Author Archives: Ralph Hanson

When Rachel Maddow Stood Up Against MSNBC Management

Posted on February 25, 2025 by Ralph Hanson

I don’t have a lot to say here about individual cable news/talk hosts. For one thing, I pay a lot more attention to newspapers and other print outlets than I do to broadcast/cable. But it’s also because I don’t think … Continue reading →

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Return to “Pink Slime” Journalism: AI Scraping Edition

Posted on February 11, 2025 by Ralph Hanson

Last fall I had a post about the phenomenon known as “pink slime” journalism. Basically it’s where websites churn out content using either low-paid writers or generative AI. The “news” is either low-quality scrapings from legitimate sites or paid political … Continue reading →

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Social Media Change 2025 Part 3: TikTok – The Hate/Love relationship

Posted on February 4, 2025 by Ralph Hanson

Social media are going through some big changes this winter. Meta/Facebook has changed its policies banning hate speech and deceptive information on its platforms; TikTok was facing a ban, shut itself down, and then came back with the blessings of … Continue reading →

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Social Media Change 2025 Part 2: Breaking Up With Meta

Posted on January 27, 2025 by Ralph Hanson

Social media are going through some big changes this winter. Meta/Facebook has changed its policies banning hate speech and deceptive information on its platforms; TikTok was facing a ban, shut itself down, and then came back with the blessings of … Continue reading →

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Social Media Change 2025 Part 1: Meta Content Moderation

Posted on January 22, 2025 by Ralph Hanson

Social media are going through some big changes this winter. Meta/Facebook has changed its policies banning hate speech and deceptive information on its platforms; TikTok was facing a ban, shut itself down, and then came back with the blessings of … Continue reading →

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MLK’s Great Question – “Will we be extremists for hate or love?”

Posted on January 20, 2025 by Ralph Hanson

One of the greatest honors of my life was being invited to speak at the Martin Luther King, Jr. candlelight vigil several years ago at the UNK student union, along with Kevin Chaney, who was then UNK’s women’s basketball coach.  On today … Continue reading →

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And so the Ninth Edition is in print…

Posted on January 13, 2025 by Ralph Hanson

Just got my author’s copies of the ninth edition of my media literacy textbook Mass Communication: Living in a Media World. So excited to see these years of work in print! For those of you teaching with Mass Communication, it … Continue reading →

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Something Old, Something New: Favorite Movies From 2024

Posted on January 1, 2025 by Ralph Hanson

Over the last year, I and/or my Dear Wife have watched 107 movies; some that were new releases (i.e Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga), some that were vintage or classics (i.e. Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison), and some that were repeat … Continue reading →

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Why is the NY Times Connections the most controversial online game?

Posted on December 13, 2024 by Ralph Hanson

When you are on Facebook, if you see the following graphic with some kind of comment below, you know that one of your friends has succumbed to the addiction that is the NY Times game – Connections. The game is … Continue reading →

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New algorithms help animators with coiled hair for Black characters

Posted on December 3, 2024 by Ralph Hanson

One of the issues that has long been a problem for diversity in entertainment media is that creatives often have not been trained or had the tools to effectively portray people of color. Which is why it is so exciting … Continue reading →

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