand their purpose without accompanying captions. Additionally, Laub employed harsh front lighting techniques, resulting in a dramatic effect where the focus was on the subject while the background appeared darker. This stylistic choice did not always align with the overall aesthetic of the photographs. Personally, I did not find myself particularly drawn to Gillian Laub's work.

[xtruss]

Swiss Policy Research: The Propaganda Multiplier

It is one of the most important aspects of our media system, and yet hardly known to the public: most of the international news coverage in Western media is provided by only three global news agencies based in New York, London and Paris.

The key role played by these agencies means Western media often report on the same topics, even using the same wording. In addition, governments, military and intelligence services use these global news agencies as multipliers to spread their messages around the world.

A study of the Syria war coverage by nine leading European newspapers clearly illustrates these issues: 78% of all articles were based in whole or in part on agency reports, yet 0% on investigative research. Moreover, 82% of all opinion pieces and interviews were in favor of a US and NATO intervention, while propaganda was attributed exclusively to the opposite side.

The Propaganda Multiplier:

How Global News Agencies and Western Media Report on Geopolitics

A Study by Swiss Propaganda Research: 2016 / 2019

“Therefore, you always have to ask yourself: Why do I get this specific information, in this specific form, at this specific moment? Ultimately, these are always questions about power.” (*) Dr. Konrad Hummler, Swiss Banking and Media Executive

Contents

Part 1: The Propaganda Multiplier

Part 2: Case Study on Syria War Coverage

3. Notes and Literature

Introduction: “Something Strange”

“How does the newspaper know what it knows?” The answer to this question is likely to surprise some newspaper readers: “The main source of information is stories from news agencies. The almost anonymously operating news agencies are in a way the key to world events. So what are the names of these agencies, how do they work and who finances them? To judge how well one is informed about events in East and West, one should know the answers to these questions.” (Höhne 1977, p. 11)

A Swiss media researcher points out: “The news agencies are the most important suppliers of material to mass media. No daily media outlet can manage without them. () So the news agencies influence our image of the world; above all, we get to know what they have selected.” (Blum 1995, p. 9)

In view of their essential importance, it is all the more astonishing that these agencies are hardly known to the public: “A large part of society is unaware that news agencies exist at all … In fact, they play an enormously important role in the media market. But despite this great importance, little attention has been paid to them in the past.” (Schulten-Jaspers 2013, p. 13)

Even the head of a news agency noted: “There is something strange about news agencies. They are little known to the public. Unlike a newspaper, their activity is not so much in the spotlight, yet they can always be found at the source of the story.” (Segbers 2007, p. 9)

“The Invisible Nerve Center of the Media System”

So what are the names of these agencies that are “always at the source of the story”? There are now only three global news agencies left:

The American Associated Press (AP) with over 4000 employees worldwide. The AP belongs to US media companies and has its main editorial office in New York. AP news is used by around 12,000 international media outlets, reaching more than half of the world’s population every day.

The Quasi-Governmental French Agence France-Presse (AFP) based in Paris and with around 4000 employees. The AFP sends over 3000 stories and photos every day to media all over the world.

The British Agency Reuters in London, which is privately owned and employs just over 3000 people. Reuters was acquired in 2008 by Canadian media entrepreneur Thomson – one of the 25 richest people in the world – and merged into Thomson Reuters, headquartered in New York.

In addition, many countries run their own news agencies. These include, for instance, the German DPA, the Austrian APA, and the Swiss SDA. When it comes to international news, however, national agencies usually rely on the three global agencies and simply copy and translate their reports.

Figure 1: The three global news agencies Reuters, AFP and AP, and the three national agencies of the German-speaking countries of Austria (APA), Germany (DPA) and Switzerland (SDA).

