Journalism & the Arts
posted 2025-07 to 2025-09
A reading list (roughly in reverse chronological order) of contributions to the common pool of news/analysis/resources.
— a readers travelogue ::: to bear witness
Stories of Resistance
Narrative Strategies for Democratic Movements
from the Anti-Authoritarian Playbook (Scot Nakagawa)
"Authoritarian systems thrive by controlling narrative, determining which stories are told, whose voices matter, and what futures can be imagined. Countering these systems requires not just political organization but narrative reclamation."
This essay provides beautiful examples of strategic storytelling approaches for democratic movements.
"Storytelling that reconnects people to [their] histories builds resilience and provides strategic guidance.
"Authoritarianism requires mythology: stories that justify power concentration, demonize out-groups, and portray complexity as threatening or, often even more powerfully, humiliating. Effective resistance requires constructing compelling counter-narratives.
"Countering authoritarianism requires not just opposing existing systems but making alternative futures tangible through what can be called "prefigurative storytelling." Prefigurative storytelling makes democratic possibilities feel real and attainable.
"Authoritarianism thrives on social division, particularly fears that democracy threatens the interests of specific groups. Effective counter-authoritarian storytelling creates bridges across these divides."
Nakagawa concludes with a point by point action plan for creating impactful, strategic narrative campaigns.
Storytelling Matters Blog
from The Alliance for Media & Culture
Storytelling examples & tutorials.
As Ellison Buys Out TikTok, US Moves Toward One-Party Media
from Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR)
"Ellison is a big Trumper, joining in the reactionary denial of the 2020 presidential elections (Washington Post, 5/20/22). Like some of the others in the deal, he is part of the inner circle of Trump’s favorite corporate ideologues. This TikTok deal is not just about money. It’s about control of the political narrative.
"The New York Post (9/11/25) reports that Ellison father and son are now looking to buy Warner Brothers Discovery, which carries with it CNN, creating an unprecedented level of media consolidation.
"Former CBS Evening News star Dan Rather (Hollywood Reporter, 9/15/25) said Americans 'have to be concerned about the consolidation of huge billionaires getting control of nearly all of the major news outlets.' Rather added, 'It’s pretty hard to be optimistic about the possibilities of the Ellisons buying CNN.'
"Rather and others are right that the Ellison duo taking over both CBS and CNN, as well as controlling a major social media network like TikTok, would be dangerous for democracy. And given their closeness to the Trump regime, that seems to be the point."
Paper Ammunition
Free Flyers — Download. Deploy. Disobey.
"We want you to take your feelings offline and out into the streets. Our free resistance posters make it easy to peacefully protest. Print and share, use them as your paper ammunition. Hopefully, together, we can make a better world than the emerging hellscape that we are living through right now.
"You know what bots can't do? Tape up posters and flyers in the real world. You can.
"Break the disinformation echo chambers!
"READY. AIM. FLYER!"
PEN International’s Resolutions to Defend Free Expression, Gender Diversity, Human Rights, and Climate Justice
Resolutions 2025 — 91st PEN International Congress
from PEN International
"At this 91st Congress we affirmed that freedom of expression cannot be atomized —whether in defending peace against authoritarianism, protecting our planet, standing with trans and gender-diverse people, or confronting censorship in the United States and beyond. With these resolutions, PEN International and its writers commit to continue using words as acts of conscience, to inspire and take action, and to safeguard the dignity of all living things.' Burhan Sonmez, PEN International President
"11 September 2025: At its 91st Congress, held in partnership with Polish PEN from 2 to 5 September 2025 in Kraków, Poland, the Assembly of Delegates of PEN International adopted four urgent resolutions: calling on writers to defend human rights and free expression amid rampant authoritarianism and global conflict; writers and governments to address the climate crisis as the human rights issue of our time; the protection of trans and gender-diverse people’s right to free expression and inclusion; and the protection of free expression in the United States."
The 25 Most Influential Works of American Protest Art Since World War II
Three artists, a curator and a writer came together to discuss the pieces that have not only best reflected the era, but have made an impact.
from NY Times
i"On a recent afternoon, the artists Dread Scott, Catherine Opie and Shirin Neshat, as well as T contributor Nikil Saval and Whitney Museum of American Art assistant curator Rujeko Hockley, joined me on Zoom for a conversation about protest art. I had asked each to nominate five to seven works of what they considered the most powerful or influential American protest art (that is, by an American artist or by an artist who has lived or exhibited their work in America) made anytime after World War II. We focused specifically on visual art..."
Protest Art
from Hyperallergic
An evolving list of examples ...
Haunting Shadow of Scrubbed Banksy Mural Goes Viral
The erasure of the mural outside London’s Court of Justice has become a metaphor for widespread government crackdowns on protesters around the world.
from Hyperallergic
"It took courthouse administrators less than two days to remove Banksy’s latest stencil mural of a judge attacking a protester, which appeared in central London early this week. But what remains of the artwork is a shadowy stain, eerily reminiscent of a hooded Grim Reaper wielding a scythe, that has captured widespread attention in its own right.
"The saga began on Monday morning, September 8, when the mural was seen on the exterior of the Royal Courts of Justice just days after police arrested nearly 900 people at a protest in support of Palestinian activists. The striking image — a judge in a wig and robes raising a gavel high above his head, looming over a cowering protester holding a blood-spattered placard — was claimed by the famously elusive British artist in his signature style of sharing photos on Instagram."
