Jay Rosen Thread

"When in doubt, draw a distinction."

Not sure where he got it, but in grad school one of my teachers told me that. Some of the best advice I ever received.
This THREAD is about some of the key distinctions I draw on to do my work. If you're into that kind of thing.😎

Ready? 

1/ For distinctions to do work, the terms have to be sufficiently close that prying them apart clears space for thought.

If I write, "bending is not the same as breaking," well, who said it was? That one is going nowhere. But "naked is not the same as nude" is an idea with legs.

2/ These notes about some of the distinctions I draw in order to do my work were written under the influence of two masters of the form: the French critic Roland Barthes, and the political philosopher Hannah Arendt, known for her striking distinctions— such as labor vs. work.

3/ For those who don't know me, I'm a J-school professor and press critic who writes about the media and politics, and journalism's struggle for survival in a digital world. I have a PhD in media studies, and 35 years experience in puzzling through problems in press behavor.

4/ Here we go with some key distinctions I use to do my work.

An audience is not a public.
"Audience" = people attending to a common object, typically a performance or spectacle.
A public is people with different interests who live in the same space and share common problems. 

5/ Audience vs. public, cont.
When people share common problems but don't realize it, they are an "inchoate" public. (John Dewey.)
One reason the presidential debates are such a big deal is that they are one of the few occasions when the audience is the public and vice versa. 

6/ Key distinction number two: journalism vs. the media (vs. the press)

~> I think of the media as the attention business, an industry whose product is audiences.
~> Journalism is a social practice, the purpose of which is to keep publics informed and hold power to account.

However— 

7/ Most journalists are employees of the media, and thus part of the attention business. This creates endless problems and compromises, which I hear about nonstop.

The press — to my way of thinking — is the institution that endures over time as journalists come in and out of it. 8/ 

Media, journalism, and the press are not interchangeable terms. Yet they are bound up with one another.
Media is the attention industry
Journalism is a social practice

The press is a key institution in a democracy
Journalists who work in the media carry forward "the press." 

9/ Jay's third key distinction: truth-seeking vs. refuge-seeking behavior in journalism.

Truth-seeking needs no definition. It is finding out what actually happened— and telling us.
Refuge-seeking is telling the story in a way that protects against anticipated attacks...

10/ Seeking truth vs. seeking refuge, cont.
My favorite description of refuge-seeking behavior in journalism comes from a former reporter for the Washington Post, Paul Taylor, in his 1990 book about election coverage. I have quoted it many times. 11/Truth-seeking is what journalists see themselves as always doing.

Refuge-seeking includes such common practices as false balance, "both sides do it," steering the story "down the middle," and the depiction of "dueling realities" in a divided nation. abcnews.go.com/Politics/live-… 

12/ Election 2020: Dueling realities about COVID-19 at Biden, Trump rallies

Thursday brings both President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden to Tampa, Florida, just five days before Election Day and as cases surge in the state.

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/live-updates/2020-election-campaign/?id=73886088

What is "political" need not be politicized. This is a point I make again and again in my press criticism.

When TV journalists with Sunday morning shows push back against major party candiates who are floating poisonous charges without evidence, that is a political act.

13/ But — and here comes my distinction — if journalists let an ideology distort their reporting so as not to injure a cause they manifestly believe in, then their work has been unduly politicized.
Journalism is political. It should not be politicized. 

14/ You cannot keep from getting swept up in Trump's agenda without a firm grasp on your own - PressThink

The 2020 campaign is here. Those who are covering it had better figure out what they are for, or they will end up as his enablers— as they were in 2016.

https://pressthink.org/2020/05/you-cannot-keep-from-getting-swept-up-in-trumps-agenda-without-a-firm-grasp-on-your-own/#p7

The great sociologist C. Wright Mills would distinguish between "troubles" and "issues."

My paraphrase: Troubles are the things people are actively worried about in their lives.

Mills: “An issue is a public matter: some value cherished by publics is felt to be threatened.” 

15/ Troubles are a category of experience. Issues emerge from the political system.

