Howtown
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New video! How news breaks
🕑 Added 2024-07-26 12:00:16 +0000 UTC
The day after the shooting at Trump's rally, Joss texted Adam.
"What if we teamed up on something this week about the unraveling shared reality," she wrote. "Absolute explosion of conspiracy theories and just general distrust across my feeds."
Normally, we make videos about how scientists try to figure out the truth - but this week, we scrambled to tell the story of journalists doing the same thing over a very compressed timeline. Adam spoke with reporters and editors who were navigating the breaking news. And Joss pulled on her hazmat suit and waded into the roiling waters of Twit-- I mean X. Our new video shows what we found: the awkward, often harmful, symbiosis of journalism and social media. [18:41]
$8 Patreon members (Howtown heroes) can listen to us react to the news and figure out how we were going to tackle this tricky topic.
On shorts, an acoustic scientist uses forensic wizardry to confirm the location of the rally shooter. Physics is amazing.
If all this breaking news talk isn't your cup of tea - don't worry! We'll be back to science soon. In the meantime, we're so grateful for your support as we explore the different ways humans figure stuff out!
🐦 Adam
Comments
Kelvin Nguyen
I’ve been traveling with friends these past few days and decided I wouldn’t read beyond the headlines until more information came out. When I saw the Howtown video come out we put it on for everyone in the hotel room. Another brilliant video!
@DaveRizz
Just finished watching, and crazy how in sync I'm feeling with your take on the news; "traditional" v. "town square" media. But ultimately, I think it comes down to a person having good media literacy, and always, ALWAYS, assuming the fastest stuff is the least reliable. But I was 💯% right there with Joss, looking for the latest tid-bits and explanations, when the assignation popped off. (pun entirely intended srry) But I also was immediately metering my reactions with the thought that I needed to wait at least a day or two before believing any of the breaking bits that were coming out. And worrying about all the people that just react and believe everything in real-time. So much emotion. 🙁 It's quite the quandary that modern media is in. But I do feel that there are a lot of people out there trying to fight the good fight, like Molly Eichel and the Philadelphia Inquirer etc.
