Author: TheConversation

By Ethan Zuckerman, Associate Professor of Public Policy, Communication, and Information, University of Massachusetts Amherst Leaked internal documents suggest Facebook – which recently renamed itself Meta – is doing far worse than it claims at minimizing COVID-19 vaccine misinformation on the Facebook social media platform. Online misinformation about the virus and vaccines is a major concern. In one study, survey respondents who got some or all of their news from Facebook were significantly more likely to resist the COVID-19 vaccine than those who got their news from mainstream media sources. As a researcher who studies social and civic media,...

By Rabindra Ratan, Associate Professor of Media and Information, Michigan State University; Yiming Lei, Doctoral student in Media and Information, Michigan State University The metaverse is a network of always-on virtual environments in which many people can interact with one another and digital objects while operating virtual representations, or avatars. of themselves. Think of a combination of immersive virtual reality, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game and the web. The metaverse is a concept from science fiction that many people in the technology industry envision as the successor to today’s internet. It’s only a vision at this point, but...

By Eric Bellone, Associate Professor of Political Science and Legal Studies, Suffolk University The 4 million inhabitants of five United States territories, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Northern Marianas Islands, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands, do not have the full protection of the Constitution, because of a series of Supreme Court cases dating back to 1901 that are based on archaic, often racist language and reasoning. No U.S. citizen living in any of those places can vote for president. They do not have a voting representative in Congress, either. But this inferiority is inconsistent. Puerto Ricans are American citizens...

By Maurizio Valsania, Professor of American History, Università di Torino President Joe Biden has mandated vaccines for a large part of the American workforce, a requirement that has prompted protest from those opposed to the measure. Meanwhile, a similar move in New York City to enforce vaccinations has resulted in more than a dozen businesses’ being fined for flouting the rules. The basic idea behind the objections: Such mandates, which also extend to requirements to wear masks and quarantine if exposed to COVID-19, are a breach of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which states that “no state shall make or...

By Peter Dreier, E.P. Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics, Occidental College In his 1990 autobiography, “Behind the Mask: My Double Life in Baseball,” Dave Pallone, a gay major league umpire who was quietly fired in 1988 after rumors about his sexual orientation circulated in the baseball world, contended that there were enough gay major league players to create an All-Star team. Since then, attitudes and laws about homosexuality have changed. High-profile figures in business, politics, show business, education, the media, the military and sports have come out of the closet. Athletes in three of the five major U.S. male...

By Mathew Sandoval, Lecturer in Culture & Performance, Arizona State University As a Mexican-American who celebrates Día de los Muertos, or the Day of the Dead, at the end of October and beginning of November, I have noted an increasing concern the past several years that the holiday is becoming more commercialized. Indeed, for those who hold the holiday sacred, it’s jarring to see the extent to which it’s now mass-marketed. The evidence is everywhere. The holiday aisles of Target are stuffed with cheap Day of the Dead crafts during October. Halloween stores sell Day of the Dead costumes....