“‘I have been doing disaster work for nearly 20 years, and I cannot think of another acute disaster where there has been this much misinformation,’ said Samantha Montano, an assistant professor of emergency management at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy…In recent days, FEMA has been forced to contend with claims that it is stealing donations, diverting disaster aid to Ukraine or refusing help from others, a falsehood [Elon] Musk has spread.”

“Creative people have used NotebookLM to create ‘Histories of Mysteries’ podcasts out of Wikipedia pages, and to produce little career pep talks out of resumes. One person got the AI podcast hosts to have an existential meltdown where they realize they’re not real. Another got the AI to make a podcast about the words poop and fart written 1,000 times…[researchers who graded NotebookLM’s work] mostly gave the podcasts a ‘C’ grade because it didn’t know what to focus on.”

“It is a full-on media push, with some tough interviews (60 Minutes, Fox News Sunday and most town halls are never simple or straightforward), even if many of the interviews will be friendly in tone and substance. But it also underscored the value that the Harris campaign still sees in traditional outlets, even as they explore some popular podcasts as alternatives to traditional media.”

“NetChoice is ‘eviscerating what it means to be human and what is speech, and this gives these — the wealthiest companies in the world — an enormous advantage,’ said Tim Wu, a professor at Columbia University and a former Biden administration official who worked on White House competition policy. ‘The First Amendment was intended to protect the underdog, not these companies.'”

“This is the first election since Tucker Carlson, once Fox’s loudest voice in a primetime spot, was reportedly fired by the network, and his solo ventures so far haven’t taken on the prominence he had on TV. It’s also the first election since longtime Republican heavyweight Rush Limbaugh died. These big changes have left holes in rightwing media, which were filled by an increasing cadre of influencers, content creators and smaller outlets.”

“There are maybe a handful of openings [in games journalism] worldwide, each of which probably has hundreds of applicants. Which is why those parting messages from laid off staff are always so heartbreaking: they’re not being laid off from a job, but often from their career…It’s no wonder there’s a pipeline of writers fleeing to games development; the latter might be an industry on fire, but when your own is already engulfed in flames, why not?”

“In recent months, the company has been reaching out to influencers, video creators and podcasters to convince them to join the platform. It doesn’t need beauty influencers, say, to all of a sudden become bloggers. But it does want to be the primary vehicle for paying creators regardless of medium…This repositioning has put Substack in more direct competition with crowdfunding services like Patreon, which largely still brands itself more as a way to financially support artists and musicians than the foundations of a subscription business.”

“Last May, after Dotdash Meredith announced a licensing deal with OpenAI, that number dipped significantly. It then dipped again at the end of May when Vox announced its own arrangement—and again once more this August when WIRED’s parent company, Condé Nast, struck a deal. The trend toward increased blocking appears to be over, at least for now.”

Two RJI fellows are building DigInThere, a news quiz tool they hope will “incentivize audiences toward more thoughtful engagement with [newsrooms’] content.”