Whoever Tells the Story Writes History
from THe OpEd Project
Check out the workshops and publication opportunities for those who like to write op-eds.
Algorithmic Justice League
Technology should serve all of us. Not just the privileged few.
"We now live in a world where AI governs access to information, opportunity and freedom. However, AI systems can perpetuate racism, sexism, ableism, and other harmful forms of discrimination, therefore, presenting significant threats to our society - from healthcare, to economic opportunity, to our criminal justice system.
"The Algorithmic Justice League is an organization that combines art and research to illuminate the social implications and harms of artificial intelligence."
Breaking the Social Media Prism
How to Make Our Platforms Less Polarizing
book by Chris Bail from Princeton Unversity Press
"In an era of increasing social isolation, platforms like Facebook and Twitter are among the most important tools we have to understand each other. We use social media as a mirror to decipher our place in society but, as Chris Bail explains, it functions more like a prism that distorts our identities, empowers status-seeking extremists, and renders moderates all but invisible. Breaking the Social Media Prism challenges common myths about echo chambers, foreign misinformation campaigns, and radicalizing algorithms, revealing that the solution to political tribalism lies deep inside ourselves.
"Drawing on innovative online experiments and in-depth interviews with social media users from across the political spectrum, this book explains why stepping outside of our echo chambers can make us more polarized, not less. Bail takes you inside the minds of online extremists through vivid narratives that trace their lives on the platforms and off—detailing how they dominate public discourse at the expense of the moderate majority. Wherever you stand on the spectrum of user behavior and political opinion, he offers fresh solutions to counter political tribalism from the bottom up and the top down. He introduces new apps and bots to help readers avoid misperceptions and engage in better conversations with the other side. Finally, he explores what the virtual public square might look like if we could hit 'reset' and redesign social media from scratch through a first-of-its-kind experiment on a new social media platform built for scientific research."
A Facebook Insider’s Exposé
from NY Times
"For seven years, beginning in 2011, the book’s author, Sarah Wynn-Williams, worked at Facebook (now called Meta), eventually as a director of global public policy. Now she has written an insider account of a company that she says was run by status-hungry and self-absorbed leaders, who chafed at the burdens of responsibility and became ever more feckless, even as Facebook became a vector for disinformation campaigns and cozied up to authoritarian regimes.
"In the lead-up to the 2016 election, Facebook employees embedded with the Trump campaign helped it micro-target potential voters, feeding them bespoke ads filled with 'misinformation, inflammatory posts and fund-raising messages.' (The Clinton campaign declined Facebook’s offer to embed employees.) The following year, in Myanmar, a country heavily reliant on Facebook, hateful lies propagated on the platform incited a genocide against the minority Rohingya ethnic group."
5 Points for Anger 1 Point for Like
Facebook’s Formula Prioritized Anger and Ended up Spreading Misinformation
from The Hill
"Internal documents reveal Facebook’s algorithm prioritized angry reactions, which were disproportionately likely to push out misinformation to users."
The Commons Social Change Library
"Do you want to change the world for the better? You’ve come to the right place! Whether you’re new to advocacy or an experienced campaigner you’ll find helpful resources here. All materials are free, digital, and directly available.
"The Commons Library includes 1500+ educational resources in a range of formats. Topics include campaign strategy, community organising, working effectively in groups, justice and diversity, creative activism, and much more.
"Visit the Browse page for an overview of topics, formats and collections. Subscribe to our newsletter to stay informed about the newest tools for social change. Learn about our Projects and read what our users have to say."
How the US Rightwing is Taking Over News Media and Choking Press Freedom
from the Guardian
"The US right has appeared to increase its influence on mainstream media in America in recent weeks, especially in television news which has been a major target of the Donald Trump administration.
"CBS News – once home to legends of US journalism like Walter Cronkite and Edward R Murrow – installed a Trump ally as its ombudsman, weeks after the family of Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest men, and a friend of the US president, sealed control over Paramount, the owner of CBS.
"Now Paramount is reportedly looking to buy Warner Bros Discovery, the media behemoth behind CNN, which would potentially bring the influential news network under the roof of an increasingly Trump-friendly conglomerate.
"At the same time a long-running family feud among Rupert Murdoch and his children was settled with a deal that will assure Fox News – and other powerful media outlets run by the family – will retain their conservative bent."
Global Press Freedom Suffers Sharpest Fall in 50 Years
from the Guardian
"According to the Stockholm-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), democracy has declined in 94 countries over the last five years and only a third have made progress.
"'Democracy faces a perfect storm of autocratic resurgence and acute uncertainty, due to massive social and economic changes,' Kevin Casas-Zamora, the secretary-general of the thinktank, said.
"'To fight back, democracies need to protect key elements of democracy, like elections and the rule of law, but also profoundly reform government so that it delivers fairness, inclusion and shared prosperity.'
"The International IDEA’s survey – the Global State of Democracy Report 2025 – is published annually and considered the most comprehensive of its kind, covering 174 countries and measuring democratic performance from 1975.
"The survey found that the freedom of the press had worsened in a quarter of the countries, marking the broadest deterioration since the beginning of the dataset."
'The Power of Bridging: how to build a world where we all belong by john a. powell
Free Book!
from Black Garnet Books and the Bush Foundation
"Black Garnet Books and the Bush Foundation have teamed up to bring you The Power of Bridging: how to build a world where we all belong by john a. powell. Bush is offering free copies of the book to anyone located in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and the 23 Native nations sharing that geography. We just ask that you use your free copy to try and practice how you might be a bridger in your life.