Why does this matter? Well, when people's troubles don't connect to what are called the issues, or when issues don't speak to troubles, democracy — and journalism — are working poorly indeed.

16/ If issues don't bear on common troubles, then focusing on "the issues" — as against the horse race — may not be the answer it seems to be.

Also: Great journalism puts a spotlight on troubles and turns them into issues, which is exactly what the movie, "Spotlight" is about.

17/In grad school I learned to distinguish between "ritual" and "transmission" views of human communication, a distinction introduced by James W. Carey.

"Transmission" means the movement of messages across space.

In rituals we produce a shared world and affirm common values. 

18/ When your cable news anchor says of an upcoming press conference, "we'll bring it to you live," that's transmission.

Ritual: When we gather at a memorial service to mourn the dead and co-produce loving memories.

I did a thread about this distinction. 

19/ What can a media critic do with it?

When the thing you're watching on CNN seems to have no value as information — and from it you are learning nothing — you can try to switch frames and see if the news makes sense as ritual: in production of a shared world. 

20/ "I expect what I may not predict."

Eight years ago, I wrote that my work as a press critic is "primarily about about the legitimation of the modern press: the various justifications for it, and how they match up with actual practice— or don’t." pressthink.org/2013/06/a-few-… 

21/ A few principles for how I operate as a critic - PressThink

"What are the proper grounds for criticism of a program like Candy Crowley's State of the Union on CNN, or a news story in the Washington Post, or a blog post at Gawker? The decisions I make about tha…

https://pressthink.org/2013/06/a-few-principles-for-how-i-operate-as-a-critic/

During Trump's second impeachment, I put this distinction to work like so:

22/  Follow me on this: Subscription and membership are not the same thing.

Subscribers buy a product. Members join a cause.

The distinction matters because around the world readers are being asked to pay more of the costs for quality journalism.

23/ Notes on Membership - PressThink

Amid the search for a sustainable path in journalism

https://pressthink.org/2020/09/notes-on-membership/

When you cannot receive the product unless you pay your share of the costs, that’s subscription.

Membership does not imply a paywall. People who have joined the cause often want the journalism to be available to those who are not members. Which is how public radio operates. 24/ 

Other distinctions I thought of including:

Lying vs. bullshitting

Experience vs. expertise

Exit, voice, and loyalty (A.O. Hirschman)

Tame vs. wicked problems

Demos vs. memos (@mattwaite)

Information overload vs. filter failure (@cshirky)

To wrap this thread, let's review...

25/ Some key distinctions I use to do my work:

Public vs. audience

Journalism vs. the media

Truth-seeking vs. refuge-seeking

Political vs. politicized

Issues vs. troubles

Ritual vs. transmission

Expect vs. predict

Subscription vs. membership

"When in doubt, draw a distinction." END 

Note: I see a couple of my outlines don't work and my transcription is a bit off in places, but at this writing the Threadreader link is working. This post is simply to make reading a bit easier.

China's Ghost Cities

Kaynat Kakar ✪ @kaynat_kakar

China's GHOST Cities

$170 BILLION worth of Empty Cities, Abandoned Skyscrapers, and Fake European Towns that nobody lives in:

Here are China's most Haunting Ghost Cities:

1. Ordos 
A $161 billion ghost city built for 1 million people.

• Currently 90% empty

• Built during the coal mining boom

• Looks like a sci-fi movie set

https://x.com/i/status/1850803667974111519• Most apartments are owned by investors who never lived there

