Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Jessica Ghilani @jesspgh.bsky.social · 19h

Super insightful work that sheds light on the cultivation of habit formation via algorithmic short form video platforms. I wonder how/whether things shift if the plan to bring its ownership into compliance with US law happens.

Caitlin Gilbert @caitlingilbert.bsky.social · 1d

🤳EXCLUSIVE: We analyzed real data from over 800 U.S. TikTok users to reveal how the app transforms casual users into power users.

Extremely proud of this one, over a year in the making w/ @richardsima.bsky.social Leslie Shapiro @asteckelberg.bsky.social @ence.bsky.social

wapo.st/4obueib

Here’s how TikTok ‘power users’ end up scrolling 4 hours a day or more

Washington Post reporters analyzed data from over 800 TikTok users to learn how the app turns people into power users, some of whom spend hours per day scrolling.

wapo.st

1

Jessica Ghilani @jesspgh.bsky.social · 8d

A short write up about and on the occasion of the last day of AOL Dial Up Internet Service open.substack.com/pub/mediahis...

Goodbye the AOL Dial Up Internet Service

The end of an era

open.substack.com

1 3

Jessica Ghilani @jesspgh.bsky.social · 8d

I think business owners are relying (in bad faith) on the lack of suburban understanding of the block by block lay of the land, so the 200+ angry nextdoor posts declaring to “never come into the city again if they do this!” will actually come back to bite those businesses for exaggerating.

1 3

Jessica Ghilani @jesspgh.bsky.social · 8d

Yes the messaging on it is all wrong. The folks in Bridgeville or wherever who are agitating about how this will “ruin the strip” don’t know it block by block. The message should have been “Wholeys, Penn Mac, and what you think of as ‘the Strip’ will be unchanged. Calm down!”

1 3

Jessica Ghilani @jesspgh.bsky.social · 8d

(I know they do. They're arguing in bad faith).

1

Jessica Ghilani @jesspgh.bsky.social · 8d

Don't they realize that the bulk of car traffic gums up 22nd street between Liberty and Penn to come to their businesses??

1 1

Jessica Ghilani @jesspgh.bsky.social · 8d

Folks don't realize the change is only from 31st to 22nd St which if you are regularly in that stretch isn't even the most congested, business clustered part of the Strip. When people think of it, they assume below 22nd until around 16th. This isn't gonna change the Penn Mac corridor calm down!

it's decorative dani season motherfuckers @daniskitchen.bsky.social · 8d

good morning to everyone but strip district small business owners, for whom I wish a miserable day filled with fingernail splinters, headaches, and stubbed toes

TribLIVE @triblive.bsky.social · 8d

A judge has temporarily halted Pittsburgh's plan to add a bike lane on Penn Avenue, citing concerns from local businesses about traffic and emergency access.

4

Jessica Ghilani @jesspgh.bsky.social · 8d

Thank you James! This visualizes it: bsky.app/profile/sant...

James Santelli @santelli.bsky.social · Mar 25

Inspired by @ryandeto.bsky.social, I drummed up this graphic to show where the proposed Penn Avenue bike lane would and WOULDN'T go.

Traffic lanes would remain unchanged in the core of the Strip District.

This is what shop owners in the Strip want us to believe would 'devastate' their businesses.

Aerial photograph of Pittsburgh's Strip District by Andrew Rush. It shows that the proposed bike lane would only run up to 22nd Street, marked as "Bike lane that would 'devastate' the Strip'". Everything between 16th Street and 22nd Street would remain unchanged and "will NOT include a bike lane."

1

Jessica Ghilani @jesspgh.bsky.social · 8d

As this overview relays, "Aside from some pedestrian-friendly interventions, they are proposing very little change between 22nd St and 16th St." I want to scream on angry NextDoor posts that: You will still have all your lanes and parking by Penn Mac, calm down guys!! bikepgh.org/2025/09/10/f...

Strip District Update: The City has announced the Final Plans for Penn Ave Rightsizing - BikePGH

In order to make this dangerous section of Penn Ave in the Strip District safer, the City has planned these traffic safety improvements

bikepgh.org

1

Jessica Ghilani @jesspgh.bsky.social · 8d

The thing is, the lane closure would only be from 31st to 22nd street which if you are regularly in that stretch isn't even the most congested or business clustered part of the Strip. When people think of it, they think of everything below 22nd until around 16th.