"We have over 5,000 orders and are working to get orders out to you as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience. You will receive an email confirmation once your order has shipped."
The Martyrdom Ploy
The Perfect Crime Against Accountability
from Abbetuck (Randall White)
An interesting examination of the concept through various artworks/stories/plays
"What if I told you there’s a rhetorical device so powerful it can flip guilt into innocence, aggressors into victims, and calculation into nobility, all while preserving deniability?
"Artists across centuries have been fascinated by this psychological sleight of hand: strategic martyrdom.
"Unlike true martyrdom, this is victimhood as performance, suffering as currency, and moral authority as weapon.
"The pattern is seductive in its simplicity:
- "position yourself as the wounded party,
- "claim the moral high ground, and
- "deflect any examination of your own role in creating the chaos around you."
Writing Letters to the Editor
from Defend Research
"General guidance
- "Find the venue: Identify the newspapers in your community and get the details on their requirements.
- "Make it local: Your letter should respond to a recent article or event impacting your community; local connections to national issues must be clearly established.
- "Foreground the major points: make your most important points in the first paragraph, knowing that letters may be edited and that readers may be skimming.
- "Focus on impact: use your personal experiences and/or local statistics to illustrate the local significance."
- Keep it short: Letters should be about 150-300 words, as they are often edited for space or clarity; being concise gives you more control over your message.
- Identify yourself: News outlets will not print anonymous letters, so use your name, how you are connected to the community (resident, teacher, city employee, etc.), and any relevant professional affiliation."
Why I Write
"What I have most wanted to do...is to make political writing into an art."
—George Orwell
from The Orwell Foundation
"What I have most wanted to do throughout the past ten years is to make political writing into an art. My starting point is always a feeling of partisanship, a sense of injustice. When I sit down to write a book, I do not say to myself, ‘I am going to produce a work of art’. I write it because there is some lie that I want to expose, some fact to which I want to draw attention, and my initial concern is to get a hearing. But I could not do the work of writing a book, or even a long magazine article, if it were not also an aesthetic experience. Anyone who cares to examine my work will see that even when it is downright propaganda it contains much that a full-time politician would consider irrelevant. I am not able, and do not want, completely to abandon the world view that I acquired in childhood. So long as I remain alive and well I shall continue to feel strongly about prose style, to love the surface of the earth, and to take a pleasure in solid objects and scraps of useless information. It is no use trying to suppress that side of myself. The job is to reconcile my ingrained likes and dislikes with the essentially public, non-individual activities that this age forces on all of us."
We Were Made for This
"We live and die by stories, are fed and freed by the good ones, trapped and sometimes quite literally killed by the bad ones"
from Meditations in an Emergency (Rebecca Solnit)
"Twenty years ago, on August 29, 2005, a huge hurricane hit the Gulf Coast. New Orleans's levees failed, as had been predicted, and much of the city went underwater. Although the authorities had issued a mandatory evacuation order, they had provided no resources to the many who were too poor to evacuate. They were left behind. The levees broke, the city flooded with water polluted by sewage and by the oil refineries all around, the power went out, supplies were scarce. Almost immediately after the storm hit and the city flooded, mainstream news organizations and government leaders began cooking up stories about those mostly poor, mostly Black people who were left in the city--racist stories that they were marauding hordes, murderous gangs, rampaging looters.
"The fictional stories about savage mayhem had real consequences. The flooded city was essentially sealed off, and thousands were trapped in the hot, befouled, broken city. Across the Mississippi from New Orleans, the sheriff of Gretna and his men literally pointed guns at those who tried to walk across the bridge to dry land. The federal government prevented rescuers from entering the city. The police chief decided protecting retail goods was more important than people.
"FEMA, the Federal Emergency Response Agency, had been rendered incompetent by nepotistic appointments and a right-wing government convinced that terrorism was the only threat that mattered. FEMA officials suspended search and rescue operations, claiming it was too dangerous, and the police shot at a significant number of unarmed Black people, maiming and killing some of them.
"There is a story about human nature that serves authoritarianism well: the idea that we are either too feckless or too vicious to function in the absence of strong authority backed by the threat of violence"
"...we have great agency, including the ability to stop telling a particular story...maybe to notice what the story does, whether it helps or hinders..."
A Downward Turn: What the Catastrophozoic is Teaching Us
from EarthSPELLS (Holly Haworth)
Haworth writing about climate disasters: capitalism values land only for its extractive potential, making no connection between endless economic ascent and the descent of ecological health and human wellbeing.
"I was on the edge of it, just a few dozen miles west of its path. A geographical hair’s breadth. I watched the outage maps and weather radar, checked the news updates obsessively in those last days of September as it barreled some 800 miles northward from where it made landfall, lashing down along the way and finally dumping more rain than anyone had thought possible on Southern Appalachia..."
Visualizing Palestine
Infographics
from Visualizing Palestine
"Making narrative waves to turn the tide of oppression toward justice"
Digital Security Education
Explore resources, training, and other services you can use to protect your work and your sources in the digital age
from Freedom of the Press Foundation
"Freedom of the Press Foundation’s Digital Security training team is dedicated to safeguarding journalists, documentary filmmakers, and their sources from digital threats. Our team of experts provides training services and resources designed to protect you from surveillance, prevent hacking attacks, mitigate online harassment, and much more."
