Rahul Bhargava
@rahulbot.bsky.social
Creative data & computational journalism. "Community Data" book eBook and pre-order available: http://communitydatabook.com
"Snowmageddon" incoming @bostonglobe.com? ❄️☃️
@mediacloud.bsky.social is primed and ready to track the use of apocalyptic storm names in news 🤣
@mediacloud.bsky.social is primed and ready to track the use of apocalyptic storm names in news 🤣
January 23, 2026 at 8:06 PM
"Snowmageddon" incoming @bostonglobe.com? ❄️☃️
@mediacloud.bsky.social is primed and ready to track the use of apocalyptic storm names in news 🤣
@mediacloud.bsky.social is primed and ready to track the use of apocalyptic storm names in news 🤣
Reposted by Rahul Bhargava
This is the first example I’ve seen of an American government using AI to meaningfully misrepresent actual events with the intent to deceive the public. We are at Stalinesque levels of propaganda.
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/past-the-b...
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/past-the-b...
January 23, 2026 at 2:23 PM
This is the first example I’ve seen of an American government using AI to meaningfully misrepresent actual events with the intent to deceive the public. We are at Stalinesque levels of propaganda.
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/past-the-b...
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/past-the-b...
My venerable Box Designer tool has been down for a while. I just ported it from Python to in-browser Javascript. Trying to last-cut snap-fit boxes with finger joints? Test it out and let me know if you find any bugs: dataculture.northeastern.edu/box-designer/
January 23, 2026 at 1:00 PM
My venerable Box Designer tool has been down for a while. I just ported it from Python to in-browser Javascript. Trying to last-cut snap-fit boxes with finger joints? Test it out and let me know if you find any bugs: dataculture.northeastern.edu/box-designer/
Reposted by Rahul Bhargava
Tomorrow’s front page of the Minnesota Star Tribune: Jan. 23, 2026
January 22, 2026 at 11:19 PM
Tomorrow’s front page of the Minnesota Star Tribune: Jan. 23, 2026
Broadcast media in the US has consistently failed to understand what statements mean in this regime.
it's bizarre to see both CNN and CNBC run with chyrons reporting that Trump said he won't "use force" to take Greenland, when the comments in question were clearly a threat to take Greenland by force. How naive are we at this point?
January 21, 2026 at 4:12 PM
Broadcast media in the US has consistently failed to understand what statements mean in this regime.
Food security & access are complex topics. Students in my Visual Storytelling in Journalism course reported a series on "How Boston Eats". They covered SNAP cuts, urban farms, immigrant-run restaurants, & more. Read the visual-rich stories they created at dataculture.northeastern.edu/teaching/how...
How Boston Eats - A Visual Storytelling Project
Walking through Boston Public Market, passersby are enticed by the aroma of sizzling spices and simmering sauces. Through their restaurants, food becomes a bridge between cultures.
dataculture.northeastern.edu
January 19, 2026 at 1:02 PM
Food security & access are complex topics. Students in my Visual Storytelling in Journalism course reported a series on "How Boston Eats". They covered SNAP cuts, urban farms, immigrant-run restaurants, & more. Read the visual-rich stories they created at dataculture.northeastern.edu/teaching/how...
So proud of the diversity of research & public-facing projects @mediacloud.bsky.social supports. Worth your attention: Trans News Initiative sources articles from our online news archive to feed into their rigorous analysis pipeline. Produces a catalog of trans-related news: transnewsinitiative.org
January 16, 2026 at 1:01 PM
So proud of the diversity of research & public-facing projects @mediacloud.bsky.social supports. Worth your attention: Trans News Initiative sources articles from our online news archive to feed into their rigorous analysis pipeline. Produces a catalog of trans-related news: transnewsinitiative.org
Public health & prevention strategies are inspirations for journalists. *Harm reduction strategies* posit doing your best to limit damage of things like lies on air. reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/harm-reducti...
A harm-reduction playbook for covering populists
Michael Hauser Tov, chief political correspondent at Haaretz, sets out a research-backed harm-reduction playbook for our addiction to covering populist politicians.
reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk
January 14, 2026 at 1:02 PM
Public health & prevention strategies are inspirations for journalists. *Harm reduction strategies* posit doing your best to limit damage of things like lies on air. reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/harm-reducti...
Reposted by Rahul Bhargava
your journalists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could they didn't stop to think if they should
January 13, 2026 at 11:47 PM
your journalists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could they didn't stop to think if they should
Reposted by Rahul Bhargava
BREAKING: I'm reintroducing my bill with @markey.senate.gov to end qualified immunity for federal officers—including ICE agents.