Wolfgang Vyslozil, former managing director of the Austrian APA, described the key role of news agencies with these words: “News agencies are rarely in the public eye. Yet they are one of the most influential and at the same time one of the least known media types. They are key institutions of substantial importance to any media system. They are the invisible nerve center that connects all parts of this system.” (Segbers 2007, p.10)

Small Abbreviation, Great Effect

However, there is a simple reason why the global agencies, despite their importance, are virtually unknown to the general public. To quote a Swiss media professor: “Radio and television usually do not name their sources, and only specialists can decipher references in magazines.” (Blum 1995, P. 9)

The motive for this discretion, however, should be clear: news outlets are not particularly keen to let readers know that they haven’t researched most of their contributions themselves.

The following figure shows some examples of source tagging in popular European newspapers. Next to the agency abbreviations we find the initials of editors who have edited the respective agency report.

Figure 2: News agencies as sources in newspaper articles

Occasionally, newspapers use agency material but do not label it at all. A study in 2011 from the Swiss Research Institute for the Public Sphere and Society at the University of Zurich came to the following conclusions (FOEG 2011):

“Agency contributions are exploited integrally without labeling them, or they are partially rewritten to make them appear as an editorial contribution. In addition, there is a practice of ‘spicing up’ agency reports with little effort: for example, unpublished agency reports are enriched with images and graphics and presented as comprehensive articles.”

The agencies play a prominent role not only in the press, but also in private and public broadcasting. This is confirmed by Volker Braeutigam, who worked for the German state broadcaster ARD for ten years and views the dominance of these agencies critically:

“One fundamental problem is that the newsroom at ARD sources its information mainly from three sources: the news agencies DPA/AP, Reuters and AFP: one German/American, one British and one French. () The editor working on a news topic only needs to select a few text passages on the screen that he considers essential, rearrange them and glue them together with a few flourishes.”

Swiss Radio and Television (SRF), too, largely bases itself on reports from these agencies. Asked by viewers why a peace march in Ukraine was not reported, the editors said: “To date, we have not received a single report of this march from the independent agencies Reuters, AP and AFP.”

In fact, not only the text, but also the images, sound and video recordings that we encounter in our media every day, are mostly from the very same agencies. What the uninitiated audience might think of as contributions from their local newspaper or TV station, are actually copied reports from New York, London and Paris.

Some media have even gone a step further and have, for lack of resources, outsourced their entire foreign editorial office to an agency. Moreover, it is well known that many news portals on the internet mostly publish agency reports (see e.g., Paterson 2007, Johnston 2011, MacGregor 2013).

In the end, this dependency on the global agencies creates a striking similarity in international reporting: from Vienna to Washington, our media often report the same topics, using many of the same phrases – a phenomenon that would otherwise rather be associated with »controlled media« in authoritarian states.

The following graphic shows some examples from German and international publications. As you can see, despite the claimed objectivity, a slight (geo-)political bias sometimes creeps in.

Figure 3: “Putin threatens”, “Iran provokes”, “NATO concerned”, “Assad stronghold”: Similarities in content and wording due to reports by global news agencies.

The Role of Correspondents

Much of our media does not have own foreign correspondents, so they have no choice but to rely completely on global agencies for foreign news. But what about the big daily newspapers and TV stations that have their own international correspondents? In German-speaking countries, for example, these include newspapers such NZZ, FAZ, Sueddeutsche Zeitung, Welt, and public broadcasters.

First of all, the size ratios should be kept in mind: while the global agencies have several thousand employees worldwide, even the Swiss newspaper NZZ, known for its international reporting, maintains only 35 foreign correspondents (including their business correspondents). In huge countries such as China or India, only one correspondent is stationed; all of South America is covered by only two journalists, while in even larger Africa no-one is on the ground permanently.

Moreover, in war zones, correspondents rarely venture out. On the Syria war, for example, many journalists “reported” from cities such as Istanbul, Beirut, Cairo or even from Cyprus. In addition, many journalists lack the language skills to understand local people and media.

How do correspondents under such circumstances know what the “news” is in their region of the world? The main answer is once again: from global agencies. The Dutch Middle East correspondent Joris Luyendijk has impressively described how correspondents work and how they depend on the world agencies in his book “People Like Us: Misrepresenting the Middle East”:

“I had imagined correspondents to be historians-of-the-moment. When something important happened, they would go after it, find out what was going on, and report on it. But I didn’t go off to find out what was going on; that had been done long before. I went along to present an on-the-spot report.

