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“My experience is that audiences want us to be truthful and fair, but they don’t want us to be robots.” That’s a quote from a blog post by journalist Lewis Raven Wallace—a post that led to him being fired from Marketplace. Wallace has become an outspoken critique of the notion that “objectivity” is a catchall for accurate journalism. In this episode of News Over Noise, hosts Leah Dajches and Matt Jordan talk with Wallace about the concept of journalistic neutrality and about what can be done to restore some lost public trust in journalism.

Most of us get our information fed to us through our smartphones. Constant bombardment and easy access to headlines, video clips, and sound bites help create the illusion that we are well-informed about the goings-on of our world. But...are we? On this episode of News Over Noise, host Matt Jordan and Leah Dajches talk with media scholar Homero Gil de Zúñiga about what the News Finds Me mentality is, how it impacts civic engagement, and why it might be leaving us less informed than we realize.

Social media often gets a bad rap, but it plays an undeniably critical role in today’s media landscape. With younger people increasingly opting to get their information from platforms like TikTok instead of traditional news sources, its significance is only likely to increase. On this episode of News Over Noise, hosts Matt Jordan and Leah Dajches talk with journalist, activist, and social media strategist Annie Wu about the power of social media to drive the agenda when it comes to news, politics, and public opinion.

Terms like trolls and butterfly attacks sound like something out of a childhood fable. Unfortunately, in the digital information landscape, these terms represent very real tactics that can have devastating effects on democracy. What are these bad-actors are trying to accomplish? And, how can you protect yourself from becoming prey to their malicious schemes? To find out, Matt Jordan and Leah Dajches talk with Dr. Joan Donovan, one of the leading experts on media manipulation, and disinformation campaigns, and online extremism.

How do you respond when someone disagrees with you? If you’re like many Americans, you probably end the conversation and write them off. And who can blame you when debates are frequently framed as moralistic disputes between the righteous and the enemy? But what's the cost of walking away instead of making an effort to engage? On this episode of News Over Noise, Matt Jordan and Leah Dajches find out by talking with Anand Giridharadas, author of theNew York Times bestseller, The Persuaders. 

It’s hard to go a day without seeing mention of AI. While the technology itself may be groundbreaking, the reporting of it isn’t. News about technology is not new; it’s dominated the front pages for decades, with near constant reporting on the next best thing that will change the world as we know it. And, clearly it has, but not always in a good way. What happens when technology reporting misses the mark and fails to give us the full story? On this episode of News Over Noise, hosts Leah Dajches and Matt Jordan talk with reporter Karl Bode about what technology reporting has done well and the times it has fallen short and failed to serve the public interest.

Younger Americans pay less attention to the news than any other age group. And this is kind of a big deal, since a functioning democracy relies on an informed citizenry. While many news organizations are pinning their hopes on interactive and mobile technologies to try to engage younger audiences, research shows there may be a simpler, lower-tech way to cultivate the next generation of news consumers. In this episode of News Over Noise, hosts Lead Dajches and Matt Jordan with media scholar Stephanie Lynn Edgerly about the concept of news socialization and parent-learning model.

When you think of TikTok, what comes to mind? Cats? Dance videos? Taylor Swift? What about...news? On this episode of News Over Noise, hosts Leah Dajches and Matt Jordan talk with multimedia journalist Enrique Anarte about how and why he is using Tik Tok to reach a very news averse demographic—and about the implications this type of reporting might have for the future of journalism.

Newsroom leadership can make a big difference in what stories are told and how they're covered, and whose voices are elevated. So, what happens when the makeup of those positions is out of alignment with the demographics of the population? On this episode of News Over Noise, hosts Leah Dajches and Matt Jordan talk with Emily Ramshaw, the CEO and co-founder of The 19th* about what news looks like when it's reported by the nation’s first independent nonprofit newsroom at the intersection of gender, politics and policy.

Climate change was once a bipartisan issue…until it wasn’t. What happened? To find out, hosts Leah Dajches and Matt Jordan talk with Geoff Dembicki, an investigative climate journalist about how fossil fuel companies used the public media system to sew skepticism and cynicism about climate change.