Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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A.J. Bauer @ajbauer.bsky.social · 1d

Check out my latest, this time for Time magazine’s Made By History series:

time.com/7318570/cbs-...

CBS Has Been in Conservative Sights for Decades

It was once deemed the "Communist Broadcasting System" by conservative activists.

time.com

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Julie Parsonnet @julieparsonnet.bsky.social · 6d

Thank you, UPenn AAUP, for your powerful response to the administration's "invitation" (correctly renamed "threat") to join their academic compact. #academicfreedom #defendhighered @aaup-penn.bsky.social @aaup.org

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Jeet Heer @jeetheer.bsky.social · 21d

This is the biggest attack on free speech since the McCarthy era but it also has significantly less popular consensus behind it than the second Red Scare. It's being done on behalf of a minority faction led by the most unpopular president in modern history. Organizing against this can win.

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Aileen Fyfe @aileenfyfe.bsky.social · 20d

You've got to love #openaccess for books (if you can fund it). Now ~19,000 downloads for A History of Scientific Journals: publishing at the Royal Society 1665-2015. Unbelievable figures, compared to traditional academic book publishing! From @uclpress.bsky.social or www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv...

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Michael Socolow @michaelsocolow.bsky.social · 21d

In Project 2025, Brendan Carr [current the FCC Chairman] wrote "The FCC should promote freedom of speech... [and] pro-growth reforms that support a diversity of viewpoints." (p.877).

"Federal Communications Commission" Brendan Carr Mission Statement.

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Dr. Nick Posegay @nposegay.bsky.social · 21d

I'm sorry, worldwide, irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable permission to my voice and likeness? For what now? In any manner for any purpose???

This is in academia/.edu's new ToS, which you're prompted to agree to on login. Anyway I'll be jumping ship. You can find my stuff at hcommons.org.

By creating an Account with Academia.edu, you grant us a worldwide, irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable license, permission, and consent for Academia.edu to use your Member Content and your personal information (including, but not limited to, your name, voice, signature, photograph, likeness, city, institutional affiliations, citations, mentions, publications, and areas of interest) in any manner, including for the purpose of advertising, selling, or soliciting the use or purchase of Academia.edu's Services.

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Daniel Feshbach @danielprime.bsky.social · 21d

How to delete your account without agreeing to the new TOS:

In the dialogue box asking you to agree, DO NOT click agree. Instead, click on the TOS link which will open another tab. In the top right of that tab you can go to your account settings and delete your account.

Ordinary Notes @hystericalblkns.bsky.social · 21d

If you’re on academia dot edu, let me suggest that you strongly consider deleting your account.

The new TOC from academia dot edu.

By creating an Account with Academia.edu, you grant us a worldwide, irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable license, permission, and consent for Academia.edu to use your Member Content and your personal information (including, but not limited to, your name, voice, signature, photograph, likeness, city, institutional affiliations, citations, mentions, publications, and areas of interest) in any manner, including for the purpose of advertising, selling, or soliciting the use or purchase of Academia.edu's Services.

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Kevin Sanders @kjsanders.bsky.social · 25d

Essential reading: “AI Scraping of OA Content Warrants a Collective Response” doi.org/10.21428/ae6... from @punctumbooks.bsky.social

AI Scraping of OA Content Warrants a Collective Response

doi.org

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Jeroen Sondervan @jeroenson.bsky.social · Sep 8

What might seem like a small announcement—it’s just one institution—actually carries substantial weight and has a strong symbolic meaning.

@utrechtuniversity.bsky.social, has taken another bold step: it won't renew its Web of Science license. www.uu.nl/en/news/acce...

Access to Web of Science will end on 1 January 2026

The university library has decided not to renew the licence for access to the Web of Science citation database (including Journal Citation Reports).

www.uu.nl

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skellyton bones jensen @heykellyjensen.bsky.social · Sep 2

THEY VOTED TO RESTORE THE IMLS FUNDING.