The editors in the Netherlands called when something happened, they faxed or emailed the press releases, and I’d retell them in my own words on the radio, or rework them into an article for the newspaper. This was the reason my editors found it more important that I could be reached in the place itself than that I knew what was going on. The news agencies provided enough information for you to be able to write or talk your way through any crisis or summit meeting.

That’s why you often come across the same images and stories if you leaf through a few different newspapers or click the news channels.

Our men and women in London, Paris, Berlin and Washington bureaus – all thought that wrong topics were dominating the news and that we were following the standards of the news agencies too slavishly.

The common idea about correspondents is that they ‘have the story’, () but the reality is that the news is a conveyor belt in a bread factory. The correspondents stand at the end of the conveyor belt, pretending we’ve baked that white loaf ourselves, while in fact all we’ve done is put it in its wrapping.

Afterwards, a friend asked me how I’d managed to answer all the questions during those cross-talks, every hour and without hesitation. When I told him that, like on the TV-news, you knew all the questions in advance, his e-mailed response came packed with expletives. My friend had relalized that, for decades, what he’d been watching and listening to on the news was pure theatre.” (Luye ndjik 2009, p. 20-22, 76, 189)

In other words, the typical correspondent is in general not able to do independent research, but rather deals with and reinforces those topics that are already prescribed by the news agencies – the notorious “mainstream effect”.

In addition, for cost-saving reasons many media outlets nowadays have to share their few foreign correspondents, and within individual media groups, foreign reports are often used by several publications – none of which contributes to diversity in reporting.

“What the agency does not report, does not take place”

The central role of news agencies also explains why, in geopolitical conflicts, most media use the same original sources. In the Syrian war, for example, the “Syrian Observatory for Human Rights” – a dubious one-man organization based in London – featured prominently. The media rarely inquired directly at this “Observatory”, as its operator was in fact difficult to reach, even for journalists.

Rather, the “Observatory” delivered its stories to global agencies, which then forwarded them to thousands of media outlets, which in turn “informed” hundreds of millions of readers and viewers worldwide. The reason why the agencies, of all places, referred to this strange “Observatory” in their reporting – and who really financed it – is a question that was rarely asked.

The former chief editor of the German news agency DPA, Manfred Steffens, therefore states in his book “The Business of News”:

“A news story does not become more correct simply because one is able to provide a source for it. It is indeed rather questionable to trust a news story more just because a source is cited. () Behind the protective shield such a ‘source’ means for a story, some people are inclined to spread rather adventurous things, even if they themselves have legitimate doubts about their correctness; the responsibility, at least morally, can always be attributed to the cited source.” (Steffens 1969, p. 106)

Dependence on global agencies is also a major reason why media coverage of geopolitical conflicts is often superficial and erratic, while historic relationships and background are fragmented or altogether absent. As put by Steffens: “News agencies receive their impulses almost exclusively from current events and are therefore by their very nature ahistoric. They are reluctant to add any more context than is strictly required.” (Steffens 1969, p. 32)

Finally, the dominance of global agencies explains why certain geopolitical issues and events – which often do not fit very well into the US/NATO narrative or are too “unimportant” – are not mentioned in our media at all: if the agencies do not report on something, then most Western media will not be aware of it. As pointed out on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the German DPA: “What the agency does not report, does not take place.” (Wilke 2000, p. 1)

“Adding Questionable Stories”

While some topics do not appear at all in our media, other topics are very prominent – even though they shouldn’t actually be: “Often the mass media do not report on reality, but on a constructed or staged reality. () Several studies have shown that the mass media are predominantly determined by PR activities and that passive, receptive attitudes outweigh active-researching ones.” (Blum 1995, p. 16)

