Saturday, July 27

Tag: talking

Talking Politics At Work – It Will End In Disaster
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POLITICS

Talking Politics At Work – It Will End In Disaster

People learnt a long time ago that getting into full blown discussions at work and in the office about sex, religion and politics are a very touchy aspect. They are bound to always end up going in the wrong direction (by this I mean a major disagreement). The fact of this is because you can either offend a colleague or get into a full blown out of proportion argument. Below are a few facts why talking about these types of subjects, can be a very hazardous approach. First and foremost if you do not want to get into an argument within a group discussion, do not just say silent. The saying that silence is golden is not necessarily true for this occasion, as some people may feel as if you are agreeing to aspects if you do not open up and speak. The best thing to do in all honesty is to wa...
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Talking About Racism With Kids Most White Parents Don’t
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SOCIETY

Talking About Racism With Kids Most White Parents Don’t

Though race and racism are at the top of Americans’ public discussion, most white parents don’t talk about those issues with their kids. Research on how white parents discuss race with their children is sparse. However, past research has shown that conversations about race, much less racism, are rare, even when these issues are highly visible – for example, during the Ferguson protests in 2014. One study found that even though 81% of white mothers believed it was important to have such discussions, only 62% of them reported actually doing so. Of those who said they did, however, fewer than one-third of those people could actually recall a specific conversation. Teaching generations To understand the issue more deeply, we examined surveys of more than 2,000 adults ages 18 and older, colle...
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To Get Kids Moving, Reading And Talking Focus On Positive Goals – Not Spending So Much Time Staring At Screens
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EDUCATION

To Get Kids Moving, Reading And Talking Focus On Positive Goals – Not Spending So Much Time Staring At Screens

As vaccines become more available and life begins returning to so-called normal, caregivers and educators may have to contend with dramatically increased screen habits that kids developed during the pandemic. My research offers a positive – dare I say joyful – way to wean a child off of a screen habit. Instead of focusing on the excessive screen time, my approach focuses on the healthy activities that kids could be doing instead. Displaced activities Two theories explain the risks of excessive recreational screen time: the content theory and the displacement theory. The content theory – that what the children are watching or doing online is problematic – has received disproportionate attention. Most solutions that caregivers are familiar with, including co-viewing and being a media mento...
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I Spent Years Actually Talking To Them – The Reality Of Black Men’s Love Lives And Marriages Is Very Different Than What’s Usually Shown On TV
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Journalism

I Spent Years Actually Talking To Them – The Reality Of Black Men’s Love Lives And Marriages Is Very Different Than What’s Usually Shown On TV

Finding and keeping a good Black man in a relationship has become a cottage industry. From celebrities and reality TV stars to social media influencers, for better or worse, there is no shortage of relationship advice to people seeking to figure out Black men. And while much of this content is understood to be for entertainment purposes only, some of it is presented and received as legitimate and data-driven. This is a problem because too many people cannot distinguish what they see onscreen from reality. Media portrayals are often hyperbolic and sensationalized to attract public attention. Equally troubling is that the majority of academic research in this area also perpetuates many of the same, negative patterns that are common in popular culture. As a graduate student and university ...
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Bots Spread Conspiracy Theories And QAnon Talking Points On Twitter
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SOCIAL MEDIA

Bots Spread Conspiracy Theories And QAnon Talking Points On Twitter

Americans who seek political insight and information on Twitter should know how much of what they are seeing is the result of automated propaganda campaigns. Nearly four years after my collaborators and I revealed how automated Twitter accounts were distorting online election discussions in 2016, the situation appears to be no better. That’s despite the efforts of policymakers, technology companies and even the public to root out disinformation campaigns on social media. In our latest study, we collected 240 million election-related tweets mentioning presidential candidates and election-related keywords, posted between June 20 and Sept. 9, 2020. We looked for activity from automated (or bot) accounts, and the spread of distorted or conspiracy theory narratives. We learned that on Twitte...
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Reflecting on the case of Cyntoia Brown – talking with the director of ‘Murder to Mercy’
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Journalism

Reflecting on the case of Cyntoia Brown – talking with the director of ‘Murder to Mercy’

Cyntoia Brown walked out of prison in August 2019 after serving 15 years of a life sentence for a murder she committed when she was 16. Her story is the focus of “Murder to Mercy: The Cyntoia Brown Story,” a Netflix feature documentary. Dan Birman directed this documentary and another on Cyntoia’s life that aired on PBS in 2011. He is a professor of professional practice and teaches documentary at the University of Southern California, Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. What does Cyntoia’s case tell us about the US justice system? Cyntoia Brown’s case follows a complex social and legal path, but her story is common to thousands of young people in the justice system. As of 2017, there were nearly 44,000 juveniles locked up in America, and more than two-thirds were black or ...
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