Fitz (Jonathan D. Fitzgerald)
@jonathanfitzgerald.bsky.social
Associate prof of English. Author of "How the News Feels: The Empathic Power of Literary Journalists". Teaching and writing nonfiction, mostly. Bylines: NYT, Boston Globe, Atlantic, etc. Let’s talk about restoring local journalism. jonathandfitzgerald.com
I could not be more proud to share that The Swampscott Tides, the local news startup I've been involved with since last year, was named startup of the year at the 2025 Nonprofit News Awards by @inn.org! inn.org/about/our-wo...
Startup of the Year
Honors a young organization (operating for less than three years) for establishing strong support of their journalism throughout the community and the
inn.org
October 2, 2025 at 9:42 PM
I could not be more proud to share that The Swampscott Tides, the local news startup I've been involved with since last year, was named startup of the year at the 2025 Nonprofit News Awards by @inn.org! inn.org/about/our-wo...
In my latest at @cogwbur.bsky.social, I discuss @ksetiya.bsky.social’s book “Midlife” and wonder whether I’m having a midlife crisis. www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/...
Zen and the art of midlife maintenance
Jonathan D. Fitzgerald is not having a midlife crisis. At least, that's what he thought — then he read MIT philosophy professor Kieran Setiya's book, "Midlife,” and started looking at this stage of li...
www.wbur.org
October 1, 2025 at 10:04 PM
In my latest at @cogwbur.bsky.social, I discuss @ksetiya.bsky.social’s book “Midlife” and wonder whether I’m having a midlife crisis. www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/...
Reposted by Fitz (Jonathan D. Fitzgerald)
It’s literally *years* overdue—both the pandemic & team members going & *getting jobs and stuff* delayed the multigraph so, so much
But I just sent a draft of the final chapter for our Viral Texts Project book to the press!
There will be much yet to do—but hitting send on that email was incredible
But I just sent a draft of the final chapter for our Viral Texts Project book to the press!
There will be much yet to do—but hitting send on that email was incredible
Going the Rounds | University of Minnesota Press Manifold
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_Going the Rounds_ brings together literary, historical, and computational criticism to illuminate the extent, content, and character of infor...
manifold.umn.edu
August 7, 2025 at 6:29 PM
It’s literally *years* overdue—both the pandemic & team members going & *getting jobs and stuff* delayed the multigraph so, so much
But I just sent a draft of the final chapter for our Viral Texts Project book to the press!
There will be much yet to do—but hitting send on that email was incredible
But I just sent a draft of the final chapter for our Viral Texts Project book to the press!
There will be much yet to do—but hitting send on that email was incredible
I never stopped believing!
I'm sure @abbymullen.bsky.social & @jonathanfitzgerald.bsky.social may have entirely given up on the idea of the book being an actual book—but it will be! It actually will be!
August 7, 2025 at 11:48 PM
I never stopped believing!
My latest at @mashable.com... mashable.com/article/coll...
I'm a college writing professor. How I think students should use AI this fall
Commentary: Young people will be more prepared if they practice working with AI, rather than swearing it off altogether.
mashable.com
August 1, 2025 at 6:06 PM
My latest at @mashable.com... mashable.com/article/coll...
Like many of you I have *a lot* of thoughts about AI in relation to teaching writing. Here's the beginning of a longer conversation... mashable.com/article/how-...
I'm a college writing professor. Here's what AI still can't do
Commentary: By facing AI head-on, my students and I can work on the real point of writing, which is to help you think.
mashable.com
May 22, 2025 at 5:40 PM
Like many of you I have *a lot* of thoughts about AI in relation to teaching writing. Here's the beginning of a longer conversation... mashable.com/article/how-...
Reposted by Fitz (Jonathan D. Fitzgerald)
My latest at @mashable.com mashable.com/article/a-pr...
I'm a college professor. My advice to young people who feel hooked on tech
Commentary: My students balk at a tech-free classroom – but then they love it. Here's what we’ve learned together.
mashable.com
May 21, 2025 at 1:14 PM
My latest at @mashable.com mashable.com/article/a-pr...
Beginning today, I’ll be writing about education and AI for @mashable.com. Here’s my first essay… mashable.com/article/how-...
I'm a college writing professor. Here's what AI still can't do
Commentary: By facing AI head-on, my students and I can work on the real point of writing, which is to help you think.
mashable.com
May 19, 2025 at 5:37 PM
Beginning today, I’ll be writing about education and AI for @mashable.com. Here’s my first essay… mashable.com/article/how-...
I wrote a thing for a local newspaper about the importance of focusing on local matters amidst the chaos of These Troubling Times™ itemlive.com/2025/02/19/f...
Fitzgerald: In an age of revolution, look to ‘the near, the low, the common’
Jonathan D. Fitzgerald A few days ago, in my college friends group chat, I sent a screenshot from Google Maps showing that the Gulf of Mexico had been transformed overnight into the Gulf of America, p...
itemlive.com
February 20, 2025 at 2:20 AM
I wrote a thing for a local newspaper about the importance of focusing on local matters amidst the chaos of These Troubling Times™ itemlive.com/2025/02/19/f...