U.S. J-School Digital Security Curriculum
A semester-long curriculum made specifically for journalism students
from Freedom of the Press Foundation
"Mastering digital security is one of the best ways journalists can protect themselves and their sources in the digital age. We regularly work with news organizations to lock down their social media accounts, encrypt their communications, and mitigate online harassment."
AI is Starting to Secretly Edit Your Files
from Mark Hurst (Creative Good)
"One of the scarier headlines I’ve recently comes from the BBC: YouTube secretly used AI to edit people’s videos (August 24, 2025). This is just as I predicted on Techtonic a few weeks ago in my episode on three emerging dystopias (July 28, 2025), in which I warned that Big Tech AIs would – at some point in the future – start modifying the primary sources that we rely on as sources of truth.
"I never guessed that it would happen so soon."
Please Leave a Review
Alternatives for sharing
from Writers for Democratic Action
"One of the easiest acts of resistance against the kleptocracy fueled by our billionaire class is to withhold our dollars and our data from them and to direct our resources and loyalty to organizations that more closely align with our values. Fortunately, there are a number of better alternatives both for sharing our recommendations with others and for procuring the books we love. Here are some possibilities."
We Can Push Back Now
Clatter in the Capital: Turning Pots and Pans into a Neighborhood Shield
from Will Robinson
"A cacerolazo—literally, a 'pots and pans protest'—is a simple, nonviolent act with deep roots around the world. Residents bang on metal cookware from their windows, balconies, or in the streets, creating a wall of sound that says, we see you, we’re together, and we won’t be quiet.
"It’s more than just noise. It’s a signal. It tells neighbors something is happening. It tells those in power they are being watched. And it tells the media—and anyone listening—that the community will not be silent in the face of intimidation."
Genocide, Neutrality and the University Sector
Neutrality as a colonial construct
from Rafeef Ziadah
"The ongoing destruction in Gaza demands urgent academic and ethical reckoning, exposing the complicity of universities and scholarly disciplines in sustaining settler-colonial violence. This essay interrogates the role of Sociology as a discipline and academic institutions in shaping, legitimising, or resisting systemic oppression, with a focus on institutional neutrality as a mechanism of erasure. Drawing on critical scholarship on settler colonialism, anti-Palestinian racism and neoliberal academia, the article examines how universities suppress Palestine advocacy through overt repression, bureaucratic silencing and material entanglements with the military-industrial complex. It critiques the discourse of neutrality and balance, demonstrating how these frameworks function to maintain dominant power structures. By tracing the complicity of Western academic institutions – from their partnerships with Israeli military research to their suppression of pro-Palestinian activism – the article argues that meaningful decolonisation requires a rejection of performative neutrality and an active dismantling of structures that sustain occupation and genocide."
We Teach Life, Sir
Ziadah recites the poem
from Rafeef Ziadah
"Today, my body was a TV’d massacre that had to fit into soundbites and word limits."
"Civil rights activist Angela Davis says that Ziadah’s words 'hit you right in the heart. They are more powerful than any weapon.'"
Resisting Erasure: Capital, Imperialism and Race in Palestine
from Politics Theory Other podcast
"Adam Hanieh, Rafeef Ziadah, and Robert Knox on their new co-authored book, 'Resisting Erasure: Capital, Imperialism and Race in Palestine'. We spoke about the inadequacy of framing the question of Palestine and the Gaza genocide solely as a humanitarian issue and how the Israeli project of settler-colonialism has been part and parcel of the expansion of European and American capitalism."
Learning About Scripted Violence
from the Anti-Authoritarian Playbook (Scot Nakagawa)
"Chip Berlet’s work examines how political rhetoric, especially coded language, can incite violence by portraying certain groups as existential threats, thus encouraging individuals to take violent action. His analysis highlights the responsibility of political leaders, media figures, and activists in shaping discourse that either promotes or discourages violence."
Nakagawa always provides a clear breakdown of what is at stake, how authoritarianism works, and strategies to fight back.
Build your click-through agency by clicking on the link below. This practice is an act of resistance in an age of rising AI summaries that ask you to passively receive their generative text wthout clicking through to any original source of information — to accept them as a truth oraclei without the need for transparent logic or the citations behind their conclusions.
Signs of Solidarity
Canvassing Toolkit
from NO Kings
"When businesses and communities stand together, we send a powerful message: immigrants are essential and welcome here. This guide will help you organize locally, engage business owners, and build visible, united resistance.
"Download our printable signs — one designates a private area for employees that ICE cannot enter without a judicial warrant, and others show public solidarity with immigrants. Print them, bring them to businesses, and help send a clear message that our community stands together against fear and intimidation."
Use the following link to download your choice of high-resolution posters.
My Undesirable Friends
a Staggering Portrait of Russian Journalists in Dissent
"In Julia Loktev’s epic documentary, filmed before, during, and after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, several courageous Moscow reporters see their worst fears realized."
Fighting the Firehose
How to Counter Right-Wing Disinformation Without Playing Their Game
"The modern right’s media strategy is built on volume, speed, emotion, and repetition.
"It borrows from Russian propaganda playbooks, supercharges them with American capitalism, and distributes it through everything from podcasts to Facebook groups to memes. It's powered by think tanks, billionaire donors, fringe influencers, and culture war entrepreneurs.
"The goal isn’t to persuade people logically — it’s to shape the entire information environment. To confuse, demoralize, distract, and isolate."
So how do we fight back?
"Not by shouting into the void. Not by trying to fact-check every lie. But by using strategic, tested, and community-driven techniques - many drawn from how Eastern European democracies pushed back against Russian disinformation without becoming authoritarian themselves."