In fact, due to the rather low journalistic performance of our media and their high dependence on a few news agencies, it is easy for interested parties to spread propaganda and disinformation in a supposedly respectable format to a worldwide audience. DPA editor Steffens warned of this danger:

“The critical sense gets more lulled the more respected the news agency or newspaper is. Someone who wants to introduce a questionable story into the world press only needs to try to put his story in a reasonably reputable agency, to be sure that it then appears a little later in the others. Sometimes it happens that a hoax passes from agency to agency and becomes ever more credible.” (Steffens 1969, p. 234)

Among the most active actors in “injecting” questionable geopolitical news are the military and defense ministries. For example, in 2009 the head of the American news agency AP, Tom Curley, made public that the Pentagon employs more than 27,000 PR specialists who, with a budget of nearly $ 5 billion a year, are working the media and circulating targeted manipulations. In addition, high-ranking US generals had threatened that they would “ruin” him and the AP if the journalists reported too critically on the US military.

Despite – or because of? – such threats our media regularly publish dubious stories sourced to some unnamed “informants” from “US defense circles”.

Ulrich Tilgner, a veteran Middle East correspondent for German and Swiss television, warned in 2003, shortly after the Iraq war, of acts of deception by the military and the role played by the media:

“With the help of the media, the military determine the public perception and use it for their plans. They manage to stir expectations and spread deceptive scenarios. In this new kind of war, the PR strategists of the US administration fulfill a similar function as the bomber pilots. The special departments for public relations in the Pentagon and in the secret services have become combatants in the information war.

For their deception maneuvers, the US military specifically uses the lack of transparency in media coverage. The way they spread information, which is then picked up and distributed by newspapers and broadcasters, makes it impossible for readers, listeners or viewers to trace the original source. Thus, the audience will fail to recognize the actual intention of the military.” (Tilgner 2003, p. 132)

What is known to the US military, would not be foreign to US intelligence services. In a remarkable report by British Channel 4, former CIA officials and a Reuters correspondent spoke candidly about the systematic dissemination of propaganda and misinformation in reporting on geopolitical conflicts:

Former CIA officer and whistleblower John Stockwell said of his work in the Angolan war: “The basic theme was to make it look like an [enemy] aggression. So any kind of story that you could write and get into the media anywhere in the world, that pushed that line, we did. One third of my staff in this task force were propagandists, whose professional career job was to make up stories and finding ways of getting them into the press. () The editors in most Western newspapers are not too skeptical of messages that conform to general views and prejudices. () So we came up with another story, and it was kept going for weeks. () But it was all fiction.”

Fred Bridgland looked back on his work as a war correspondent for the Reuters agency: “We based our reports on official communications. It was not until years later that I learned that a little CIA disinformation expert had sat in the US embassy and had composed these communiqués that bore absolutely no relationship at all to truth. () Basically, and to put it very crudely, you can publish any old crap and it will get into the newspaper.”

And former CIA analyst David MacMichael described his work in the Contra War in Nicaragua with these words: “They said our intelligence of Nicaragua was so good that we could even register when someone flushed a toilet. But I had the feeling that the stories we were giving to the press came straight out of the toilet.” (Channel 4, 1985)

Of course, the intelligence services also have a large number of direct contacts in our media, which can be “leaked” information to if necessary. But without the central role of the global news agencies, the worldwide synchronization of propaganda and disinformation would never be so efficient.

Through this “propaganda multiplier”, dubious stories from PR experts working for governments, military and intelligence services reach the general public more or less unchecked and unfiltered. The journalists refer to the news agencies and the news agencies refer to their sources. Although they often attempt to point out uncertainties (and hedge themselves) with terms such as “apparent”, “alleged” and the like – by then the rumor has long been spread to the world and its effect has taken place.

Figure 4: The Propaganda Multiplier: Governments, military and intelligence services using global news agencies to disseminate their messages to a worldwide audience.

As the New York Times Reported …

In addition to global news agencies, there is another source that is often used by media outlets around the world to report on geopolitical conflicts, namely the major publications in Great Britain and the US.