Over on my Substack, I’ve launched a series called “Stories of Belief,” based on a course I used to teach that focused on spiritual autobiography. This week, I discuss the essay “My Mother’s Bible” by Walter Kirn. Read along! open.substack.com/pub/inprog/p...
Stories of Belief: "My Mother's Bible" by Walter Kirn
This week, we read Walter Kirn's essay about meeting his mother through the story of the Fall
open.substack.com
January 29, 2025 at 1:26 PM
Over on my Substack, I’ve launched a series called “Stories of Belief,” based on a course I used to teach that focused on spiritual autobiography. This week, I discuss the essay “My Mother’s Bible” by Walter Kirn. Read along! open.substack.com/pub/inprog/p...
Since this misguided argument describing the 90s as all “socially conscious” and what followed as a time of “irony” is making the rounds, I get to unleash my ready-made response from @theatlantic.com, back in 2012: www.theatlantic.com/entertainmen...
December 26, 2024 at 12:45 PM
Since this misguided argument describing the 90s as all “socially conscious” and what followed as a time of “irony” is making the rounds, I get to unleash my ready-made response from @theatlantic.com, back in 2012: www.theatlantic.com/entertainmen...
Reposted by Fitz (Jonathan D. Fitzgerald)
I open up new issue of Literary Journalism Studies &whaddya know, there's a splendid review of my book THE UNDERTOW, by Jonathan Fitzgerald, in which he makes a key distinction about empathy for the devil: "*feeling with* but never *believing with.*" s35767.pcdn.co/wp-content/u...
s35767.pcdn.co
December 12, 2024 at 8:33 PM
I open up new issue of Literary Journalism Studies &whaddya know, there's a splendid review of my book THE UNDERTOW, by Jonathan Fitzgerald, in which he makes a key distinction about empathy for the devil: "*feeling with* but never *believing with.*" s35767.pcdn.co/wp-content/u...
New in the @literaryjournalism.bsky.social newsletter, an excerpt from "Mediating the Real: Self-Reflection in Recent American Reportage" by @paggaepigg.bsky.social. ialjs.org/excerpt-medi...
Excerpt: Mediating the Real: Self-Reflection in Recent American Reportage by Pascal Sigg - IALJS: The International Association for Literary Journalism Studies
The following is an excerpt from the introduction of Pascal Sigg’s book Mediating the Real: Self-Reflection in Recent American Reportage (Transcript Publishing, 2024). Authors who would like to promot...
ialjs.org
December 18, 2024 at 5:07 PM
New in the @literaryjournalism.bsky.social newsletter, an excerpt from "Mediating the Real: Self-Reflection in Recent American Reportage" by @paggaepigg.bsky.social. ialjs.org/excerpt-medi...
Here’s an end-of-year playlist from @cogwbur.bsky.social featuring my pick, “Rings Around My Father’s Eyes” by The War on Drugs, to accompany my piece from the summer about Newport Folk Fest. www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/...
Time travel with us: The Cog 2024 playlist
In 2024, 27 Cog essays featured music. The right song, even just a few notes, can take us back in time to another version of ourselves. These songs are the soundtrack to this year's stories.
www.wbur.org
December 18, 2024 at 12:48 PM
Here’s an end-of-year playlist from @cogwbur.bsky.social featuring my pick, “Rings Around My Father’s Eyes” by The War on Drugs, to accompany my piece from the summer about Newport Folk Fest. www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/...
I just got a marketing email from Sears and it led to full on Obi Wan moment: “Sears. Now that’s a name I haven’t heard in a long, long time.” *looks off wistfully*
December 17, 2024 at 6:05 PM
I just got a marketing email from Sears and it led to full on Obi Wan moment: “Sears. Now that’s a name I haven’t heard in a long, long time.” *looks off wistfully*
Has anybody figured out how to turn off Gemini in Google Docs? I've been searching and striking out.
December 16, 2024 at 4:35 PM
Has anybody figured out how to turn off Gemini in Google Docs? I've been searching and striking out.
Who are the best TikTok journalists out there? I downloaded the app for the first time (hi, I’m old) and do not find it user friendly for searching out journalists to follow. Help an elder millennial, would you?
December 12, 2024 at 10:40 PM
Who are the best TikTok journalists out there? I downloaded the app for the first time (hi, I’m old) and do not find it user friendly for searching out journalists to follow. Help an elder millennial, would you?
Also in the latest issue of Literary Journalism Studies (@literaryjournalism.bsky.social), a review of my book “How the News Feels!” I’m so grateful and I just love this: “Fitzgerald models the ethics of care for both his subjects and his subject.”
s35767.pcdn.co/wp-content/u...
s35767.pcdn.co/wp-content/u...
s35767.pcdn.co
December 12, 2024 at 10:08 PM
Also in the latest issue of Literary Journalism Studies (@literaryjournalism.bsky.social), a review of my book “How the News Feels!” I’m so grateful and I just love this: “Fitzgerald models the ethics of care for both his subjects and his subject.”
s35767.pcdn.co/wp-content/u...
s35767.pcdn.co/wp-content/u...