This isn't the end. It's nowhere near the end. But the House and Senate subcommittees voted to restore the IMLS in their budget markups.

Full House budget markup is tomorrow.

skellyton bones jensen @heykellyjensen.bsky.social · Sep 2

The House subcommittee marking up the budget containing the IMLS meets *tonight* at 5 pm eastern.

appropriations.house.gov/schedule/mar...

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Victor Pickard @victorpickard.bsky.social · Sep 2

Read and weep... and then begin planning for building something entirely new out of the ashes.

Brendan Carr’s Mission to Remake the FCC

The Trump-appointed chairman is turning the agency into an instrument to advance the President’s anti-democratic agenda.

progressive.org

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Juan Llamas-Rodriguez @llamasjr.bsky.social · Sep 2

🎙️ Check out my conversation with @petecant.bsky.social about the #MediaTravels collection!

We discuss the need for all media studies to be global media studies, the barriers to achieving this, and the value of embracing partial and fragmentary knowledges.

newbooksnetwork.com/media-travels

Media Travels: Toward an Atlas of Global Media

Media Travels: Toward An Atlas of Global Media fills a significant gap in global media scholarship by offering short, readable articles covering different types of media from around the world. Through...

www.fulcrum.org

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Samuel Moore @samuelmoore.org · Aug 26

Received the print copy of my book (out next week!). Obligatory shot with @theul.bsky.social in the background.

A copy of a book in front of Cambridge university library.

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mediastudiespress.bsky.social @mediastudiespress.bsky.social · Aug 31

The August History of Media Studies newsletter is out, with updates about the journal, new bibliography additions, and CFPs!

History of Media Studies Newsletter August 2025

History of Media Studies Newsletter August 2025 Welcome to the 52nd edition of the History of Media Studies Newsletter. The monthly email, assembled by Dave...

buttondown.email

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Kim Weeden @weedenkim.bsky.social · Aug 30

Saddened to hear of the passing of Dr. Rossiter, who told the stories of the many forgotten and underappreciated women of science.

Like many women of her generation, she survived academia by developing a tough exterior, but her support for jr women, myself included, was unwavering.

RIP, Margaret.

Margaret W. Rossiter, 81, Dies; Wrote Women Scientists Into History

www.nytimes.com

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Adam Keiper @adamkeiper.com · Aug 30

Thank goodness for the Internet Archive. I'm so glad it exists—it's such an important tool for truth and for memory, especially at this moment.

(This particular rant brought to you by finding that a report was deleted from the CDC website but is, thankfully, preserved in the Internet Archive.)

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Timmons Roberts @timmonsroberts.bsky.social · Aug 25

My lab's been attacked by an anti-wind group and their lawyers. They threatened the science funding of my whole university, to shut me and my undergraduate research assistants up.

NYT just covered it. 1/n

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/25/c...

Law Firm Pressures Brown University to Erase Research on Anti-Wind Groups

www.nytimes.com

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Jeff Pooley @jpooley.bsky.social · Aug 11

All true and yes, ACS. But the nonprofit distinction still matters, as a necessary but clearly not sufficient baseline

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Dan Hassler-Forest @danhf.bsky.social · Jul 9

An open letter of resignation from myself and many other book series editors at Amsterdam University Press, following its recent acquisition by the notoriously exploitative academic publishing conglomerate Taylor & Francis.

Vinzenz Hediger @vinzenzhediger.bsky.social · Jul 9

The time has come to reinvent academic publishing. Over the last years conglomerates have bought up once respectable publishers and turned them into rent extraction machines, generating obscene profits from tax-payer funded research and unremunerated academic labor./
mediastudies.hypotheses.org/6850

Sale of the Amsterdam University Press (AUP) film, media and communication list to Taylor & Francis – Resignation of series editors and editorial board members

It is with great dismay that we, the undersigned, learned that the film, media and communication list of Amsterdam University Press (AUP) has been taken over by Taylor & Francis, a subsidiary of Infor...

mediastudies.hypotheses.org

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Open Humanities Press @openhumanities.bsky.social · Jul 16

Culture Machine is happy to announce Vol 25 (2026), University as Infrastructure, will be guest-edited by Alexandra Anikina, Johannes Bruder, Megen de Bruin-Molé, Stephen Cornford, Kwame Phillips & Geoff Cox.