News outlets like the New York Times or the BBC may have up to 100 foreign correspondents and additional external employees. However, as Middle East correspondent Luyendijk points out:

“Our news teams, me included, fed on the selection of news made by quality media like CNN, the BBC, and the New York Times. We did that on the assumption that their correspondents understood the Arab world and commanded a view of it – but many of them turned out not to speak Arabic, or at least not enough to be able to have a conversation in it or to follow the local media. Many of the top dogs at CNN, the BBC, the Independent, the Guardian, the New Yorker, and the NYT were more often than not dependent on assistants and translators.” (Luyendijk p. 47)

In addition, the sources of these media outlets are often not easy to verify (“military circles”, “anonymous government officials”, “intelligence officials” and the like) and can therefore also be used for the dissemination of propaganda. In any case, the widespread orientation towards the major Anglo-Saxon publications leads to a further convergence in the geopolitical coverage in our media.

The following figure shows some examples of such citation based on the Syria coverage of the largest daily newspaper in Switzerland, Tages-Anzeiger. The articles are all from the first days of October 2015, when Russia for the first time intervened directly in the Syrian war (US/UK sources are highlighted):

Figure 5: Frequent citation of major British and US media, exemplified by the Syria war coverage of Swiss daily newspaper Tages-Anzeiger in October 2015.

The Desired Narrative

But why do journalists in our media not simply try to research and report independently of the global agencies and the Anglo-Saxon media? Middle East correspondent Luyendijk describes his experiences:

“You might suggest that I should have looked for sources I could trust. I did try, but whenever I wanted to write a story without using news agencies, the main Anglo-Saxon media, or talking heads, it fell apart. () Obviously I, as a correspondent, could tell very different stories about one and the same situation. But the media could only present one of them, and often enough, that was exactly the story that confirmed the prevailing image.” (Luyendijk p.54ff)

Media researcher Noam Chomsky has described this effect in his essay “What makes the mainstream media mainstream” as follows: “If you get off line, if you’re producing stories that the big press doesn’t like, you’ll hear about it pretty soon. () So there are a lot of ways in which power plays can drive you right back into line if you move out. If you try to break the mold, you’re not going to last long. That framework works pretty well, and it is understandable that it is just a reflection of obvious power structures.” (Chomsky 1997)

Nevertheless, some of the leading journalists continue to believe that nobody can tell them what to write. How does this add up? Media researcher Chomsky clarifies the apparent contradiction:

“[T]he point is that they wouldn’t be there unless they had already demonstrated that nobody has to tell them what to write because they are going say the right thing. If they had started off at the Metro desk, or something, and had pursued the wrong kind of stories, they never would have made it to the positions where they can now say anything they like. The same is mostly true of university faculty in the more ideological disciplines. They have been through the socialization system.” (Chomsky 1997)

Ultimately, this “socialization system” leads to a journalism that no longer independently researches and critically reports on geopolitical conflicts (and some other topics), but seeks to consolidate the desired narrative through appropriate editorials, commentary, and interviews.

Conclusion: The “First Law of Journalism”

Former AP journalist Herbert Altschull called it the First Law of Journalism: “In all press systems, the news media are instruments of those who exercise political and economic power. Newspapers, periodicals, radio and television stations do not act independently, although they have the possibility of independent exercise of power.” (Altschull 1984/1995, p. 298)

In that sense, it is logical that our traditional media – which are predominantly financed by advertising or the state – represent the geopolitical interests of the transatlantic alliance, given that both the advertising corporations as well as the states themselves are dependent on the transatlantic economic and security architecture led by the United States.

In addition, the key people of our leading media are – in the spirit of Chomsky’s “socialization system” – often themselves part of transatlantic elite networks. Some of the most important institutions in this regard include the US Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), the Bilderberg Group, and the Trilateral Commission, all of which feature many prominent journalists (see in-depth study of these groups).