2. Jun Ming's Ghost Districts

• Population size of Madrid

• 15 skyscrapers demolished in 2021

• Unfinished since 2013

• Empty kindergartens

• Abandoned hospitals

3. Tianducheng: "Paris of the East"

• Complete with Eiffel Tower, pairs streets and buildings replica

• Empty Champs-Élysées

• Planned for 10,000 residents

• Current population: 1,000

• Too expensive for locals

• Mostly tourist attractions

4. Yujiapu: "China's Manhattan"

• $50 billion investment

• Empty skyscrapers

• No rush hour traffic

• Promotional video mocked NYC

• Ironically, it became more deserted than NYC

5. Thames Town: "Little London"

The Replica of London City

• Red phone boxes ✓

• Fish & chip shops ✓

• English pubs ✓

• Victorian architecture ✓

• People? ×

• Another failed replica city 

6. Chenggong: The Student City

• Failed city turned university hub

• 7 colleges moved in

• Busy during term time

• Ghost town in winter

• Gradual transformation

7. Why Does China Keep Building?

• Property = safe investment

• Chinese can't invest abroad easily

• Real estate drives economic growth

• Middle-class parks money in empty homes

• Construction = GDP growth

8. Why This Matters:

• Shows risks of rapid development

• Property bubble warning

• Environmental impact

• Resource waste

• Economic sustainability questions

9. China's ghost cities represent human history's largest real estate bubble. 

Only time will tell whether they become thriving metropolises or remain empty monuments to excess.

That's a wrap

I hope you enjoyed it and found this thread helpful.  

- Share with your friend for support.

- Follow me @kaynat_kakarfor more useful content.

IDF reports fatigue and morale loss

Tony Karon linked this thread in the wake of Israel's Iran initiative.

Sina Toossi is a senior research analyst at the National Iranian American Council, where he conducts research and writing on U.S.-Iran relations, Iranian politics, and Middle East policy issues. His writings have appeared on Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, and Al Monitor, among other outlets. He holds an MA in international affairs from American University’s School of International Service, with a regional concentration in the Middle East. 

 

🧵A very important piece: an Israeli outlet reports severe morale loss and exhaustion among soldiers, with many now refusing to serve.
Based on interviews with soldiers and families across units, it's described as a "suppressed but growing phenomenon."
2/ The piece opens with a striking anecdote:
In September, the Nahal Brigade began its 11th round of combat in Gaza, but out of a platoon of 30 soldiers, only 6 showed up—the rest claimed medical exemptions.
"I call it refusal and rebellion," says the mother of one soldier.
3/ The mother describes the sense of futility the soldiers feel:
"They keep going back to the same buildings they’ve already cleared, only to find them booby-trapped again. In the Zaytoun neighborhood alone, they've been there three times. They understand it’s pointless."
4/ One IDF soldier explains that the growing shortage of manpower means missions are "done halfway."
He adds, "The platoons are empty; those who aren’t dead or physically wounded are mentally broken. Very few come back to fight, and even they aren’t fully okay."
5/ The soldier notes that all of this was happening before the escalation in Lebanon and the current ground incursion.
He says, "I don't know with what army they think they'll enter Lebanon, because there is no army. I'm not going back to the battalion."
6/ The article states that this a suppressed but growing phenomenon of soldiers refusing to fight. The unity and sense of mission that once drove them has faded. "They fought until their last ounce of strength, but reached a point where they just couldn’t continue."
7/ Many parents say the soldiers' morale began to break down in April, as the war dragged on, and their sense of purpose started to fade.
"When they had to return to places we’d already been, like Jabalia, Zeitoun, and Shuja'iyya, it broke them," one parent explained.
8/ "What’s killing them are the conditions and the prolonged fighting without any end in sight," says on parent. "Not to mention the loss and the horrific scenes they witness in Gaza."
9/ One soldier says, "We’re sitting ducks in a shooting range. We don’t understand what we’re doing here...The hostages aren’t coming back, and it just feels never-ending—soldiers are getting injured and dying along the way. It all seems pointless."
10/ The article states that most of these soldiers refusing to serve (under medical exemptions) aren’t being sent to jail, and the whole situation is being kept quiet.
11/ It adds that after 12 straight months of a war that feels directionless, soldiers describe themselves as “black”—military slang for feeling depressed, exhausted, and drained of motivation.
"Today the motivation is zero."
12/ The article describes the situation Israeli soldiers face in Gaza: the only "music" they hear is the sound of air force bombs, and the air reeks of death and decay. They feel abandoned by the army, treated like mere tools on the path to "absolute victory."
13/ One Israeli soldier says: At a certain point, we were all exhausted & couldn’t see the purpose in going back to places we’d already been...Eventually, I stopped feeling anything. I lost faith in the system & no longer believed in what we were doing.
14/ The Israeli soldier recalls, "I was mentally exhausted, having anxiety attacks so severe that when they told us we were done maneuvering, I thought I’d get a break. I broke down, crying on a lawn, saying I couldn’t take it anymore. I was completely finished mentally."
15/ The soldier says his commander accusing him of "abandoning the country" & reprimanding him before the platoon.
But "the day," another "soldier came up to me and asked how I did it. He wanted to, but didn’t have the courage."
The next day, he left too.
16/ The shortage of soldiers has forced those who need mental health treatment to fight.
"My son went to his company commander & said, 'I feel like my alertness has dropped so much that I’m not only putting myself at risk, but also those around me. I’m not as sharp as I was."
17/ One father says, "The only way to stop this downward spiral or get some rest is to say, 'I refuse,' and then you're instantly treated like the most humiliated person on earth...It doesn’t matter what you’ve sacrificed, what you’ve been through, or what you’ve done."
18/ On the other hand, those who do manage to get mental health leave face emotional blackmail.
One soldier’s brother explains that when his sibling returned home, he couldn’t sleep in his room, barely ate, & was in severe mental distress--but still was forced to go back.
19/ Cultural differences among Israeli soldiers from different nationalities also complicate addressing morale issues.
One commander told his subordinates, "I come from a Polish family, where we don’t talk about feelings—that’s how I was raised, and that’s my way."
20/ A similar situation is unfolding with soldiers entering Lebanon. Exhausted, hundreds of paratroopers recently united to fight for "their rights", expressing anger, frustration, and distress over the lack of understanding about their urgent need for rest at home.
21/ Stunningly, these paratroopers entering Lebanon are being threatened with fines for military equipment lost or destroyed on October 7 or during the fighting and are denied new equipment until they sign that they are responsible for the loss.
22/ The piece ends with a powerful statement from an Israeli soldier: "If the treatment doesn’t improve soon, the little wind left in our sails will also disappear."
23/23 This isn’t the only Israeli report highlighting faltering morale and manpower shortages in the country's military.
These reports raise serious questions about the feasibility of Netanyahu prolonging the Gaza war or escalating conflicts with Lebanon and Iran.
/end🧵
10:35 AM · Oct 20, 2024
3,101 Views

