Tuesday, December 3, 2024

Attacks on Academic Freedom, the Times of London, and MI6

This article is also published at UK Column. Once again, The Times newspaper is attacking academics who speak truth to power, with a new hit-piece. What the latest...
Greg Philo

Greg Philo (1947-2024) – Researcher, Mentor, above all an empirical sociologist

I first met Greg in the summer of 1985 just after I had finished my first degree. I walked into his office, knocked on...
Ouroboros and Disinformation

The Real Problem of Disinformation

According to the UK Government, which has set up a dedicated Counter-Disinformation Unit, there is a ‘danger that hostile actors use online disinformation to undermine our...
Dr. Cees J. Hamelink

‘We Are a Nation of Shopkeepers’

Abstract Professor Cees Hamelink has been a rare critical voice in Dutch and international communication scholarship for the last half a century. His work has...
Peaceful Hearts Doctor

Manifesto for Peace Media in the 21st Century

Professors and researchers in the field of communication launch a manifesto calling for the media to serve peace. In the midst of an upsurge of...
Silencing The Academics

Symposium: Silencing the Academics

If COINTELPRO, a government-sponsored program from the 1950s to the 1970s, was meant to “expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize” alternative perspectives on...

The Perils of Studying Propaganda

Researching and writing about propaganda can be tricky. It is not particularly popular amongst mainstream academics who sometimes become tetchy when confronted with the...
Fake or Fact?

Who Guards NewsGuard? Academics asleep on the job

Recently, I was reading ‘an important paper’ recommended by a philosopher who specialises in epistemology (the study of how we know what we think...
The Hague Netherlands OPCW

Deception through omission: ‘The War on the OPCW’

An academic paper from the University of New South Wales in Australia describes four incidents where a virtual firehose of Russian propaganda was directed...
Kate Starbird

Academic Complicity in the Censorship Industry: The Case of Kate Starbird

The U.S. Congress has recently heard a report from the House Judiciary Committee which presents disturbing allegations about U.S. Government involvement in surveillance and...