Israel bombed Gaza hospital a second time, killing rescuers, say health officials
Israel’s attack on hospital in Gaza may constitute a war crime on many fronts
from the Guardian
"Israel bombed the main hospital in southern Gaza on Monday and then struck the same spot again as rescuers and journalists rushed to help the wounded, killing at least 20 people including five journalists, health officials said.
"The first strike hit the top floor of a building at the Nasser hospital, killing the Reuters journalist Hussam al-Masri and others. Journalists and rescuers then rushed to the scene to help the wounded, when a second bomb struck the same spot, 15 minutes later.
"A live video from AlGhad TV captured the moments of their killings, showing civil defence workers wearing bright orange vests and journalists raising their hands to shield themselves seconds before the second bomb kills them. A second video showed the aftermath of the bombings, with the bodies of the first responders and journalists lying on top of one another, bloody and covered in dust."
The assassination of Aljazeera journalists is another desperate attempt to hide the truth about Israel's crimes in Gaza
from PEN International
"'We mourn and condemn the killing of five Palestinian journalists in Gaza, including prominent correspondents Anas Al-Sharif and Mohammed Qreiqeh. These were civilians, protected under international law, whose only 'crime' was telling the truth. Their deliberate killing is clearly intended to silence reporting on the attempted annihilation wreaked upon the people of Gaza.' Romana Cacchioli, PEN International Executive Director
"12 August 2025: PEN International is outraged by the targeted extra-judicial killing of five Al Jazeera journalists, including prominent correspondents Anas Al-Sharif and Mohammed Qreiqeh, and camera operators Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal and Moamen Aliwa. The deliberate targeting and killing of journalists and media workers in Gaza is an integral part of Israel's genocidal campaign to erase Palestinians in the Strip and silence those who reveal the truth about its crimes."
The Israeli Assassination of Journalist Anas al-Sharif and Five Colleagues in Gaza City
Israel has now killed 238 journalists in Gaza
from Drop Site News
"The prominent Palestinian journalist Anas al-Sharif was buried in Gaza City on Monday, a broken slab of rock used as a headstone, one day after his assassination by the Israeli military. Five other journalists —four from Al Jazeera, Mohammed Qraiqeh, Ibrahim Zaher, Moamen Aliwa, and Mohammed Noufal, and one from media outlet Sahat, Mohammed Al-Khalidi—were killed alongside him and also laid to rest.
"All six were killed on Sunday night in an Israeli airstrike on their media tent outside Al-Shifa hospital in what the Israeli military proudly proclaimed was an assassination targeting al-Sharif. Israel has now killed 238 journalists in Gaza, according to the Government Media Office."
The Last Words of Anas al-Sharif
Murdered in an Israeli attack on a tent for journalists near al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City
from the Guardian
"This is my will and my final message. If these words reach you, know that Israel has succeeded in killing me and silencing my voice."
Urging an International AI Treaty: An Open Letter
"We call on governments worldwide to actively respond to the potentially catastrophic risks posed by advanced artificial intelligence (AI) systems to humanity, encompassing threats from misuse, systemic risks, and loss of control. We advocate for the development and ratification of an international AI treaty to reduce these risks, and ensure the benefits of AI for all."
Calling All Radical Artists
from Honor the Earth
"We're inviting Indigenous and Black artists across the globe to help us envision a Sovereign Indigenous Future — a future that has grown beyond colonization, genocide, imperialism, prisons, white supremacy, ableism and all the other modern systemic oppressions.
"We're collecting digital submissions of original artworks across various media that respond to this prompt: what does a Sovereign Indigenous Future look like?"
Signal — Getting Started
from Signal
Understand the basics of Signal on Android, iOS, and Desktop.
Know Your Rights
Toolkits
from the ACLU
"Everyone has basic rights under the U.S. Constitution and civil rights laws. Learn more here about what your rights are, how to exercise them, and what to do when your rights are violated."
In a first-of-its-kind decision, an AI company wins a copyright infringement lawsuit brought by authors
from NPR
"AI companies could have the legal right to train their large language models on copyrighted works — as long as they obtain copies of those works legally.
"That's the upshot of a first-of-its-kind ruling by a federal judge in San Francisco on Monday in an ongoing copyright infringement case that pits a group of authors against a major AI company.
"The ruling is significant because it represents the first substantive decision on how fair use applies to generative AI systems."
ICE is Detaining Journalists
from the ACLU
"ICE is detaining journalist Mario Guevara for reporting on law enforcement activity – so the ACLU and ACLU of Georgia are petitioning the court for his immediate release.
"Two months ago, millions showed up across the country to protest the Trump administration's massive abuses of power. This 'No Kings' protest was the largest yet in a series of protests condemning President Trump's attacks on our rights.
"Among those in attendance to document the event was Mario Guevara, a prominent Georgia journalist who's been covering immigration and law enforcement activity for over 20 years. That day, even though he was wearing a press vest and attending in his capacity as a journalist, he was detained and arrested by local police.
"Even though all criminal charges against him were dropped and an immigration judge granted bond, ICE has refused to release him – arguing that his livestreaming and reporting are dangerous. Guevara is still in custody today, over two months since he was arrested while reporting on a protest, five hours away from his family."
Phone Searches at the US Border Hit a Record High
from Wired
"Customs and Border Protection agents searched nearly 15,000 devices from April through June of this year, a nearly 17 percent spike over the previous three-month high in 2022.