Yahya Sinwar Killed

Yahya Sinwar, Leader of Hamas, Is Dead

Yahya Sinwar, the Palestinian militant leader who emerged from two decades of prison in Israel to rise to the helm of Hamas and help plot the deadliest assault on Israel in its history, died on Thursday. He was in his early 60s.

A longtime Hamas leader who assumed its top political office in August, Mr. Sinwar was known among supporters and enemies alike for combining cunning and brutality. He built Hamas’s ability to harm Israel in service of the group’s long-term goal of destroying the Jewish state and building an Islamist, Palestinian nation in its place.

He played a central role in planning the surprise assault on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, that killed about 1,200 people, brought 250 others back to Gaza as hostages and put him at the top of Israel’s kill list. Israeli leaders vowed to hunt him down, and the military dropped fliers over Gaza offering a $400,000 reward for information on his whereabouts.

But for more than a year, he remained elusive, surviving in tunnels Hamas had dug beneath Gaza, even as Israel killed many of his fighters and associates.

Laura Rozen thread the first hour after the announcement.

Ghaith al-Omari on Wash. Institute zoom on suspected Sinwar death: It's a very significant strategic blow for Hamas. sinwar was a unique leader in the sense that he had very strong standing, both in the military ring of Hamas and in the political wing of Hamas.

He says Sinwar is likely to be replaced by one of the Hamas leaders who are in Qatar right now. Will be more susceptible to outside pressure

Dennis Ross: You can look at this two different ways. One would be, you could go back to trying to get a hostage deal, because Sinwar, in many ways, was the reason there was no hostage deal.

