Amy O'Leary
@amyoleary.bsky.social
Narrative Strategy over at narrativearchitecture.org. Formerly NYT, This American Life, Upworthy & Headspace. In the woods of New Hampshire.
Art is essential
Alt text for those who need it. This is amazing.
December 2, 2025 at 11:47 AM
Art is essential
Reposted by Amy O'Leary
this is appropriately vicious
December 1, 2025 at 3:53 PM
this is appropriately vicious
Reposted by Amy O'Leary
A lot of editors don't even know about media magnification. One of the shocking things - to me - when I left journalism school was how little editors knew about like the study of journalism as a discipline. It's a profession based in norms even if those norms are harmful.
Unfortunately, in US journalism it is considered neutral to spread a lie, but it is considered "biased" to call out a lie. So, there is a structural asymmetry that rewards colorful lies with virality.
November 30, 2025 at 10:52 PM
A lot of editors don't even know about media magnification. One of the shocking things - to me - when I left journalism school was how little editors knew about like the study of journalism as a discipline. It's a profession based in norms even if those norms are harmful.
Reposted by Amy O'Leary
this is quite the detail
November 30, 2025 at 12:41 PM
this is quite the detail
Reposted by Amy O'Leary
The billionaires who own much of the the infrastructure of our 21st century lives have progressively enshittified that infrastructure while expanding their wealth, and then they scold us for being small-souled peasants who don’t believe in progress anymore.
it is amazing how so much tech gets unremittingly worse year on year at whatever you once used it for and less pleasant to use and more bound up with creepy politics as well as personal and environmental harms and yet also still less productive of actual goods and these are somehow great visionaries
November 30, 2025 at 1:38 PM
The billionaires who own much of the the infrastructure of our 21st century lives have progressively enshittified that infrastructure while expanding their wealth, and then they scold us for being small-souled peasants who don’t believe in progress anymore.
Reposted by Amy O'Leary
it’s so weird to look around and realize like, tech and media are materially worse than a decade ago
November 30, 2025 at 5:30 AM
it’s so weird to look around and realize like, tech and media are materially worse than a decade ago
This has been my lasting hope after all the other checks and balances failed.
Incompetence will save us from full blown autocracy… probably
November 30, 2025 at 3:36 AM
This has been my lasting hope after all the other checks and balances failed.
Reposted by Amy O'Leary
"Never spread the lie in the headline" should be a hard rule of 21st century journalism.
Research shows that repeating lies helps to spread them, and people read headlines more than they read stories.
Research shows that repeating lies helps to spread them, and people read headlines more than they read stories.
News media has to do better with headlines that present false and unverified public health claims.
November 30, 2025 at 1:10 AM
"Never spread the lie in the headline" should be a hard rule of 21st century journalism.
Research shows that repeating lies helps to spread them, and people read headlines more than they read stories.
Research shows that repeating lies helps to spread them, and people read headlines more than they read stories.
Reposted by Amy O'Leary
News media has to do better with headlines that present false and unverified public health claims.
November 29, 2025 at 11:48 PM
News media has to do better with headlines that present false and unverified public health claims.
Reposted by Amy O'Leary
This is, obviously, some deeply disturbing shit.
The White House web site now includes a "media bias" tracker with a leaderboard and an offender hall of shame. www.whitehouse.gov/mediabias/
November 30, 2025 at 12:27 AM
This is, obviously, some deeply disturbing shit.
Reposted by Amy O'Leary
Men are running courses to teach other men to steal the content of real sex workers and deepfake the likenesses of real women to create new Al-constructed influencers and generate a lot of money for themselves.
November 28, 2025 at 5:34 PM
Men are running courses to teach other men to steal the content of real sex workers and deepfake the likenesses of real women to create new Al-constructed influencers and generate a lot of money for themselves.
Reposted by Amy O'Leary
From Frederick Douglass's 1867 "Composite Nation" speech, a defense of Chinese migration to the United States at a time when anti-Chinese sentiment was intensifying.
teachingamericanhistory.org/document/our...
teachingamericanhistory.org/document/our...
November 28, 2025 at 7:01 PM
From Frederick Douglass's 1867 "Composite Nation" speech, a defense of Chinese migration to the United States at a time when anti-Chinese sentiment was intensifying.
teachingamericanhistory.org/document/our...
teachingamericanhistory.org/document/our...
Reposted by Amy O'Leary
A bit too on the nose for thanksgiving
ICE DETAINED MARILYN. Fuck these people. www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news...
‘Northern Exposure’ actor gave ICE agents in Redmond her tribal ID. They called it ‘fake,’ she says
Indigenous actor Elaine Miles of "Northern Exposure" was detained by ICE at a Redmond bus stop. When she showed them her Tribal ID, they told her it was fake.
www.seattletimes.com
November 27, 2025 at 5:26 PM
A bit too on the nose for thanksgiving
Reposted by Amy O'Leary
Disinformation = $$
www.404media.co/americas-pol...
"Each social media platform has either an ad revenue sharing program, a “creator bonus” program, or a monetization program that directly pays creators who go viral on their platforms.
www.404media.co/americas-pol...