"United States Custom and Border Protection officials have sweeping powers to search anyone’s phone when they are entering the country—including US citizens. Newly released figures show that over the past three months, CBP officials have been searching more phones and other devices than ever before.
"The increase in phone and device searches at the border comes as the second Trump administration takes aggressive actions on migration, with a vast increase in budget for the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement and thousands of arrests taking place. Since the start of the year, people traveling to the US have reported long detentions, intrusive phone searches and allegedly being denied entry due to content on their devices. In recent months, some European travelers have canceled trips to the US, while the number of Canadian visitors to the US has dropped for seven consecutive months."
Culture War By Executive Order and Its Impact on Libraries
As professionals and as citizens, we must decide whether we will serve as stewards of culture, or as instruments of the state. The future of libraries, museums, and archives depends on our answer.
from Every Library Institute
"In the first 100 days of his second administration, President Donald Trump issued several executive orders targeting important federal cultural institutions.
"These included the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) , the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), and the Smithsonian Institution.
"Framed under themes like 'restoring patriotism,' 'ending woke ideology,' and 'restoring American exceptionalism,' these directives represent an unprecedented use of executive authority aimed at reshaping the mission, governance, and funding of America’s cultural institutions, including libraries, museums, and archives."
Sesame Street, State Media, and the Fast March to Fascism
& How We Fight Back
from Qasim Rashid
"It’s hard to overstate how devastating the Trump regime’s latest move is: the total defunding and shutdown of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). This calculated attack will kneecap NPR and PBS, strip millions of children of educational programming, and further erode one of the few remaining pillars of independent, public-minded journalism and storytelling in America. Adding to this injury is the insult of a required 'bias monitor' before Trump’s FCC approves the Skydance/Paramount merger. We are one step closer to state media, and we need to keep ourselves informed...
"Once, the media was called the 'fourth estate,' a watchdog to hold power accountable. Today, much of it has been reduced to a lapdog, justifying its own subservience under the guise of 'neutrality.' But there is nothing neutral about normalizing fascism.
"So we’re left with a choice: accept this collapse, or build something better."
Pussy Riot's Cathedral Performance
Russia, 2012i — Another Lesson In Creative Cultural Resistance
from Scot Nakagawa
"In 2012, the feminist punk collective Pussy Riot staged a provocative protest performance inside Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Wearing colorful balaclavas and dresses, the group performed their "punk prayer," a chaotic and defiant act that criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian Orthodox Church's complicity in authoritarianism and patriarchy. The performance lasted only minutes before security intervened, but its message echoed far beyond the walls of the cathedral.
"The performance became a flashpoint for global conversations about authoritarianism, sexism, and corruption. The harsh punishment meted out to the performers—long prison sentences for 'hooliganism motivated by religious hatred'—underscored the regime's intolerance of dissent. At the same time, the event catalyzed international solidarity campaigns, brought attention to the intersection of art and activism, and made Pussy Riot an enduring symbol of resistance."
NYT Whitewashes Genocide, Again
from Let's Address This with Qasim Rashid
"In an OpEd, Columnist Bret Stephens takes a sledgehammer to truth & humanity to justify a live streamed genocide—we rebuke his propaganda in full"
"A recent UN survey concluded that more than 95% of land in Gaza is now unusable for agriculture. Another report by Doctors Without Borders in January 2025 concluded that more than 92% of homes and more than 70% of all buildings in Gaza are destroyed, damaged, or unusable. Yet another UN report from September 2024 concluded that nearly 70% of all infrastructure in Gaza has been destroyed or damaged."
"Moreover, by April of 2024 Gaza had already suffered more than 70,000 tonnes of bombing. To put that in perspective, that is more than the combined bomb tonnage dropped on Dresden, Hamburg, and London in World War II. Now more than a year later, that bombing has only increased. It is no surprise, therefore, that UN Humanitarian Chief Martin Griffiths declared Gaza 'uninhabitable' due to the bombing, destruction, blockades, and subsequent famines."
"...a study published by Yale in The Lancet estimated in June 2024 that Israel’s genocide upon Gaza had already killed up to 186,000 people, conservatively..."
"While the latest data is far worse, even 1 year into Israel’s siege on Gaza, OxFam reported this horrifying fact: 'More women and children have been killed in Gaza by the Israeli military over the past year than the equivalent period of any other conflict over the past two decades.'"
Signs of Fascism
from the Democracy Docket
"Don't fall asleep"
"In the musical 'Cabaret,' Cliff Bradshaw leaves the audience with this monologue: 'There was a cabaret, and there was a master of ceremonies. And there was a city called Berlin in a country called Germany. And it was the end of the world. And I was dancing with Sally Bowles, and we were both fast asleep...'"
Superman just Punched Trump and MAGA in the face!
from The Dean's Report
"Why was MAGA triggered with the release of the new Superman? (In reality, MAGA is angry at everything that is not them!) Simple, the film’s director James Gunn declared while promoting the film that 'Superman is the story of America,' adding, 'An immigrant that came from other places and populated the country.' Gunn continued, 'But for me it is mostly a story that says basic human kindness is a value and is something we have lost.'"
Superman: Movie Review
from Qasim Rashid
"I feel compelled to share a powerful work of art that speaks to the human rights issues I care so deeply about. Walking into the theatre I’d seen murmurings from MAGA pundits that the movie was 'woke' (used as a pejorative of course) and even 'anti-Israel.' Not only are these claims unfounded, in reality, the film demonstrates the power of storytelling, the need for justice, and makes us wonder—who are the real superheroes in our world today?"