Ross: …But you can also look at this from the standpoint that, having achieved much of what it was seeking to achieve in Gaza, you could put the prime minister in a position where he could declare success and say, Okay, we're..now ready to end the war.

Ghaith al-Omari says while Hamas center of gravity will move to the diaspora, and they are more susceptable to inducements/pressure, their ability to produce change on the ground is more limited.

Ross and al-Omari see the US use of B-2s to target underground Houthi facilities last night as being intended as a message to Iran. Al-Omari: The bigger message was to Iran. They used the B2s and the munitions that were used is a message to Iran that their deep underground facilities are vulnerable

Vice President Harris speaks to reporter about the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinawar by Israeli Defense Forces in Gaza.

https://www.c-span.org/video/?c5137239/user-clip-vp-harris-killing-sinwar

Laura Rosen thread later...

Jake Sullivan, asked, with Sinwar death, if thinks could reach ceasefire by end of year: “I’ve long since given up on making predictions or drawing timelines. All I can say is that we see an opportunity now that we want to seize to try to secure the release of the hostages, and we're going to work at that as rapidly” (as possible)

“His removal from the battlefield does present an opportunity to find a way forward that gets the hostages home,… brings us to a day after.

That's something we're going to have to talk about with our Israeli counterparts.”

Sullivan: “We've had very constructive communications with the Israelis about how they're thinking about responding to the attack on October 1. Those conversations will continue.”

Sullivan: “We've had very constructive communications with the Israelis about how they're thinking about responding to the attack on October 1. Those conversations will continue.”

This man's cruelty was legendary.

Arrested by Israel in the late 1980s, he admitted under interrogation to having killed 12 suspected collaborators. He was eventually sentenced to four life terms for offenses that included the abduction and killing of two Israeli soldiers.

Michael Koubi, a former director of the investigations department at Israel’s Shin Bet security agency who interrogated Sinwar personally, recalled the confession that stood out to him the most: Sinwar recounted forcing a man to bury his own brother alive because he was suspected of working for Israel.

“His eyes were full of happiness when he told us this story,” Koubi said.

He became the leader of the hundreds of imprisoned Hamas members. He organized strikes to improve conditions. He learned Hebrew and studied Israeli society.

Searching for Hope in the Wake of October 7

The author traveled throughout Israel-Palestine and found a society still reeling with grief

Lisa Goldman  Lisa Goldman is Europe Editor at New Lines magazine    October 7, 2024

For weeks after Oct. 7, I was mute with horror. Quite a few people wanted me to offer a private explainer or do media interviews. I couldn't. But six months later I went to Israel-Palestine and talked to Palestinians and Israelis for this article.

I wasn't interested in talking to politicians or leaders. I wanted to hear from friends, acquaintances, ordinary people on the streets. Those deep personal conversations and chance encounters offer the most revealing insights.

The question of "why can't they feel compassion for the other" is not very interesting. There are no real answers and the few on offer don't bring any insight. What's much more interesting, in my opinion, is to see how people function under extreme stress.

How do people behave toward those closest to them and toward the world when they feel that the social contract they believed in has been shattered by their government's indifference?

How do people behave when they are surrounded by political violence in the only place they feel truly at home?

There are many answers to that question. Here are some that I found:

People become particularly tender and protective toward those closest to them, especially their children.

This was something I saw in Sawsan, the 39 year-old mother of 5 from Gaza, who was able to bring them to Israel because she had Israeli citizenship, though the authorities made her walk through fire. I wrote about her harrowing journey and the effect of the war on her children.

And I'll never forget listening to Shira Albag, mother of 19 year-old Liri, who was taken hostage on Oct. 7, emit that primal scream of heartbreak and loss while addressing a demonstration in Tel Aviv.

And yet, despite the widespread sense of fear and agony I encountered everywhere, the cliche about life going on was spectacularly proven. People went to concerts, the beach, cafes and restaurants. As one friend said, "The whole world is on fire, but the family is lovely."

These are some of the observations I collected while traveling from the north to the south, to the West Bank and Jerusalem, talking to people from as many backgrounds as possible and trying to tell the story of a place through human experience.