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Important Items
Maps in Four States Were Ruled Illegal Gerrymanders. They’re Being Used Anyway.
Judges in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Ohio have found that Republicans illegally drew congressional maps along racial or partisan lines, or that a trial very likely would conclude that they did. All four states are using the rejected maps anyway.
Facebook Gave Nebraska Cops A Teen’s DMs. They Used Them To Prosecute Her For Having An Abortion.
www.forbes.com
A Nebraska teenager is facing criminal charges alleging she aborted a fetus in violation of state law, after authorities obtained her Facebook messages using a search warrant.
A Proposed Antiabortion Law Infringes on Free Speech
RT @PENamerica “There are glaring #FreeSpeech issues” in a new South Carolina bill, writes @htsuka. “If you have a phone conversation, exchange e-mails or have an online chat with a pregnant person in South Carolina about seeking an abortion, you violate the bill.”
Why SCOTUS’ Abortion Ruling Is a Disaster for Free Expression
RT @PENamerica “Free expression is imperiled when information-sharing is considered a crime,” wrote PEN America’s @summerelopez & Nadine Farid Johnson in this recent opinion piece for @thedailybeast following the reversal of #RoeVsWade #FreeSpeech #FirstAmendment
ALA Responds as Legislation Threatens Librarians for Offering Information on Abortion Services
www.publishersweekly.com
ALA says it is “developing guidance” for libraries and library workers and working with other organizations to “oppose any efforts to limit access to constitutionally protected information or limit privacy protections” for library users.
EXPLAINER: Online privacy in a post-Roe world
Staff allegedly took down an Escambia County teacher’s posters of Black heroes. He quit — www.pnj.com
Along with the Pledge of Allegiance, posters of Martin Luther King Jr., Colin Powell and George Washington Carver were removed from the bulletin board.
Beware of these scams: Wrong-number texts
Innovation
Blockchain For Copyright And Intellectual Property With Roanie Levy — www.thecreativepenn.com
ICYMI HT @craicer How will blockchain technology change the way creatives register copyright, as well as monetize their work? Roanie Levy explains how blockchain can solve the attribution problem, and how smart contracts will allow new business models with ownership of digital assets in web 3. #copyright
Pearson Sees NFT, Blockchain Helping Making Money From E-Books Sales
ICYMI The CEO of Pearson says technology like the blockchain could help the company take a cut from secondhand sales of its materials as more books go online #blockchain
Instagram Adds Flow Blockchain NFTs, FLOW Token Pumps 44%
decrypt.co
Instagram’s NFT initiative now includes more than 100 countries, including collectibles from the Flow blockchain.
Hollywood’s Next Hit Could Be Based on an NFT — www.cnet.com
John Wick’s creator is writing an anime based on the Forgotten Runes NFT collection. It’s one of many brands leaping from the blockchain to the big screen. #NFT
This AI Can Create Video From Text Prompt
Seems like a trend to watch, although may be a dangerous one.
Technology
Media Map 2022 — eshap.substack.com
Any company in video, gaming, advertising, audio and even social media pale in scale to Apple, Amazon, Alphabet and Microsoft.
Gaming is now media. Today gaming is in its current size is bigger than TV, movies and music combined.
Google TV preps live TV w 50 channels of free, ad-supported streaming content, including news from ABC and NBC
AdExplainer: Can Contextual Targeting Work On Streaming TV?
CTV buyers put contextual targeting on the back-burner in favor of more granular, first-party audience data. But signal loss is tipping the scales back. #AdBusiness
Want to watch free TV? This station owner is here to help
EW Scripps plans to spend $20 million on a campaign to help consumers understand the use and benefits of over-the-air antennas.
How AI Is Making Voice Chatbots More Realistic Than Ever
www.adweek.com
Tech advances make bots more conversational, but controlling what they say remains a challenge.
It took just one weekend for Meta’s new AI Chatbot to become racist
mashable.com
Meta’s BlenderBot 3 AI chatbot is already courting controversy by spouting racism and championing Donald Trump.