3 5

Reposted by Jessica Ghilani

Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 11d

We have allowed the lazy, grifting Silicon Valley charlatans into the front door, & in doing so, we have learned just how many of our own colleagues & administrators simply are not interested in the actual business of education. It's incredibly demoralizing.

bsky.app/profile/mcop...

Erin Lockwood @erinkaylockwood.bsky.social · 11d

Thanks so much for your reporting on this, Ben. I just got an email from my campus's IT office triumphantly advertising free student access to four different AI models -- at the same time as we have a hiring freeze, caps on grad enrollment, and a 7% budget cut -- and wanted to scream.

12 290 1.1K

Reposted by Jessica Ghilani

Jessica Ghilani @jesspgh.bsky.social · 10d

Thank you to @triblive.bsky.social for featuring me in your article about shifting tides of social media use among young folks. It was a thrill to see in the printed Sunday paper. triblive.com/local/region...

Photo of the print version of the newspaper, on which the cover of the living section features the article and a photo of me providing commentary on tech and social media for KDKA/CBS television program, Talk Pittsburgh.

1 12

Jessica Ghilani @jesspgh.bsky.social · 10d

Thank you to @triblive.bsky.social for featuring me in your article about shifting tides of social media use among young folks. It was a thrill to see in the printed Sunday paper. triblive.com/local/region...

1 12

Jessica Ghilani @jesspgh.bsky.social · 17d

The other half is ranting about the telecommunications act of 1996 which resulted in this:

Screencap from the more perfect union account where they post: “in 1983, 50 companies controlled 90% of the US media market. That number is now down to 5.”

6

Jessica Ghilani @jesspgh.bsky.social · 17d

At least half of my media studies lectures:

Screencap from cspan of rfk jr speaking at the memorial for Charlie Kirk, saying, “we are all hooked into social algorithms that are hacked into the reptilian cores of our brain.”

1 1 10

Reposted by Jessica Ghilani

Karl Bode @karlbode.com · 18d

While people are suddenly and uncharacteristically paying attention to media regulation, please take a moment to notice all the massive harm Brendan Carr has done to consumer protection and public safety as well

me, back in April:

Brendan Carr’s FCC is an anti-consumer, rights-trampling harassment machine

The White House’s personal censor.

www.theverge.com

25 670 1.7K

Jessica Ghilani @jesspgh.bsky.social · 18d

My intro media studies class units on the telecom act of 1996 always hit hard because of the enduring influence of deregulation on our mass media environment, but it really feels helpful to be discussing it with 18-24 year olds this and next week. I wish there were less plentiful examples from news.

7

Reposted by Jessica Ghilani

David Dayen @ddayen.bsky.social · 20d

This could not be more correct. It's easier to censor media that is consolidated. Repeal the Telecommunications Act of 1996.

Reed Showalter @reedforcongress.bsky.social · 21d

Monopoly and fascism go hand in hand. We aren't free if our public discourse is controlled by authoritarians and oligarchs that bend the knee to them

It’s time to break up Sinclair, Nexstar, and big media companies. And repeal the ’96 Telecom Act that let these companies merge

TVMoJoe @tvmojoe.bsky.social · 21d

NEW: ABC puts JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE on hiatus after conservative backlash, station group and FCC chair pressure network over Kirk comment. Details at @vulture: www.vulture.com/article/abc-...

2 75 240

Reposted by Jessica Ghilani

AAUP @aaup.org · 24d

These firings, with zero due process, are violations of widely accepted principles of academic freedom & are completely unacceptable. College & university administrators MUST NOT exploit these shocking events to censor protected speech & concentrate their own power.

www.wsmv.com/2025/09/12/t...

22 240 770

Jessica Ghilani @jesspgh.bsky.social · 25d

From what I understand, it was the mainstreaming of Kirk that Fuentes resented. He didn’t want a slightly larger tent. Kirk seemed likely to pursue public office, whereas Fuentes (who did seem proud of a legacy media nytimes profile) embraced the troll/heel persona that doesn’t lend to that easily.

1 1