Most well-known publications, therefore, may indeed be seen as a kind of “establishment media”. This is because, in the past, the freedom of the press was rather theoretical, given significant entry barriers such as broadcasting licenses, frequency slots, requirements for financing and technical infrastructure, limited sales channels, dependence on advertising, and other restrictions.

It was only due to the Internet that Altschull’s First Law has been broken to some extent. Thus, in recent years a high-quality, reader-funded journalism has emerged, often outperforming traditional media in terms of critical reporting. Some of these “alternative” publications already reach a very large audience, showing that the “mass” does not have to be a problem for the quality of a media outlet.

Nevertheless, up to now the traditional media has been able to attract a solid majority of online visitors, too. This, in turn, is closely linked to the hidden role of news agencies, whose up-to-the-minute reports form the backbone of most online news sites.

Will “political and economic power”, according to Altschull’s Law, retain control over the news, or will “uncontrolled news” change the political and economic power structure? The coming years will show.

Britain secretly funded Reuters in 1960s and 1970s (Reuters, January 2020)

Reuters, BBC in Covert UK Program to Push Western Agenda (The Grayzone, February 2021)

The Formation of the Reuters-Havas-Wolff News Monopoly and Cartel (Winter Watch, 2022)

The CIA’s Mop-Up Man (The Intercept, September 2014)

Case Study: Syria War Coverage

As part of a case study, the Syria war coverage of nine leading daily newspapers from Germany, Austria and Switzerland were examined for plurality of viewpoints and reliance on news agencies. The following newspapers were selected:

For Germany: Die Welt, Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ), and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ)

For Switzerland: Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ), Tagesanzeiger (TA), and Basler Zeitung (BaZ)

For Austria: Standard, Kurier, and Die Presse

The investigation period was defined as October 1 to 15, 2015, i.e. the first two weeks after Russia’s direct intervention in the Syrian conflict. The entire print and online coverage of these newspapers was taken into account. Any Sunday editions were not taken into account, as not all of the newspapers examined have such. In total, 381 newspaper articles met the stated criteria.

In a first step, the articles were classified according to their properties into the following groups:

Agencies: Reports from news agencies (with agency code)

Mixed: Simple reports (with author names) that are based in whole or in part on agency reports

Reports: Editorial background reports and analyses

Opinions/Comments: Opinions and guest comments

Interviews: Interviews with experts, politicians etc.

Investigative: Investigative research that reveals new information or context

The following Figure 1 shows the composition of the articles for the nine newspapers analyzed in total. As can be seen, 55% of articles were news agency reports; 23% editorial reports based on agency material; 9% background reports; 10% opinions and guest comments; 2% interviews; and 0% based on investigative research.

The pure agency texts – from short notices to the detailed reports – were mostly on the Internet pages of the daily newspapers: on the one hand, the pressure for breaking news is higher than in the printed edition, on the other hand, there are no space restrictions. Most other types of articles were found in both the online and printed editions; some exclusive interviews and background reports were found only in the printed editions. All items were collected only once for the investigation.

The following Figure 2 shows the same classification on a per newspaper basis. During the observation period (two weeks), most newspapers published between 40 and 50 articles on the Syrian conflict (print and online). In the German newspaper Die Welt there were more (58), in the Basler Zeitung and the Austrian Kurier, however, significantly less (29 or 33).

Depending on which newspaper, the share of agency reports is almost 50% (Welt, Süddeutsche, NZZ, Basler Zeitung), just under 60% (FAZ, Tagesanzeiger), and 60 to 70% (Presse, Standard, Kurier). Together with the agency-based reports, the proportion in most newspapers is between approx. 70% and 80%. These proportions are consistent with previous media studies (e.g., Blum 1995, Johnston 2011, MacGregor 2013, Paterson 2007).

In the background reports, the Swiss newspapers were leading (five to six pieces), followed by Welt, Süddeutsche and Standard (four each) and the other newspapers (one to three). The background reports and analyzes were in particular devoted to the situation and development in the Middle East, as well as to the motives and interests of individual actors (for example Russia, Turkey, the Islamic State).