A.I. Is Not Sentient. Why Do People Say It Is? — www.nytimes.com
Robots can’t think or feel, despite what the researchers who build them want to believe. #AI
The Age of Algorithmic Anxiety
www.newyorker.com
Interacting online today means being besieged by system-generated recommendations. Do we want what the machines tell us we want?
Meta injecting code into websites to track its users, research says
MT @michellemanafy To track users across sites, they take advantage of “in-app browsers,” controlled by Facebook or Instagram, rather than sent to the user’s web browser of choice, such as Safari or Firefox
Congress wants the FTC to create a bureau dedicated to privacy. And that’s a big deal
HT @BoSacks If established, it could fundamentally change how consumer privacy is protected and enforced in the US.
Snapchat’s new parental controls try to mimic real-life parenting, minus the hovering
Snapchat’s Family Center lets parents see whom their teen is contacting, but not their messages. Parents can also confidentially report accounts that concern them, without their child’s knowledge. #Snap
On TikTok, Election Misinformation Thrives Ahead of Midterms
RT @justinhendrix “Ahead of the midterm elections this fall, TikTok is shaping up to be a primary incubator of baseless and misleading information, in many ways as problematic as Facebook and Twitter, say researchers who track online falsehoods.” –@tiffkhsu
How TikTok bombards young men with misogynistic videos
RT @michellemanafy An Observer investigation has revealed how TikTok is promoting misogynistic content to young people despite claiming to ban it.
Spotify starts selling live music tickets to fans directly — techcrunch.com
RT @michellemanafy Spotify has launched a new site to sell fans tickets to live gigs directly from its platform instead of redirecting users to partners like Ticketmaster and Eventbrite
Clubhouse is splitting up into many Clubhouses
YouTube Advances Plans for Streaming Video Marketplace
www.wsj.com
Ultracompetitive U.S. market is prompting streaming services to seek new ways to find subscribers
The Secret Talks That Could Have Prevented the Apple vs. Facebook War
www.wsj.com
The two tech giants discussed revenue-sharing arrangements, including a potential ad-free, subscription version of Facebook
A Single Flaw Broke Every Layer of Security in MacOS
An injection flaw allowed a researcher to access all files on a Mac. Apple issued a fix, but some machines may still be vulnerable. #Apple
Amazon begins large-scale rollout of palm print-based payments
Amazon is expanding its biometric checkout system to dozens of Whole Foods locations, marking the most significant expansion of the technology since its introduction in 2020.
Google’s Read Along app for kids is now a website with in-browser speech recognition — 9to5google.com
HT @paulkbiba Originally an Android app, Google’s Read Along is now on the web to better expand availability.
Publishing & Media
Salman Rushdie Is Off Ventilator and Starting to Recover — www.nytimes.com
Mr. Rushdie’s agent said Sunday that the writer, who was attacked on Friday after years under threat, was beginning a slow journey of healing.
Popular chemistry textbook’s new edition will be free — www.insidehighered.com
A popular chemistry book’s jump from a publishing titan to an OER pioneer could be pivotal for the open access movement. For the author, it’s also a fitting tribute to his late son. #OER
Selling Books Direct With Shopify: The Minimum Viable Store — www.thecreativepenn.com
By @thecreativepenn.
Beyond BookTok: The generation revolutionising publishing
Inside the minds — and living rooms — of the young book lovers reshaping the way we read. #booktok #teamPRH
Emily Henry and Erin Morgenstern: How TikTok changes authors’ careers— www.penguin.co.uk
RT @PenguinUKBooks #BookTok isn’t just reshaping the publishing industry, but the lives of the authors it celebrates, too. We spoke to platform favourites Emily Henry and @erinmorgenstern to find out more #teamPRH
What We Gain from a Good Bookstore — www.newyorker.com
It’s a place whose real boundaries and character are much more than its physical dimensions.
New Survey Shows Readers Overwhelmingly Prefer Physical Books — twosidesna.org
RT @thejossgroup A new survey among 2,400 book readers of all ages in the United States, U.K., France and Germany found that people still overwhelmingly prefer physical books
Do national literary initiatives really work? — www.thebookseller.com
RT @mollyflatt “I did initially wonder how a new literacy initiative could fit into an already crowded space.” Emily Souders on launching #ReadHourUK
Book Aid International Programming: Books for 56,000 African Primary School Students — publishingperspectives.com
The ‘African Book Box’ program from Book Aid International is delivering books to 76 schools in Uganda, Ghana, and Zimbabwe.
