readers

6May

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

POLITICS, SOCIETY

Journalists Believe News And Opinion Are Separate, But Readers Can’t ’t Tell The Difference

The New York Times opinion editor James Bennet resigned recently after the paper published a controversial opinion essay by U.S. Senator Tom Cotton that advocated using the military to put down protests. The essay sparked outrage among the public as well as among younger reporters at the paper. Many of those staffers participated in a social media campaign aimed at the paper’s leadership, asking for factual corrections and an editor’s note explaining what was wrong with the essay. Eventually, the staff uprising forced Bennet’s departure. Cotton’s column was published on the opinion pages – not the news pages. But that’s a distinction often lost on the public, whose criticisms during the recent incident were often directed at the paper as a whole, including its news coverage. All of whic...

A Doctor Answers Readers Questions – Why Should I Trust The Coronavirus Vaccine When It Was Developed So Fast?

23Dec

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19

A Doctor Answers Readers Questions – Why Should I Trust The Coronavirus Vaccine When It Was Developed So Fast?

With a coronavirus vaccination effort now underway, you might have questions about what this means for you and your family. If you do, send them to The Conversation, and we will find a physician or researcher to answer them. Here, Dr. Lana Dbeibo, a clinical assistant professor of medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine, answers reader questions about the vaccine and compromised immune systems and whether to get the vaccine if a person has had previous adverse reactions to a vaccine. I fully support the use of vaccines, but I worry about possible long-term side effects with the new vaccines. How can anyone say with any confidence there will be no long-term consequences with vaccines that have been developed so rapidly? There are reasons the vaccines were developed rapidly: Firs...

Science fiction builds mental resiliency in young readers

11May

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

SCIENCE

Science fiction builds mental resiliency in young readers

Young people who are “hooked” on watching fantasy or reading science fiction may be on to something. Contrary to a common misperception that reading this genre is an unworthy practice, reading science fiction and fantasy may help young people cope, especially with the stress and anxiety of living through the COVID-19 pandemic. I am a professor with research interests in the social, ethical and political messages in science fiction. In my book “Medicine and Ethics in Black Women’s Speculative Fiction,” I explore the ways science fiction promotes understanding of human differences and ethical thinking. While many people may not consider science fiction, fantasy or speculative fiction to be “literary,” research shows that all fiction can generate critical thinking skills and emotional intel...

Oprah’s Book Club Changed the Game and Created a New World for Black Readers

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

IN OTHER NEWS

Oprah’s Book Club Changed the Game and Created a New World for Black Readers

When Colson Whitehead got the call, he’d just landed in North Carolina to do a reading at Duke. He was still on the plane when, he told the Guardian, “I called [my agent] back and she said, ‘Oprah.’ I said, ‘Shut the front door,’ because I didn’t want to curse. She said, ‘Oprah book club.’ I said, ‘Motherfucker.’” Whitehead’s sixth novel, The Underground Railroad, getting chosen by Oprah was a door opening, or really more one blasting open—and Whitehead clearly knew it. Oprah’s stamp of approval on your book can make your career, massively boost your book sales, and get your book into the mainstream like really nothing else can, even a Nobel Prize. I mean, look at Toni Morrison. While I want to be clear that she is a literary genius whose impact was immense long before she got popular att...