Professor Amanda Sturgill

Considering quitting professoring and just starting a YouTube channel where I eat delicious foods and react.

I mean, people do it, so why not me?

...

20/ Student Q: Limits on supplying reporting records to authorities.

@thadogburn.bsky.social Covering protests often means local police or loaner police who are not up on media rights. "Protest that loudly at the time."

McMichael "Call a lawyer."

19/ Student Q: With pressure to cater and to censor stories, what's your biggest concern for the direction of news.

Zerwick: "The time is now for young people and us older people to be courageous." and avoid obeying in advance.

18/ Student Q about mental health.

Panelists:
*Newsroom discussions about looking out for each other.
*News leaders have to check expectations - encourage staff outside interests and breaks.

(Sturg aside: Resources here gcjt.org)

17/ Some discussion of anonymous sources, and how it's a different issue in a threatening environment. Ethical discussions in newsrooms are taking new forms and urgencies.

If you interview a protester, can they deny their name and wear a mask?

How about if you interview an ICE agent?

16/ Tips for student journalists from panel:

Don't go out alone
Have set meeting places
Have set times to contact the editor
Don't wear press badge on a lanyard
If you have access to lawyer, keep contact
Media vests can help but can also make you a target
Take care to not become the story <- Cash

15/Some discussion of the consolidation in the news industry and how it is putting news organizations under control of large companies. Zerwick "If they are so aligned with the administration, it's pretty close to state-run media."

14/ @ranalcash.bsky.social "We do not have state run media here. We will not have state run media. We cannot and will not allow that to happen."

"At the end of the day, it's just power and the government wanting to have power over what is reported."

13/ @ranalcash.bsky.social "It takes courage to do this job."

She encourages students to not be afraid, but to know the state of the industry.

12/ Points to a fact check on the #SOTU about the fact that the Charlotte Light Rail killer was not in country illegally. An official posted the story on X with a header "You can't hate journalists enough" (an aside, search for that on X)

11/ @thadogburn.bsky.social "It all goes back to intimidation. They are just trying to get journalists to not do their job."

10/ Zerwick - Court backing of the First Amendment is "very tenuous." Clarence Thomas is on the record as wanting to revisit Times v. Sullivan, a major press freedom case. [GIFT LINK] wapo.st/4u0ax0j

Marion County agrees to pay out $3M for newspaper raid, expresses regret • Kansas Reflector A handful of county-level officials who were involved in a small-town Kansas newspaper raid in 2023 will pay a cumulative $3 million to three journalists and a city councilor.

9/ @ranalcash.bsky.social kansasreflector.com/2025/11/11/m... brings up this case where a newspaper and the publisher/editor's home was raided because of reporting from a public record.

8/ Even if the cases against journalists fall apart due to lack of merit, they still cost journalism resources.

Also, the publicity on those cases "creates this tenor that the journalists must be doing something wrong" for the public.

7/ @thadogburn.bsky.social shared that the @newsobserver.com journalists have been questioned and threatened over coverage.

6/
@ncopengov.bsky.social director Pate McMichael points out that it's a situation where the First Amendment is being used, somewhat ironically, as a weapon to restrict other. First Amendment rights.

5/ Zerwick is an independent journalist and talks about how the lack of protection is an increasing issue as more journalism is being pushed out of organizations and on to individuals.

4/ Zerwick: "This isn't an accident. It's part of a plan...It's really important to not succumb to that."

Also brings up the fact that independent journalists don't have organizational resources behind them.

3/ @thadogburn.bsky.social points out that events from far away "embolden the local people" like police and DAs to try to restrict reporting.

2/ @ranalcash points out that although laws that protect journalists are in place, things have become "worse and more dangerous" for journalists.

Here for the keynote panel for NC College Media. Association with @ranalcash.bsky.social
@thadogburn.bsky.social
and
Phoebe Zerwick. Topic: Government Threats to Journalists' Autonomy.

Friendly reminder that news sources that have already invested in an area are more likely to have accurate information than other social media posters.

Local outlet>not

Established correspondents>not

Long-time, verified poster from area>not

The nots aren't necessarily bad, but need vetting.

Hello friends. Never forget that two things can both be bad.

If it goes like this, it's a logic problem.

A supporter: B stole S's dolls
B supporter: Why aren't A supporters mad about B doing the same thing?

Hypocrisy doesn't actually invalidate bad actions.

I often have to tell students that a question is a poor way to open their news article, because if your prospective reader answers no, you've lost them.

Ever wondered how light switches work?

Want to know how to mend ripped briefs?

Curious about cockroaches?

Very risky.

Image of man on computer screen with poorly added Pinocchio nose. He's pointing at the words AI Slop, with slop misspelled as sllop.

Need a little good news? There's research to suggest that media literacy education does help some in making the public resistant to deepfakes. Find out more in this week's UnSpun Podcast journal club. Here or where you pod.

bit.ly/UnSpunPod

2/ If this happens, I think there might be some other emergencies declared.

Embedded text reads: Trump, seeking executive power over elections, is urged to declare emergency. Activists who say they are in coordination with the White House are circulating a draft executive order that would unlock extraordinary presidential power over voting.

The word "unlock" is a weird choice here. But here's a gift link.

wapo.st/3N5cpEn

Hegseth gives Anthropic CEO until Friday to back down in AI safeguards fight "The only reason we're still talking to these people is we need them and we need them now."

2/ And

nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...

The boys’ club: How Epstein’s influence shaped the exclusion of women in STEM In one email, an AI researcher suggested it’s “hard to be brilliant if you are worrying if you look fat or why another woman hates you.”

Meanwhile, back in everything is broken:

nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...

Read an interview transcript with an Anthropic guy about agentic AI. His understanding of it seemed to be 🤷🏼‍♀️.

Maybe we need to teach a new approach to crisis PR.
"Well, yes, that car killed all the riders and we don't know why and can't fix it, but we gave X thousand rides!"