This bill is for Renee Good, Keith Porter, & everyone in America to know that when ICE agents break the law & kill our neighbors, they'll be held accountable.
This bill is for Renee Good, Keith Porter, & everyone in America to know that when ICE agents break the law & kill our neighbors, they'll be held accountable.
January 13, 2026 at 3:35 PM
BREAKING: I'm reintroducing my bill with @markey.senate.gov to end qualified immunity for federal officers—including ICE agents.
This bill is for Renee Good, Keith Porter, & everyone in America to know that when ICE agents break the law & kill our neighbors, they'll be held accountable.
This bill is for Renee Good, Keith Porter, & everyone in America to know that when ICE agents break the law & kill our neighbors, they'll be held accountable.
Reposted by Rahul Bhargava
I am calling for a complete and total boycott of the Mercator projection in all news stories about Greenland until every member of the American public has seen this
January 13, 2026 at 5:32 PM
I am calling for a complete and total boycott of the Mercator projection in all news stories about Greenland until every member of the American public has seen this
Crazy inadvertent data release. I have not been Flocked (yet). Go check your car's license plate to see if you have been searched for by police. haveibeenflocked.com
January 13, 2026 at 4:40 PM
Crazy inadvertent data release. I have not been Flocked (yet). Go check your car's license plate to see if you have been searched for by police. haveibeenflocked.com
Do you also love science museums? I continue my past studies in pedagogy by teaching a class on designing interactive educational exhibits. Students built a pop-up at Boston Cyberarts called "The Feeling is Mutual". See more about the exhibit at dataculture.northeastern.edu/teaching/the...
January 12, 2026 at 1:01 PM
Do you also love science museums? I continue my past studies in pedagogy by teaching a class on designing interactive educational exhibits. Students built a pop-up at Boston Cyberarts called "The Feeling is Mutual". See more about the exhibit at dataculture.northeastern.edu/teaching/the...
Reposted by Rahul Bhargava
It is impossible to overstate the degree to which the entire national political media's coverage of the 2024 presidential campaign, especially once Harris won the nomination, was deeply, fundamentally, shamefully unserious about the stakes & the candidates.
I can still recall all the tut-tutting from the media when Harris made this argument.
Kamala Harris at her closing campaign rally:
"Donald Trump intends to use the United States Military against American citizens who simply disagree with him."
"Donald Trump intends to use the United States Military against American citizens who simply disagree with him."
January 11, 2026 at 5:55 AM
It is impossible to overstate the degree to which the entire national political media's coverage of the 2024 presidential campaign, especially once Harris won the nomination, was deeply, fundamentally, shamefully unserious about the stakes & the candidates.
Reposted by Rahul Bhargava
they didn’t leak it to make the shooter look innocent, but to make the victim look guilty. not guilty of a crime. guilty of having a visibly queer wife. guilty of liberalism. guilty of opposing the regime. they don’t seek to exonerate themselves, only to demonstrate who deserves to die.
In the video that the shooter took, which I believe was leaked to be exculpatory, he appears to yell “fucking bitch” after he shoots Renee Good.
January 9, 2026 at 7:00 PM
they didn’t leak it to make the shooter look innocent, but to make the victim look guilty. not guilty of a crime. guilty of having a visibly queer wife. guilty of liberalism. guilty of opposing the regime. they don’t seek to exonerate themselves, only to demonstrate who deserves to die.
Reposted by Rahul Bhargava
Our investigation into lead contamination in Togo triggered a government probe into lead poisoning caused by dangerous battery recyclers, plus new restrictions on advertising junk foods on TV and online came into effect in the UK this week. Read more: bit.ly/49u8BUy
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January 9, 2026 at 4:33 PM
Our investigation into lead contamination in Togo triggered a government probe into lead poisoning caused by dangerous battery recyclers, plus new restrictions on advertising junk foods on TV and online came into effect in the UK this week. Read more: bit.ly/49u8BUy
Reposted by Rahul Bhargava
It's bad enough that the #Massachusetts Trial Court is allowing ICE agents to abduct people from courthouses—they definitely shouldn't be letting them do it in total secrecy by stopping people from recording it.