Want To Devour Some Classic Literature? The Serial Reader App Breaks Long Novels Up Into Easy-to-Read Chunks
RT @paulkbiba Serial Reader offers more than 800 books in the form of daily “issues” that you can read in just 20 minutes.
The Right-Wing Plot To Destroy Public Libraries
www.huffpost.com
There’s a long history of book-banning in the U.S. But conservative groups are emboldened like never before, and they’re taking their mission to a new level.
Virginia Republicans Are Testing a Novel Way to Ban Books. It Might Just Work.
slate.com
An expert sees no reason book protections couldn’t be rolled back “the way Roe v. Wade was rolled back.”
‘Everywhere Babies,’ a picture book celebrating infants, on list of banning targets in Florida — www.washingtonpost.com
The author and illustrator of the classic board book “Everywhere Babies” speak with The Post about being on a banned-book list in Walton County, Fla.
School librarians in Missouri pull books as new law allows charges for ‘explicit’ material; A parent group in St. Charles County has posted links to file police reports against school employees.
RT @ALALibrary Yes. Professional library associations have a long-held position: Parents can choose not to let their child read a book, but they shouldn’t control other parents’ decisions on family reading. #UniteAgainstBookBans
District Attorney Considers Prosecuting Librarians for Stocking LGBTQ Books
The newly elected Tennessee DA walked back her comments after saying books about puberty and LGBTQ topics may contribute to “delinquency of a minor.” #FReadom #Libraries
Oklahoma teachers on notice after ‘watershed’ vote on Tulsa, Mustang HB 1775 violations
RT @CarmenMForman At Dewey High School newly purchased copies of “Killers of the Flower Moon,” sit unread because English teacher Debra Thoreson said it would be a risk to assign the acclaimed book because race is a prominent factor in the nonfiction story.
Banned Books Issue
RT @HotSheetPub Reason magazine has dedicated an entire print issue to banned books. The issue includes a historical look at book bans. #bannedbooks
What it means to ban a book; parental rights; and a student takes his school board to the Supreme Court
Most efforts to ban books in Texas schools came from 1 politician and GOP pressure, not parents
RT @UABookBans Bans come from a vocal minority. 82% of voters believe we need to protect the ability of young people to have access to books from which they can learn about and understand different perspectives and help them grow into adults who can think for themselves.
In rare move, school librarian fights back in court against conservative activists — www.nbcnews.com
A Louisiana school librarian is suing two men for defamation after they accused her of advocating to give pornographic materials to children.
How Teens Are Pushing Back On Book Bans — nextcity.org
“Teachers are afraid of losing their jobs. Principals only have so much that they can do in the face of school boards. But students can protest. Students can speak out.”
Following outcry, Utah School District reverses decision to remove 52 Books.
Canada’s Literary Press Group: Accessible ‘Ebooks for Everyone’ — publishingperspectives.com
Close to 600 titles will be part of the new, accessible ‘Ebooks for Everyone’ initiative from the Literary Press Group of Canada. #accessibility
Brooklyn Public Library Is Inviting You to Borrow From Its Vinyl Collection— hyperallergic.com
Patrons can listen to a collection of 400 titles at the library and borrow them for up to three weeks.
Hollywood’s “mad rush” into Ad-Supported Video Subscription
MT @thenewpubstd Books next? We’ve survived the ads in comics, magazines and newspapers since forever without irreparable harm to our brain cells or the collapse of civilisation as we know it.
Axios sold to Cox Enterprises for $525 million
Crackle Owner Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment Completes $375M Redbox Purchase
Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, which owns the streaming service Crackle, completes its acquisition of Redbox in a $375M all-stock deal
The survival guide for digital media and its investors — www.axios.com
A niche audience and clear focus have commanded higher multiples.
B2B Businesses Embrace LinkedIn Influencer Marketing
Some companies are partnering with B2B influencers, mostly on LinkedIn, to pitch to other companies; LinkedIn says 11M+ users enabled “creator mode” as of July.
