Today’s links A media literacy handbook for Israel-Gaza: A new “breaking news consumer handbook” from On The Media. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. This day in history: 2003, 2008, 2013, 2018, 2022 Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading A media literacy handbook for Israel-Gaza (permalink) Media explainers are a cheap way to become an instant expert on everything from billionaire submarine excursions to hellaciously complex geopolitical conflicts, but On The Media’s “Breaking News Consumers’ Handbooks” are explainers that help you understand other explainers: https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/segments/breaking-news-consumers-handbook-israel-and-gaza-edition-on-the-media The latest handbook is an Israel-Gaza edition. It doesn’t aim to parse fine distinctions over the definition of “occupation” or identify the source of shell fragments. Rather, it offers seven bullet points’ worth of advice on weighing all the other news you hear about the war: https://media.wnyc.org/media/resources/2023/Oct/27/BNCH_ISRAEL_GAZA_EDITION_1.pdf I. “Headlines are obscured by the fog of war” Headline writers have a hard job under the best of circumstances – trying to snag your interest in a few words. Headlines can’t encompass all the nuance of a story, and they are often written by editors, not the writers who produced the story. Between the imperatives for speed and brevity and the broken telephone between editors and writers, it’s easy for headlines to go wrong, even when no one is attempting to mislead you. Even reliable outlets will screw up headlines sometimes – and that likelihood goes way up in times like these. You gotta read the story, not just the headline. II….Pluralistic: A media literacy handbook for Israel-Gaza (28 Oct 2023)