However, most of the commentaries were to be found in the German newspapers (seven comments each), followed by Standard (five), NZZ and Tagesanzeiger (four each). Basler Zeitung did not publish any commentaries during the observation period, but two interviews. Other interviews were conducted by Standard (three) and Kurier and Presse (one each). Investigative research, however, could not be found in any of the newspapers.

In particular, in the case of the three German newspapers, a journalistically problematic blending of opinion pieces and reports was noted. Reports contained strong expressions of opinion even though they were not marked as commentary. The present study was in any case based on the article labeling by the newspaper.

The following Figure 3 shows the breakdown of agency stories (by agency abbreviation) for each news agency, in total and per country. The 211 agency reports carried a total of 277 agency codes (a story may consist of material from more than one agency). In total, 24% of agency reports came from the AFP; about 20% each by the DPA, APA and Reuters; 9% of the SDA; 6% of the AP; and 11% were unknown (no labeling or blanket term “agencies”).

In Germany, the DPA, AFP and Reuters each have a share of about one third of the news stories. In Switzerland, the SDA and the AFP are in the lead, and in Austria, the APA and Reuters.

In fact, the shares of the global agencies AFP, AP and Reuters are likely to be even higher, as the Swiss SDA and the Austrian APA obtain their international reports mainly from the global agencies and the German DPA cooperates closely with the American AP.

It should also be noted that, for historical reasons, the global agencies are represented differently in different regions of the world. For events in Asia, Ukraine or Africa, the share of each agency will therefore be different than from events in the Middle East.

In the next step, central statements were used to rate the orientation of editorial opinions (28), guest comments (10) and interview partners (7) (a total of 45 articles). As Figure 4 shows, 82% of the Contributions Were Generally US/NATO Friendly, 16% Neutral or Balanced, and 2% Predominantly US/NATO Critical.

The only predominantly US/NATO-critical contribution was an op-ed in the Austrian Standard on October 2, 2015, titled: “The strategy of regime change has failed. A distinction between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ terrorist groups in Syria makes the Western policy untrustworthy.”

The following Figure 5 shows the orientation of the contributions, guest comments and interviewees, in turn broken down by individual newspapers. As can be seen, Welt, Süddeutsche Zeitung, NZZ, Zürcher Tagesanzeiger and the Austrian newspaper Kurier presented exclusively US/NATO-friendly opinion and guest contributions; this goes for FAZ too, with the exception of one neutral/balanced contribution. The Standard brought four US/NATO friendly, three balanced/neutral, as well as the already mentioned US/NATO critical opinion contributions.

Presse was the only one of the examined newspapers to predominantly publish neutral/balanced opinions and guest contributions. The Basler Zeitung published one US/NATO-friendly and one balanced contribution. Shortly after the observation period (October 16, 2015), Basler Zeitung also published an interview with the President of the Russian Parliament. This would of course have been counted as a contribution critical of the US/NATO.

Figure 5: Basic Orientation of Opinion Pieces and Interviewees per Newspaper

In a further analysis, a full-text keyword search for “Propaganda” (and word combinations thereof) was used to investigate in which cases the newspapers themselves identified propaganda in one of the two geopolitical conflict sides, USA/NATO or Russia (the participant “IS/ISIS” was not considered). In total, twenty such cases were identified. Figure 6 shows the result: in 85% of the cases, propaganda was identified on the Russian side of the conflict, in 15% the identification was neutral or unstated, and in 0% of the cases propaganda was identified on the USA/NATO side of the conflict.

It should be noted that about half of the cases (nine) were in the Swiss NZZ, which spoke of Russian propaganda quite frequently (“Kremlin propaganda”, “Moscow propaganda machine”, “propaganda stories”, “Russian propaganda apparatus” etc.), followed by German FAZ (three), Welt and Süddeutsche Zeitung (two each) and the Austrian newspaper Kurier (one). The other newspapers did not mention propaganda, or only in a neutral context (or in the context of IS).

Figure 6: Attribution of Propaganda to Conflict Parties (Total; N=20).