Letters from the Birmingham Jail
Martin Luther King, Jr.
"From the Birmingham jail, where he was imprisoned as a participant in nonviolent demonstrations against segregation, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., wrote in longhand the letter which follows. It was his response to a public statement of concern and caution issued by eight white religious leaders of the South. Dr. King, who was born in 1929, did his undergraduate work at Morehouse College; attended the integrated Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania, one of six black pupils among a hundred students, and the president of his class; and won a fellowship to Boston University for his Ph.D."
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker
from Freedom of the Press Foundation
"President Trump received a total of $32 million to settle his claims against ABC News and CBS News. With ongoing suits against the Des Moines Register and The Wall Street Journal, he is more emboldened than ever to pursue claims against the news media."
"In July, we received reports of dozens of additional aggressions against journalists across the country, from Atlanta to Spokane. We've documented 14 arrests or detentions, 64 assaults, eight instances of journalists' equipment being damaged, and two where it was searched. Of the more than 75 affected journalists, most reported exposure to chemical irritants at least once.
"While the Tracker is investigating two dozen additional reports, one thing is already clear: Law enforcement officers responding to the protests — including federal agents — either don't care that members of the press are being injured or are deliberately targeting them."
Journalists Killed in the Gaza War
from Wikipedia
"The killing of journalists in the Gaza war, overwhelmingly Palestinian, along with other acts of violence against journalists, marks the deadliest period for journalists in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict since 1992 and the deadliest conflict for journalists in the 21st century. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) counted 178 journalists who were killed (176 Palestinian and 2 Israeli), as of 12 June 2025, and the International Federation of Journalists counted 174 journalists and media workers who were killed (170 Palestinian and 4 Israeli), as of 5 June 2025. A July 2024 count by the Gaza government media office placed the number of Palestinian journalists killed at 160, and in January 2025 the Gaza Government Media Office increased it to 202. July 2025 saw the number climb to 217.
"The head of the Committee to Protect Journalists stated in 2024, 'Israel's war on Gaza is more deadly to journalists than any previous war'."
Palestinian Poet Mosab Abu Toha on Winning a Pulitzer
from Democracy Now
"Palestinian writer Mosab Abu Toha has just been awarded the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary for his essays about the Palestinian experience in the face of the U.S.-backed Israeli assault on Gaza. He joins Democracy Now! to discuss his work, the necessity of advocating for Palestinian rights, and the violence of Israeli occupation. Abu Toha, who evacuated Gaza in late 2023 after being arrested, beaten and detained by the Israeli military, now resides in Syracuse, New York. He says that, while grateful for the platform granted by the Pulitzer, he cannot celebrate the achievement while 'my sisters, my brothers and my parents in Gaza are starving.'"
Online News Publishers Face 'Extinction-Level Event' from Google's AI-Powered Search
from NPR
"When Google unveiled AI Overviews last year, online publishers worried that the AI-generated blurbs in the top spot of search results would spark precipitous declines in traffic and gut the business model of vast reaches of the web.
"Now, there is growing evidence validating those fears.
"Publishers worry about a time when Google stops sending traffic to websites altogether. Tech observers and publishers have dubbed such a scenario "zero-click" searching, or Google Zero. It's an event that would be catastrophic to many major news sites and other online publishers that rely on traffic-based online advertising revenue, according to advocates for the media organizations.
"'Google is using our content without compensation, offering no meaningful way to opt out without disappearing from search entirely — and then turning around and using that same content to compete with us," said Danielle Coffey, who leads the News/Media Alliance, which represents more than 2,000 outlets. "It's parasitic, it's unsustainable and it poses a real existential threat to many in our industry.'"
Google Zero is here — now what?
from the Verge
"We’ve been covering big changes to Google and Google Search very closely here on Decoder and The Verge. There’s a good reason for that: the entire business of the modern web is built around Google.
"It’s a whole ecosystem. Websites get traffic from Google Search, they all get built to work in Google Chrome, and Google dominates the stack of advertising technologies that turn all of it into money. It’s honestly been challenging to explain just how Google operates as a platform, because it’s so large, pervasive, and dominant that it’s almost invisible.
"But if you think about it another way — considering the relationship YouTubers have to YouTube or TikTokers have to the TikTok algorithm — it starts to become clear. The entire web is Google’s platform, and creators on the web are often building their entire businesses on that platform, just like any other."
"There’s a theory I’ve had for a long time that I’ve been calling 'Google Zero' — my name for that moment when Google Search simply stops sending traffic outside of its search engine to third-party websites."
Thinking About Google in Terms of Zombies
from Tedium
"Google announces a plan to add yet another barrier to the ease of getting an ultra-simple Web search. Great."
"Based on a data point about how people are less likely to click on a link when they see an AI overview, the story helps to highlight how AI just ruins what made Google searches good. It’s not just what Google adds to them—it’s how it obfuscates original reporting and even favors LLM-generated content over the real thing"
In a first-of-its-kind decision, an AI company wins a copyright infringement lawsuit brought by authors
from NPR
"AI companies could have the legal right to train their large language models on copyrighted works — as long as they obtain copies of those works legally.
"That's the upshot of a first-of-its-kind ruling by a federal judge in San Francisco on Monday in an ongoing copyright infringement case that pits a group of authors against a major AI company.
