When Margaret Wente was getting busted repeatedly for plagiarizing, her publisher, The Globe and Mail, more or less defended her. Critical commentators’ noted that no one spins harder or better…
This week Twitter continues to burn money by rebranding to X. I’m still at Twitter at @sherwinarnott. But I don’t know for how long. Twitter remains more or less functional,…
The Google effect is a kind of digital amnesia that permeates this internet age. Explored by Sparrow, Liu, and Wegner, this variety of cognitive bias reveals the fascinating relationship between…
I’ve been reading (listening to) The Myth of Normal, by Gabor Maté. It’s a fascinating look at the role of trauma in our selves, but also in our collective selves….
“Reverse racism” has been debunked many times. It’s a bogus idea. Unfortunately, it is also a bogus idea that is widely believed. Like other rightwing tropes such as “the nazis…
The hard work of an important committee in Halifax has recently come to fruition. The Subcommittee to Define Defunding the Police have finished their research, their surveys, and their deliberations…
From time to time I like to check in on how news orgs are doing with their online publishing practices. In particular, I like to review how they handle reports…
This particular Code Switch episode on the explanatory comma is itself a kind of extended explanatory comma, or perhaps an interrogatory comma, because Demby and Marisol Meraji take time to really discuss and think about their own discomfort with this practice.
Headlines matter. Publishers know it. Good headlines help with the understanding, reach, and impact of a story. Headlines frame articles, shaping the information in the article that follows, and alter reader comprehension.
Bloom is a graphic novel about a young man in a small town, working in his family’s bakery. It is a meditation on patience and slowness and joy.
![Three unforgettable moments in [my] hockey history](https://www.interrobang.is/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/hockey-and-masculinity-v1.0-1-768x403.jpg)
Where I grew up in Northern Alberta, hockey was a big deal. My big brother played hockey. And my dad, who was not a great skater, played hockey in a…
She was kind. But she was also ruthlessly attentive to my Northern Alberta dialect. Sometimes she would simply say it back to me. I seen.
Good journalists do what they do because they care. They have interests. The organizations that employ journalists also are guided by interests. They have purpose. The Washington Post wears their…
Misinformation is a big deal. Hate online is a big deal. And as the public catches up to their reach and impact, we’ll see more and more talk about regulation…
I like Maclean’s about as much as I like the National Post. They’re rightwing, partisan, and legacy. On my view they have courted hate and burned trust, undermining journalism along…
If news orgs are serious about being good partners in mitigating misinformation, they need to link meaningfully to relevant references and especially science-based organizations…
My local gym and community centre is awesome. It’s a little less than three kilometres from my home. The pool is great. The gym is nice. It’s got a kind…
But here’s an old idea: what if dominant journalism, by and large and in the long run, is actually a drag on progress? What if dominant journalism, and by that I mean the mainstream press, is actually a conservative force? On this view, it’s a drag on change…
I campaigned during the first and second referendums we had here in BC regarding proportional representation. We won the first one. 58% of voters voted yes for the Citizen Assembly…
My father recently sent me these amazing resources about various risks due to earthquake around Victoria. I immediately had to look at one, because the thought of the ground turning to liquid is terrifying to me…
Say it with me. The duty to consult Indigenous people does not conflict with the public interest…
99% Invisible did an episode on the interrobang recently. I was interested to learn that early Greek and Roman writing didn’t have spaces! Rack that up to stuff I took for granted. Apparently an ad man in the sixties developed the interrobang…
The Supreme Court of Canada, happily, was not moved by Trinity Western University’s claims that they weren’t hurting gay folks. And the Supreme Court was not moved by the claims by TWU that they…
On my view the news media in Canada have, by and large and in the long run, misrepresented the concept of jihad. They have positioned jihad as a form of villainy. In so doing they have portrayed Islam as a peril…