"Each social media platform has either an ad revenue sharing program, a “creator bonus” program, or a monetization program that directly pays creators who go viral on their platforms.
America’s Polarization Has Become the World's Side Hustle
The 'psyops' revealed by X are entirely the fault of the perverse incentives created by social media monetization programs.
www.404media.co
November 26, 2025 at 4:20 PM
Disinformation = $$
www.404media.co/americas-pol...
"Each social media platform has either an ad revenue sharing program, a “creator bonus” program, or a monetization program that directly pays creators who go viral on their platforms.
www.404media.co/americas-pol...
"Each social media platform has either an ad revenue sharing program, a “creator bonus” program, or a monetization program that directly pays creators who go viral on their platforms.
Reposted by Amy O'Leary
This is incredible
Good morning to Brazilian reporter Manuela Borges, who’s been waiting eleven years for this petty moment. ❤️ 🇧🇷
November 26, 2025 at 3:23 PM
This is incredible
Reposted by Amy O'Leary
What if the best AI safety system is just tort law?
“Nobody knows who’s liable if things go wrong.” www.ft.com/content/abfe...
November 25, 2025 at 6:41 PM
What if the best AI safety system is just tort law?
Reposted by Amy O'Leary
We should have listened when the modems screamed at us.
July 22, 2025 at 2:30 PM
We should have listened when the modems screamed at us.
Reposted by Amy O'Leary
this is very effective audio storytelling work, honestly.
Fear is contagious, but so is courage. I remain steadfast in my oath to the Constitution and am grateful to those across the nation who stand with us. Don't give up the ship.
November 25, 2025 at 12:49 AM
this is very effective audio storytelling work, honestly.
Reposted by Amy O'Leary
it just strikes me as a bad idea to pick fights with an astronaut.
you fire right back at them and you FIRE RIGHT AWAY.
November 24, 2025 at 6:56 PM
it just strikes me as a bad idea to pick fights with an astronaut.
At this point you have to ask journalists who are still using Twitter/X, how they can ethically defend putting themselves into a disinformation chamber for so many hours a day. It has to skew their judgment.
The problem too is that “twitter” is still actively used by verified news sources so these synthetic actors pushing fake news+stoking division are given more credence because they are mixed in. Every credible news sources needs to stop using “twitter”-only way these fake accounts will lose power.
November 24, 2025 at 6:39 PM
At this point you have to ask journalists who are still using Twitter/X, how they can ethically defend putting themselves into a disinformation chamber for so many hours a day. It has to skew their judgment.
Reposted by Amy O'Leary
I wrote about the fake account blowup on X this weekend. A genuine post-truth nightmare and proof that these companies have polluted their platforms so thoroughly and traded reality for profit that they've undermined the very idea of what the internet is supposed to be.
That MAGA Account Might Be a Troll From Pakistan
How X blew up its own platform with a new location feature
www.theatlantic.com
November 24, 2025 at 4:33 PM
I wrote about the fake account blowup on X this weekend. A genuine post-truth nightmare and proof that these companies have polluted their platforms so thoroughly and traded reality for profit that they've undermined the very idea of what the internet is supposed to be.
Reposted by Amy O'Leary
“Other major cities such as Cape Town, South Africa, Mexico City and Jakarta, Indonesia, as well as parts of California, are also facing day zero scenarios as they sink and run out of water.”
Amid a deepening ecological crisis and acute water shortage, Tehran can no longer remain the capital of Iran, the country’s president has said. www.scientificamerican.com/article/iran...
Iran’s Capital Is Moving. The Reason Is an Ecological Catastrophe
The decision to move Iran’s capital is partly driven by climate change, but experts say decades of human error and action are also to blame
www.scientificamerican.com
November 23, 2025 at 10:20 PM
“Other major cities such as Cape Town, South Africa, Mexico City and Jakarta, Indonesia, as well as parts of California, are also facing day zero scenarios as they sink and run out of water.”
Reposted by Amy O'Leary
Twitter now displays where accounts are from and it has confirmed that too many of the political accounts are out of country bots.
Why are folks still there? To argue with bots? A waste of precious time while enriching the richest man on Earth.
Delete your account.
Why are folks still there? To argue with bots? A waste of precious time while enriching the richest man on Earth.
Delete your account.
November 23, 2025 at 2:56 PM
Twitter now displays where accounts are from and it has confirmed that too many of the political accounts are out of country bots.
Why are folks still there? To argue with bots? A waste of precious time while enriching the richest man on Earth.
Delete your account.
Why are folks still there? To argue with bots? A waste of precious time while enriching the richest man on Earth.
Delete your account.
Reposted by Amy O'Leary
oh whoa the models aren't just getting better and better consistently huh
November 23, 2025 at 10:35 AM
oh whoa the models aren't just getting better and better consistently huh
Reposted by Amy O'Leary
Zohran flip your hair again we need healthcare get him to give us healthcare.
November 21, 2025 at 9:26 PM
Zohran flip your hair again we need healthcare get him to give us healthcare.