I wrote an essay for university last year entitled “Everything to Fear: Data and Privacy in the Digital Era”, which I have recorded for YouTube now as well. It was a certified banger, apparently – it got a high distinction grade (just), and the feedback was immense, with the grader writing: “Overall, this is a brilliant piece of writing in defence of privacy. If you don’t mind, I would call it a short manifesto for privacy in the digital age.” I’m flattered, but despite this, further down they added another note that seemed to derail it slightly. Having read my pieces throughout the unit, they said “you often take a side and defend it vigorously. This is what academics with integrity and courage do. However…” It is the “however” I wish to address here, not just because it was mildly amusing, but it also probes a deeper question about objectivity.
Continue reading “Academia, Journalism, and the Myth of Objectivity”Category: Business
My 2023 Reading List
My reading habits this year were a bit different to previous years. Firstly, while I did not read (i.e. finish) as many non-fiction books as I had last year, I did start reading fiction again, mostly at the behest of a friend who had some series she wanted me to read. While I won’t include those here, it’s nice to read stuff about how awful fictional worlds are, rather than how awful the real one is. Second, I probably actually read more material in academic journal articles this year than in books. Can only hope with my degree finished that I don’t lose access entirely to the online library for research… As before, list is in order of when I finished reading each book, and all books are here, not splitting into different parts.
Continue reading “My 2023 Reading List”The Blind Watchdogs: Barriers of State, Capital and Platforms Against Contemporary Journalistic Practice
Journalism and the wider media landscape is often considered an important and fundamental pillar of modern liberal democracies, so much so that it is referred to as the “fourth estate” to ensure checks and balances are met in the halls of power. The ostensible watchdog role of the media has, however, been deeply criticised and questioned, with trust in the media seeming to decline further on a global scale (Edelman, 2023). While much of this distrust of the mass media is likely to be mired under accusations of “fake news” and misinformation – with different applications and meanings depending on which direction they are coming from – those buzzwords have been comprehensively covered since their popularisation during the US elections in 2016. A more critical examination of the media, including its role in society (both proclaimed and actual) and how that is carried out in practice, is perhaps better served by viewing journalistic practice through the lens of the overarching systems of power and connectivity in the current era.
Continue reading “The Blind Watchdogs: Barriers of State, Capital and Platforms Against Contemporary Journalistic Practice”Everything to Fear: Data and Privacy in the Digital Era
Essay for university arguing against the notion that having nothing to hide means having nothing to be concerned about regarding mass surveillance and data collection. References below.
In debates about privacy, particularly that of the digital realm, there is one argument made with unnerving prevalence against the individual’s right to maintain it. On a policy level, it’s often touted alongside concerns of national security, where the state simply must infringe upon the right to privacy to protect the citizenry. In casual conversation, however, there’s a frightening level of apathy and acceptance of the status quo that has cemented it in the public’s consciousness. It is this:
“If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear.”
Continue reading “Everything to Fear: Data and Privacy in the Digital Era”The Surveillance of State and Capital and the Collapse of Privacy
An essay on surveillance and data written for university. It was relatively limited around the content of a particular section of the course content, but I took liberties with the approach and by including the commodification of data by the private sector. The premise is that the institutions of state and capital are incapable of ensuring or allowing privacy in an increasingly digitised and data driven world. References are below.
Data collection has become so normalised it is rarely questioned. Big data has been a buzz word for well over a decade, it has been a decade since Edward Snowden revealed the extent of what is essentially the US government’s domestic and international spying via the NSA and various programs, and data has been described by many in the business and tech worlds as the new oil. State and corporate entities have immense power and influence over the modern internet, and dystopian levels of access to personal data. Questions of privacy over security, or privacy over convenience, seem somewhat irrelevant when faced with the question of whether privacy is even possible.
Continue reading “The Surveillance of State and Capital and the Collapse of Privacy”Plastic World: The Impacts and Possible Solutions to Global Warming’s Sibling Crisis
The following piece is an essay written for my Environmental Politics unit. Rather than staying safe with a topic like climate change, I decided to pick something I’d never properly looked into to research from scratch. Perhaps a mistake for this month’s sanity quota, but I genuinely enjoyed it, there are many references below, and it gave me a new reason to believe we’re irredeemably screwed as a species – nice!
Plastic pollution, along with greenhouse gas emissions and loss of biodiversity, has quickly become one of the largest anthropogenic threats to environmental health and stability, including that of human health. According to a European plastics industry body, Plastics Europe, the arguably conservative estimate is that over 390 metric tonnes of plastic was produced globally in 2021 alone, an over 20 metric tonne increase on 2020 when production “stagnated” due to COVID-19 (Plastics Europe, 2022). Despite the report’s positive outlook, it is projected this will double by 2040, with production and waste to both far exceed 1 billion tonnes by 2060 (Hood, 2022).
This essay will begin by exploring just how far spread plastic pollution – particularly micro- and nano-plastics (referred to just as microplastics from here) – is and the effects that has had and will have on land and marine ecosystems. While a lot has been said about plastic pollution in the oceans, most of it originates beyond that, and the long-term effects of microplastics in nature and in human health have only recently become a topic of serious discussion. A brief history of other environmental movements will be given to provide some possible pathways that could be taken. Following that, a few solutions and initiatives will be examined, including the UN Treaty on Plastic Pollution that began negotiations after a resolution for it passed in March of 2022. Some scepticism is warranted regarding the ability (and desire) of state and corporate actors to genuinely commit to a real shift from plastics, which will end the discussion with a brief mention of future possibilities.
Continue reading “Plastic World: The Impacts and Possible Solutions to Global Warming’s Sibling Crisis”A Brief Rant on Minorities in Media
A lot of my recent pieces have been rather brief (end note: it went longer than expected), mostly because I am heavily procrastinating writing university assessments that I could fairly easily complete in a solid day of work – but alas I’m an idiot rationalising writing about entirely unrelated topics by keeping it short. Here I’m bouncing off a few different conversations, online and real life, I’ve had about minorities – specifically queer people – being represented in media. Suffice to say there is nothing wrong with it, and you think there is then it isn’t them who are the problem.
Continue reading “A Brief Rant on Minorities in Media”A Brief Word on Climate Action and Ecoterrorism
I don’t live in the US, but perhaps I should have a disclaimer on the off chance any 3 or 4 letter agencies come snooping for keywords: I have written previously about my anarchic approach to violence as a pacifist, and that piece was even cited by the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism as a point of opposition to violence. Leave me alone.
So, with that noted, bouncing off a conversation that took place in a university seminar I was at today, let’s talk about ecoterrorism.
Continue reading “A Brief Word on Climate Action and Ecoterrorism”My 2022 Reading List – Part 4
Fourth part of my 2022 reading list, going into the tail end of the university semester and onto other, not formal study related books. As with the Pilger book in a previous post, there are some books in this part that are written by journalists and, for the most part, it is why I think some of the best journalism can be considered the “history of the present”, people whose jobs it is to find sources, record information, and – taking in mind their own social and cultural upbringing and lens – interpreting it.
Continue reading “My 2022 Reading List – Part 4”My 2022 Reading List – Part 2
This is part 2 of my 2022 reading list – part 1 can be found here. It is here the focus of my reading (for the most part) was on Australian foreign policy and Indigenous politics as they were some of the units I took at university in first semester. Again, it is in the order that I finished reading them, so there are some odd jumps as I read multiple books at once.
Continue reading “My 2022 Reading List – Part 2”
Anarchist Rising 