"The ruling is significant because it represents the first substantive decision on how fair use applies to generative AI systems."
Messaging Guides
from Anat Shenker-Osorio
"Host of the Words to Win By podcast and Principal of ASO Communications, Anat Shenker-Osorio examines why certain messages falter where others deliver. She has led research for new messaging on issues ranging from freedom to join together in union to clean energy and from immigrant rights to reforming criminal justice. Anat's original approach through priming experiments, task-based testing and online dial surveys has led to progressive electoral and policy victories across the globe."
Preparing devices for travel through a US border
from Freeedom of the Press Foundation
"We wrote this checklist to help journalists prepare for transit through a U.S. port of entry while preserving the confidentiality of your most sensitive information, such as unpublished reporting materials or source contact information. It's important to think about your strategy in advance, and begin planning which options in this checklist make sense for you."
Undaunted Search for the Truth
Julie Brown's essential reporting on Jeffrey Epstein must be commended
from the Contrarian
"If not for Miami Herald reporter Julie K. Brown, we might never have learned anything about Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking operation, its implication of wealthy, powerful, influential men, and the existence of massive files documenting all of it. Absent her reporting, we also would not be seeing the first significant break in the MAGA protection racket that has shielded Trump from consequences for his lies, misconduct, incompetence, and cruel policies."
Politicize Everything — A Blueprint for a Party That Fights.
The Cycle (Rachel Bitecofer)
"The first rule is: you seize the frame or you lose the narrative. Republicans are already 20 tweets deep blaming "Democrat policies" before you even finish reading the news alert. They don't care if the accusation is coherent, much less accurate. The goal is to own the frame. And once they've set it, the public doesn't forget it."
Poems of Protest, Resistance, and Empowerment
from the Poetry Foundation
Poetry is necessary and sought after during crises.
"Pithy and powerful, poetry is a popular art form at protests and rallies. From the civil rights and women's liberation movements to Black Lives Matter, poetry is commanding enough to gather crowds in a city square and compact enough to demand attention on social media. Speaking truth to power remains a crucial role of the poet in the face of political and media rhetoric designed to obscure, manipulate, or worse. The selection of poems below call out and talk back to the inhumane forces that threaten from above. They expose grim truths, raise consciousness, and build united fronts. Some insist, as Langston Hughes writes, "That all these walls oppression builds / Will have to go!" All rail against complacency and demonstrate why poetry is necessary and sought after in moments of political crisis."
In Honor of Joanna Macy, 1929-2025
Rebecca Solnit
"The woman that was Joanna Macy is gone. And still here as books, teachings, in students, friends, and through broad influence even beyond those who know her and her work. She's a tree that's fallen; she's a tree that trees have grown out of; she's now part of the past, but also she fed and nourished and loved and guided a possible future, a hopeful and demanding future, demanding in that we would have to change ourselves and our society to make it.
"It's almost strange to think about her integrity, her compassion, her generosity at a time when the news is full of stories about cruel and corrupt men and the wreckage they've strewn all around them, but she's a reminder that their opposite is also present in the world and even in the nation; the same society produced them both. Joanna Macy is gone. Joanna Macy is with us in a thousand ways..."
Angela Davis — Tanner Lectures on Human Values
Held at Yale in April
"Angela Y. Davis is professor emerita of history of consciousness and feminist studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. An activist, writer, and lecturer, her work focuses on prisons, police, abolition, and the related intersections of race, gender, and class. She is the author of many books, from Angela Davis: An Autobiography (1974) to Freedom Is a Constant Struggle (2015). Her most recent books include Abolition. Feminism. Now., written with Gina Dent, Erica Meiners, and Beth Richie, and a book of essays Abolition: Politics, Practices, Promises, vol. 1.
"She is a founding member of Critical Resistance, a national organization dedicated to the dismantling of the prison industrial complex. Internationally, she is affiliated with Sisters Inside, an abolitionist organization based in Queensland, Australia, that works in solidarity with people in women's prisons.
"Like many educators, Professor Davis is especially concerned with the general tendency to devote more resources and attention to the prison system than to educational institutions. Having helped to popularize the notion of a "prison industrial complex," she now urges her audiences to think seriously about the future possibility of a world without prisons and to help forge a twenty-first-century abolitionist movement."
Cynicism Is the Enemy of Action
from Rebecca Solnit
"This is the most dire moment in the history of the United States and no one should be on the sidelines, and no one should be undermining those who are showing up for justice, human rights, and environmental protection.
"There's a remarkable passage in the (highly recommended) book Let This Radicalize You by Kelly Hayes and Mariame Kaba. They write, 'As you develop your tactics and strategize, it's important to be aware of the pervasiveness of cynicism among many of those you may be trying to reach. Cynicism is a dominant force in today's political discourse, with some good reason and a favorite approach of the world's political hobbyists.' They quote another writer, Eitan Hersh, who calls people who follow and comment on politics without really participating 'political hobbyists' and Kaba and Hayes continue: 'It is important to understand the distinction between activists, organizers, and political hobbyists. Such hobbyists will often have very strict political standards, either around respectability or radicalism, to which few activists ever seem to rise.
"If you organize anything political, you are likely to attract the criticism of hobbyists, since for some people, critique is a pastime. Of course, organizers make genuine mistakes that political hobbyists may react to, but the fact is, making mistakes is a consequence of trying. The more you take action, the more errors and missteps you will make along the way. A person who has attempted nothing can easily point to the fact that they have never failed, but what have they built? What have they healed?'"