Conclusion

The results confirm the high dependence on the global news agencies (63% to 90%, excluding commentaries and interviews) and the lack of own investigative research, as well as the rather biased commenting on events in favor of the US/NATO side (82% positive; 2% negative), whose stories were not checked by the newspapers for any propaganda.

— About the authors: Swiss Propaganda Research (SPR) is An Independent Research Group Investigating Geopolitical Propaganda in Swiss and International Media. You can contact us here. English translation provided by Terje Maloy, an SPR reader.

[foreignmusic]

Hip Hop Around the World: Trends in Latest Music

Hip hop, a genre born in the Bronx, New York, has grown into a global cultural phenomenon. It's no longer confined to its birthplace; it has transcended borders and resonated with people from diverse backgrounds worldwide. In this article, we'll explore the latest trends in hip hop music from around the world, showcasing how the genre has evolved and adapted to different cultures and musical influences.

1. Global Collaborations

One of the most prominent trends in the latest hip hop music is the rise of international collaborations. Artists from different countries are coming together to create tracks that blend their unique styles and cultural influences. These collaborations not only introduce fans to new sounds but also promote cross-cultural exchange.

For example, the collaboration between American rapper Travis Scott and British rapper Stormzy on "Franchise" combined their distinct styles, creating a track that resonated with fans on both sides of the Atlantic.

2. Language Diversity

Language diversity in hip hop has become more pronounced. While English remains the dominant language in the genre, artists from non-English-speaking countries often rap in their native tongues. This linguistic diversity not only celebrates cultural heritage but also helps local hip hop scenes flourish.

Korean hip hop, or K-hip hop, has gained global recognition with artists like BTS and BLACKPINK, who incorporate both Korean and English lyrics into their tracks, reaching a broad international audience.

3. Genre Fusion

Hip hop has always been open to genre fusion, and this trend continues to thrive globally. Artists are blending hip hop with local and regional musical styles to create unique sounds. Reggaeton-infused hip hop is a prime example, with artists like Bad Bunny seamlessly merging reggaeton rhythms with rap verses.

In Nigeria, Afrobeat and hip hop are blending to create a new subgenre known as Afro hip hop. Artists like Burna Boy and Wizkid are at the forefront of this fusion, producing music that combines African rhythms with rap elements.

4. Lyrical Content

The lyrical content in hip hop varies widely from region to region. While American hip hop often addresses issues like racial inequality and social justice, hip hop from other parts of the world may tackle different themes specific to their regions.

For example, South African hip hop often delves into post-apartheid issues and life in urban townships, providing a unique perspective on social challenges.

5. Cultural References

Hip hop is rich in cultural references, and these references vary depending on the artist's background and influences. International hip hop often includes references to local culture, history, and folklore, providing listeners with a glimpse into the artist's world.

French hip hop, for instance, often references French literature, art, and history, adding depth to its lyrical content.

6. Online Platforms and Global Reach

The advent of streaming platforms and social media has allowed hip hop artists from around the world to reach global audiences more easily. Platforms like SoundCloud, YouTube, and Spotify have democratized music distribution, enabling artists to gain international recognition without the need for major record labels.

Artists like Russ, who initially gained fame through SoundCloud, have showcased the power of online platforms in propelling international hip hop careers.

7. Regional Scenes

In addition to global trends, each region has its own hip hop scene with its unique subcultures and styles. For example, the UK grime scene has its distinct sound and fashion, while the French hip hop scene is known for its poetic lyricism.

These regional scenes contribute to the diversity and richness of hip hop as a global genre.

Conclusion

Hip hop has become a universal language, connecting people from different backgrounds and cultures. The latest trends in hip hop music reflect the genre's adaptability and its ability to absorb influences from around the world. From international collaborations to genre fusion and language diversity, hip hop continues to evolve and expand its horizons, making it one of the most dynamic and influential music genres globally. As artists from different regions continue to push boundaries and experiment with new sounds, the future of hip hop promises even more exciting and diverse music to explore.