Online Publishers: 10 reasons to develop a digital subscription strategy
Currently valued at $650 billion, the digital subscription economy is expected to more than double by 2025 as premium models are now considered as the most important revenue stream, ahead of advertising.
Satirical Publisher Reductress Is Acquired by Phenomenal Media
An Action Plan for Accessible Images: Practical Solutions for Publishers, Platforms, and Providers
HT @jafurtado Accessible images deliver an inclusive reading experience and unlock the numerous benefits of data-rich accessible images. This post summarizes a 2022 SSP panel offering practical solutions for ensuring scholarly image collections and in-line graphics are fully accessible to all readers.
Meet the social-first news start-up aiming to re-engage younger people
RT @JaneFriedman So tell me again that email is dead… “We’ve been surprised at how many under 35s have come to email. We didn’t want to place a lot of eggs in that basket early. But it turns out…there’s an appetite for that.” h/t @BoSacks
Substack’s Hamish McKenzie changes his title to Chief Writing Officer from COO to emphasize the platform’s respect for writers and says he’ll be writing more
HT @mediagazer
Could ads be coming to Wordle?
The New York Times plans to expand its advertising business across games and sports.
An airport without newspapers
Resources & Opportunities
MT @PocPub Call For People Of Color In Publishing Mentorship Program. Interested In Being A Mentee Or Mentor? Submit Your Application by September 15th!
UNLOCK HER POTENTIAL: A free mentorship program for women of color— www.unlockherpotential.com
MT @sophchang MEET THE MENTORS: PUBLISHING! Wanna be a writer in fiction, non fiction, science fiction, comics, or want help shaping ideas or navigating the publishing industry? Check out our mentors! Apply at http://unlockherpotential.com until August 31 at 6 PM PST/9 PM EST
The Zibby Awards — zibbyowens.com
MT @luxlotus .@zibbyowens Zibby Awards offer recognition for “often overlooked” contributions in publishing, including best editor, agent, and publicist, and submissions are open until 9/15.
Pitch your book on Twitter: A #PitBLK Workshop! — www.youtube.com
Thinking of pitching your book to agents and editors on Twitter but wondering how to really make your pitch shine? Watch as three authors join #PitBLK (the first Twitter literary pitch event to amplify Black authors exclusively) as they workshop eleven book pitches that have been submitted by writers from our Twitter audience!
Please bring one or more children’s books to be donated during the event.
IBPA Call for Speakers
RT @ibpa Hey #publishing experts and #indiepublishers! We want your speaker proposals for IBPA’s 2023 webinars, podcasts, and #PubU2023 conference in May ’23. We’d love to see you on stage, on video, and on air!
The Bookseller Nov 2022 — Oct 2023 Disability Issue Preview — twitter.com
RT @thebookseller Calling all publicists! The submission deadline for the Nov 2022 — Oct 2023 Disability Issue Preview, dedicated to authors with disabilities and books exploring issues around disability and chronic illness, is 19th August at 5pm. Send titles to katie.fraser@thebookseller.com
Request a Banned Books Week Kit
MT @PenguinClass #BannedBooksWeek isn’t about one week. Get resources for your library, bookstore, or school to engage your community today! Request a FREE physical kit with postcards to write representatives, signage, and other resources! Request your kit. #teamPRH
Barnes & Noble Book Haul 2022
#BNBOOKHAUL From now through 9/5: 50% off Select Hardcover Books
MT @womenjournos Texas Journalists, check out this fellowship to attend JAWS Conference and Mentoring Program (CAMP) Sept. 9–11 in Austin.
Summer at the Library: For Teens — www.nypl.org
MT @nypl Calling aspiring writers and artists–NYPL wants to hear how you ~Make Waves~ in your world! NYC teens can submit their writing and art to be included in The Library’s new teen magazine. The deadline is August 19!
PaleyWKND: Free Paley Center for Media festival 9/30–10/2 w lots of media partners
Tools and Resources to Fight CyberMisogny
RT @womensmediacntr The online harassment of women, sometimes called cybersexism or cybermisogyny, is specifically gendered abuse targeted at women and girls online. If you’re being targeted, here are some resources at @WMCSpeechProj to support you