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Poll: Steering the ship through strange times
🕑 Added 2025-02-11 18:22:49 +0000 UTCHey Howtowners, we've been thinking about if/how our channel should be covering the new administration in the US. We know that the majority of our audience lives outside this country. We also know that some of the policy changes happening now will not withstand scrutiny from the courts.
At the same time, we don't want to ignore what is shaping up to be massive changes in how the US government approaches research and data, not to mention the broader rejection of the small-d democratic norms that make journalism and science possible. What would you like to see? (Select as many as you'd like and add further comments below).
Thank you,
Joss & Adam 🇺🇸
Comments
James Tu
I would say that many aspects of the current administration, if it doesn’t affect the world directly, have indirect ripple effects on the world. So I think any topics Howtown chooses will have interest to the world.
Dan
In the AI video you touch on finding nuance and not "throwing the baby out with the bathwater". Are the short metrics we use comprehensive? No, but they can still be helpful. I found that an important lesson to learn. A lot of the disinformation I believed was a result of being too dismissive. I think Climate Town does a good job of explaining where climate change disinformation comes from. These two approaches to showing more context around metrics and disinformation strategies I think are more helpful than just fact checking. I believe you can continue to find a good angle on any topics you find important or interesting and demonstrate the benefits of providing context. Thanks!
Lee Breisacher
I am interested in hearing/discussing how science and public health, etc can happen outside the purview of the US Gov't. If the Federal gov't is not going to finance things as it has in the past (hopefully just for the next 4 years), then perhaps we (the people) can get more non-gov't things going so meaningful reliable information can be made available to people that crave it. For example, maybe there could be something like the CDC but not subject to the whims of the US gov't. I haven't thought it through much, perhaps it is just wishful thinking.