My review of “The Undertow” by @jeffsharlet.bsky.social is out now in the latest issue of Literary Journalism Studies @literaryjournalism.bsky.social. “How the Extreme becomes the Ordinary” s35767.pcdn.co/wp-content/u...
s35767.pcdn.co
December 12, 2024 at 9:20 PM
My review of “The Undertow” by @jeffsharlet.bsky.social is out now in the latest issue of Literary Journalism Studies @literaryjournalism.bsky.social. “How the Extreme becomes the Ordinary” s35767.pcdn.co/wp-content/u...
Reposted by Fitz (Jonathan D. Fitzgerald)
my thoughts on AI are intertwined to two essential truths:
-i don’t cite or trust an amaglation of unsourced claims.
-no thought, claim, truth, history can be told from a fixed, “neutral” point. an acknowledged author is a contract of trust between reader and writer.
-i don’t cite or trust an amaglation of unsourced claims.
-no thought, claim, truth, history can be told from a fixed, “neutral” point. an acknowledged author is a contract of trust between reader and writer.
December 10, 2024 at 9:21 PM
my thoughts on AI are intertwined to two essential truths:
-i don’t cite or trust an amaglation of unsourced claims.
-no thought, claim, truth, history can be told from a fixed, “neutral” point. an acknowledged author is a contract of trust between reader and writer.
-i don’t cite or trust an amaglation of unsourced claims.
-no thought, claim, truth, history can be told from a fixed, “neutral” point. an acknowledged author is a contract of trust between reader and writer.
Reposted by Fitz (Jonathan D. Fitzgerald)
Call for Papers!
The Nineteenth International Conference for Literary Journalism Studies (IALJS-19) - theme: “Literary Journalism and the Tides of History” - will be held May 28-30, 2025, at Marist College, Poughkeepsie, New York... on the banks of the mighty Hudson River
ialjs.org/conference-i...
The Nineteenth International Conference for Literary Journalism Studies (IALJS-19) - theme: “Literary Journalism and the Tides of History” - will be held May 28-30, 2025, at Marist College, Poughkeepsie, New York... on the banks of the mighty Hudson River
ialjs.org/conference-i...
Conference Updates - IALJS: The International Association for Literary Journalism Studies
The Nineteenth International Conference for Literary Journalism Studies (IALJS-19), “Literary Journalism and the Tides of History,” will be held May 28-30, 2025, at Marist College, Poughkeepsie, New Y...
ialjs.org
December 10, 2024 at 5:05 AM
Call for Papers!
The Nineteenth International Conference for Literary Journalism Studies (IALJS-19) - theme: “Literary Journalism and the Tides of History” - will be held May 28-30, 2025, at Marist College, Poughkeepsie, New York... on the banks of the mighty Hudson River
ialjs.org/conference-i...
The Nineteenth International Conference for Literary Journalism Studies (IALJS-19) - theme: “Literary Journalism and the Tides of History” - will be held May 28-30, 2025, at Marist College, Poughkeepsie, New York... on the banks of the mighty Hudson River
ialjs.org/conference-i...
Reposted by Fitz (Jonathan D. Fitzgerald)
Thoughtful editorial by @eliothiggins.bsky.social about the causes of and cures for bad information online. [Gift link] www.nytimes.com/2024/12/06/s...
Education Is Key to Fighting Disinformation on Social Media (Gift Article)
In our interconnected modern world, education is critical in the fight against disinformation.
www.nytimes.com
December 7, 2024 at 3:21 PM
Thoughtful editorial by @eliothiggins.bsky.social about the causes of and cures for bad information online. [Gift link] www.nytimes.com/2024/12/06/s...
The stupidest thing about this move — and there’s a lot of stupid here — is the perpetuation of the myth that AI is unbiased. Like the pure machine can correct for humanity’s failings.
LA Times owner plans to add AI-powered ‘bias meter’ on news stories, sparking newsroom backlash. www.cnn.com/2024/12/05/m... "The reader can press a button and get both sides of that exact same story," says the owner.
If you think "critical of" equals "biased about" then you may enjoy this machine.
If you think "critical of" equals "biased about" then you may enjoy this machine.
LA Times owner plans to add AI-powered ‘bias meter’ on news stories, sparking newsroom backlash | CNN Business
Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong, who blocked the newspaper’s endorsement of Kamala Harris and plans to overhaul its editorial board, says he will implement an artificial intelligence-power...
www.cnn.com
December 6, 2024 at 4:49 PM
The stupidest thing about this move — and there’s a lot of stupid here — is the perpetuation of the myth that AI is unbiased. Like the pure machine can correct for humanity’s failings.
Incidentally, if he is confirmed I -- six years sober -- will probably start drinking again.
(Kidding, of course)
(Kidding, of course)
Donald Trump’s secretary of defense pick has made a solemn promise to quit drinking if confirmed to the position.
Hegseth Vows to Get Sober if Confirmed
The embattled Fox News host-turned-secretary of defense nominee denied ever having a drinking problem.
www.thedailybeast.com
December 5, 2024 at 3:26 AM
Incidentally, if he is confirmed I -- six years sober -- will probably start drinking again.
(Kidding, of course)
(Kidding, of course)