#mapoli
#mapoli
Boston bystander phone seized during ICE arrest adds to growing alarm after Minneapolis shooting
Advocates say recording ICE conflicts is key to oversight — but bans inside courthouses leave the public in the dark.
www.masslive.com
January 9, 2026 at 4:37 PM
It's bad enough that the #Massachusetts Trial Court is allowing ICE agents to abduct people from courthouses—they definitely shouldn't be letting them do it in total secrecy by stopping people from recording it.
#mapoli
#mapoli
Looking for fresh news sources this year? I highly recommend the visual and data storytelling on south-east Asian topics from @kontinentalist.bsky.social. Fresh, stunning, & insightful stories I often use in teaching 👏🏽 kontinentalist.com
Some context at www.niemanlab.org/2025/07/char...
Some context at www.niemanlab.org/2025/07/char...
Charting myths, debt, and monkey farms: How Kontinentalist is reimagining data journalism in Asia
"In Southeast Asia, data can be quite scarce, and it’s often controlled by people in power."
www.niemanlab.org
January 8, 2026 at 1:01 PM
Looking for fresh news sources this year? I highly recommend the visual and data storytelling on south-east Asian topics from @kontinentalist.bsky.social. Fresh, stunning, & insightful stories I often use in teaching 👏🏽 kontinentalist.com
Some context at www.niemanlab.org/2025/07/char...
Some context at www.niemanlab.org/2025/07/char...
Reposted by Rahul Bhargava
The woman killed by ICE was Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year old who was the mother of a 4-year old child whose father already died a few years ago.
The Star Tribune talked to her mother. www.startribune.com/she-was-an-a...
The Star Tribune talked to her mother. www.startribune.com/she-was-an-a...
January 7, 2026 at 10:38 PM
The woman killed by ICE was Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year old who was the mother of a 4-year old child whose father already died a few years ago.
The Star Tribune talked to her mother. www.startribune.com/she-was-an-a...
The Star Tribune talked to her mother. www.startribune.com/she-was-an-a...
Reposted by Rahul Bhargava
More Venezuelan coverage from Venezuelans: the @globalvoices.org team has been putting this together in between venturing out to the streets to stock up on supplies and check the mood in the capital. There has already been a fresh round of journalist detentions so this is under the team byline.
Venezuela after Maduro: Leadership of the South American nation seems uncertain
Since the airstrikes, there has been a huge sense of uncertainty, with long queues in local supermarkets and gas stations, and Caracas residents worried about basic necessities like groceries.
globalvoices.org
January 7, 2026 at 10:00 AM
More Venezuelan coverage from Venezuelans: the @globalvoices.org team has been putting this together in between venturing out to the streets to stock up on supplies and check the mood in the capital. There has already been a fresh round of journalist detentions so this is under the team byline.
Worried about bias in AI newsroom apps? Our C+J paper introduces a case study trying to understand what our @mediacloud.bsky.social NYT-trained model was encoding in a "blacks" label 🤨 Interests of Black Americans? Racism/discrimination detector? Read what we found arxiv.org/abs/2512.16901
Impacts of Racial Bias in Historical Training Data for News AI
AI technologies have rapidly moved into business and research applications that involve large text corpora, including computational journalism research and newsroom settings. These models, trained on…
arxiv.org
January 6, 2026 at 1:01 PM
Worried about bias in AI newsroom apps? Our C+J paper introduces a case study trying to understand what our @mediacloud.bsky.social NYT-trained model was encoding in a "blacks" label 🤨 Interests of Black Americans? Racism/discrimination detector? Read what we found arxiv.org/abs/2512.16901
Reposted by Rahul Bhargava
Reposted by Rahul Bhargava
Where’s Congress?
January 3, 2026 at 10:12 AM
Where’s Congress?
Reposted by Rahul Bhargava
NYT provides no evidence here, probably because the claim is flatly untrue. See eg recent Pew data, or many posts on the subject from @gelliottmorris.com this year
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/23/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/23/u...
December 26, 2025 at 12:08 AM
NYT provides no evidence here, probably because the claim is flatly untrue. See eg recent Pew data, or many posts on the subject from @gelliottmorris.com this year
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/23/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/23/u...
Reposted by Rahul Bhargava
Spotify was archived by Anna's Archive 2 days ago. When the company starts filing lawsuits, remember this bit from the book "Spotify Teardown": Spotify *exists* because of bittorrent, and because it began ... *with an archive of pirated music*.
December 22, 2025 at 10:48 PM
Spotify was archived by Anna's Archive 2 days ago. When the company starts filing lawsuits, remember this bit from the book "Spotify Teardown": Spotify *exists* because of bittorrent, and because it began ... *with an archive of pirated music*.