And finally, the most chucklesome story in a week that’s been light on laughs: Our @NewsDesk reported on The Onion’s acquisition of Infowars, which its founder was forced to sell after being successfully sued by the families of Sandy Hook victims. “They are a true unicorn, capable of simultaneously inspiring public support for billionaires and stoking outrage at an inept federal state that can assassinate JFK but can’t even put a man on the Moon,” said CEO Bryce P. Tetraeder in a statement.

Here’s @AssociatedPress’s story on the takeover, which includes not just the site, but the social media presence, video archives, trademarks, and even Jones’ studio in Austin, Texas.

https://apnews.com/article/onion-buys-infowars-alex-jones-6496f198d141c991087dcd937b3588e9

🧵 12/12

#TheOnion #Satire #AlexJones #Infowars #Media #Journalism #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

A curious theme emerged when we were compiling this week’s #NewstodonFriday — the importance of down-ballot elections in the U.S. School choice, state judicial elections, and school boards don’t get a lot of attention, but can have a long-lasting, outsized impact on people’s lives. If you’re motivated to run for something and don’t know how, it’s worth following @amandalitm, who founded the Run For Something organization. But we digress.

Also in this week’s selection, find stories about alternatives to loss and damage funds for climate disasters, going incognito, Infowars, earwigs, and, of course, Elon Musk. Please check out the stories, follow the publications, click on the stories, subscribe, donate and otherwise support if you can.

🧵 1/12

#Media #Journalism #News #MastodonMigration #FollowFriday #Newstodon

Last year, the Indian government announced they had found a huge reserve of lithium in Kashmir. Now, @restofworld reports that extraction plans have been halted as industry experts say government info on the land is “misleading and quite inadequate.”

https://restofworld.org/2024/india-lithium-reserves-halted/

#LithiumBatteries #CleanEnergy #EnergyTransition #India #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

People in Ukraine are worried about how Trump’s victory might affect them. The team at @timkmak’s Counter Offensive talked to people on the ground about their concerns. “If we get discouraged because an election has taken place in another country and we don't like the president elected, we will never have independence and autonomy,” says 21-year-old Yelyzaveta Kanievska.

https://www.counteroffensive.news/p/the-street-level-view-from-kyiv-on

#Ukraine #Kyiv #USElection #DonaldTrump #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

Humans spend a lot of time moving in crowds. Matthew R. Francis and Maki Naro collaborate on this comic for @KnowableMag, which demonstrates how tools from fluid dynamics can help model crowd behavior and smooth the flow of crowds, potentially making us safer.

https://knowablemagazine.org/content/article/society/2024/using-physics-to-understand-behavior-of-human-crowds

#Science #Physics #FluidDynamics #CrowdBehavior #ThinkingFluids #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

Democrats in Texas were thrashed in last week’s election. It wasn’t supposed to go like this. For @TexasObserver, Gus Bova looks at how it happened, and offers a couple of things to think about.

https://www.texasobserver.org/texas-democrats-lost-decade-2024/

#Texas #TexasDemocrats #ColinAllred #BetoORourke #BernieSanders #USElection #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

Political polarization is making us sick, according to new research from a team at New York University. @thetyee’s Crawford Kilian writes about how COVID-19 epitomizes this and whether there’s a possibility of repair.

https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2024/11/06/Political-Polarization-Making-Us-Sick/

#Health #COVID #Polarization #Politics #Canada #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

A little bit of Democrat joy from @bolts as they report on Monique Worrell, the state attorney who was ousted by Ron DeSantis last year, and beat her replacement, Federalist Society member Andrew Bain, to win her job back.

https://boltsmag.org/tampa-orlando-proscutor-elections-2024/

#Florida #Voting #USElection #MoniqueWorrell #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

Tech site @404mediaco says people have been canceling their subscriptions to the site out of a general sense of depression since the Republicans clinched the presidency and the Senate in the U.S. election. Here, co-founders @jasonkoebler, @emanuelmaiberg, Samantha Cole and @josephcox explain why their work is still valuable.

https://www.404media.co/why-the-work-still-matters-under-trump/

#Trump #DonaldTrump #News #Media #Journalism #Technology #Tech #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

In a mission statement earlier this week, the team at @ProPublica explained their plans on holding the incoming Trump administration’s feet to the fire. Here, they dive into the specific issues journalists will be following, and how to get in touch with reporters if you have information to share.

https://www.propublica.org/article/second-trump-presidency-issues-contact

#Trump #DonaldTrump #News #Media #Journalism #WomensRights #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

Last week, we asked #NewstodonFriday readers if anyone else felt sick at the thought of the U.S. election, and here we are. Not much levity in this week’s thread, but rather stories on the state of journalism and media, how different outlets plan to tackle the Trump administration, and even one about how political polarization can literally make you sick. We’ve sprinkled a little lighter fare in there, including a beautiful Tiny Desk concert from Meshell Ndegeocello (close your eyes and scroll to the bottom if you can’t bear to read any news). Please check out the stories, follow the publications, click on the stories, subscribe, donate and otherwise support if you can. Independent media matters now, more than ever.

⤵️

#Media #Journalism #News #MastodonMigration #FollowFriday

Some media outlets capitulated to Donald Trump before a single vote was cast. Some are already explaining how they plan to hold his incoming administration accountable. Here's @ProPublica's breakdown of what to expect from them. "In the 21st century, 'without fear or favor' means maintaining a fact-based, data-driven approach to journalism," writes Stephen Engelberg. "Our job is to give readers an independent, verifiable account of what’s happening, even if the president is calling us enemies of the people or bloodsuckers. At ProPublica, our mantra is that we bring the receipts to every story we publish."

Every week, we promote independent publishers who have their own presence in the fediverse via our #NewstodonFriday thread. Tell us in the comments if there's a media outlet you love that we might not have heard of.

https://flip.it/_3a-Ri

#Media #Journalism #InvestigativeJournalism #DonaldTrump #ProPublica