Read the full CfP at Culture Machine’s website: culturemachine.net/vol25-cfp-un...

CM Vol 25 CfP University as Infrastructure

Culture Machine Vol. 25 Call for Papers: University as Infrastructure Guest-edited by: Alexandra Anikina, Johannes Bruder, Megen de Bruin-Molé, Stephen Cornford, Kwame Phillips & Geoff Cox …

culturemachine.net

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Samuel Moore @samuelmoore.org · Jul 12

There's a lot of focus on the strategy by publishers of accepting more papers to receive as many APCs as possible, but they also hope to pay for as little labour as possible to process these papers. So you end up with academics doing more production work, more outsourcing and now lots of AI.

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The Media, Inequality & Change Center @miccenter.bsky.social · Jul 9

"In the face of government strong-arming, profit-seeking media organizations predictably sacrifice their journalistic principles rather than jeopardize their commercial interests."

Read @victorpickard.bsky.social's newest article on the implications of Paramount's settlement with Trump:

The Media’s Profits Trump Democracy, Once Again

Paramount’s settlement with Trump is a symptom of deep structural rot in our corporate media system.

www.thenation.com

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alice e marwick @alicetiara.bsky.social · Jul 9

Wow, the film/media/comm list of AUP was sold to Taylor & Francis (huge conglom that makes $$$$ on research that we do on our own dime, submit for free, revise for free, review for free, and pay for OA)- a bunch of editors promptly quit & I suspect more are forthcoming. Good for them

Vinzenz Hediger @vinzenzhediger.bsky.social · Jul 9

The time has come to reinvent academic publishing. Over the last years conglomerates have bought up once respectable publishers and turned them into rent extraction machines, generating obscene profits from tax-payer funded research and unremunerated academic labor./
mediastudies.hypotheses.org/6850

Sale of the Amsterdam University Press (AUP) film, media and communication list to Taylor & Francis – Resignation of series editors and editorial board members

It is with great dismay that we, the undersigned, learned that the film, media and communication list of Amsterdam University Press (AUP) has been taken over by Taylor & Francis, a subsidiary of Infor...

mediastudies.hypotheses.org

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Victor Pickard @victorpickard.bsky.social · Jul 2

Straight out of Viktor Orbán's playbook: Weaponize media law and policy, exploit oligopolistic ownership structures, threaten profits -- any tool at Trump's disposal that can be deployed to beat media institutions into submission. His final goal is for all media to look and sound like Fox News.

Victor Pickard @victorpickard.bsky.social · Jul 2

This is beyond mind blowing. And it is exhibit A for why an oligarchic profit-driven media system is bad for democracy.

Paramount agrees to pay $16 million to settle Trump's CBS ‘60 Minutes' lawsuit

President Trump had filed a $20 billion lawsuit claiming a ‘60 Minutes' interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris was manipulated to show her in a flattering light. Trump alleged the news inte...

www.latimes.com

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Larry Glickman @larryglickman.bsky.social · Jul 2

From Ezra Klein’s interview last year with Oren Cass:
Just to be clear: nothing changed, there has been no “factional struggle,” and JD Vance, like Trump, has consistently supported traditional Republican priorities that harm the working-class.

Hearing a stadium full of Republicans cheer the idea of being a pro-union party? That’s different. Something is changing here. Where or not it actually changes, I don’t think we know yet. But there is some factional struggle happening in the Republican Party. And in picking Vance, Trump has given a lot of power to the emergent faction.

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