SMS Radio

Michelle Arrow is a Professor of Modern History at Macquarie University. She explains why the National Archive is heading towards a “digital cliff” if we can’t properly fund and support the digitisation of the literal trove of treasures inside the building. You can read more of Michelle’s work here [https://theconversation.com/our-history-up-in-flames-why-the-crisis-at-the-national-archives-must-be-urgently-addressed-159804] or follow her on Twitter [https://twitter.com/MichelleArrow1]. Also we chat about media vs social media coverage of Palestine and the links between journalism, colonialism and the cult of objectivity. In this ep we mentioned this Conversation article [https://theconversation.com/when-it-comes-to-media-reporting-on-israel-palestine-there-is-nowhere-to-hide-160992?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=bylinetwitterbutton] by Macquarie Uni researcher Annabelle Lukin and various reporting on the statistics of who is being killed [https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2021/05/12/the-human-cost-of-the-israeli-palestinian-conflict-over-the-past-decade-infographic/?sh=7e974b06457b]. For more actual Palestinian voices in the Australian media this week, check out: Jennine Khalik for Pedestrian on why “it’s complicated” is a cop-out [https://www.pedestrian.tv/news/gaza-coverage-by-australian-media-outlets-is-devastating/] Amal Naser for Junkee about watching Sheikh Jarrah unfold as a Palestinian refugee in Australia [https://junkee.com/sheikh-jarrah-nakba/295265] Samiha Olwan in the Guardian on leaving family behind in Gaza [https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/may/20/can-you-postpone-nightfall-every-call-from-gaza-with-my-family-could-be-the-last] Subscribe at radiosms.substack.com [https://radiosms.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast]

Ben Lyall [https://twitter.com/benlyal] is Sociology Research Fellow at Monash University. He joins us to chat about the rise of self-tracking apps for kids, and how one corporation in particular are using branded self-surveillance to sell everyone’s favourite crunchy malted chocolate powder. Also this week, social media has been busted restricting [https://www.google.com/search?q=social+media+take+down+palestine&rlz=1C5CHFA_enAU845AU845&oq=social+media+take+down+palestine&aqs=chrome..69i57j0i10i22i30j0i22i30j0i390l4.4507j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8]and censoring [https://twitter.com/m7mdkurd/status/1392729608039112707?s=21] eyewitness accounts from Sheikh Jarrah. We reflect on how far social media has come since the optimism of the Arab Spring. For more info on the Datafied Child, check out Ben’s research into the Milo Champ Squad [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1329878X211007167]. We also talked about parenting.digital [https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/parenting4digitalfuture/] and Mozilla’s Privacy Not Included [https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/]. Stuff we dig: Listen to what’s happening in Palestine through this Twitter thread of podcasts covering the situation [https://twitter.com/steinertevoy/status/1392968670154952704] Our own Josh Nicholas is working on a Twitter account where people can share how long they’ve been separated from their loved ones [https://twitter.com/Lastwesawthem] Subscribe at radiosms.substack.com [https://radiosms.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast]

Benedetta Crisafulli [https://www.bbk.ac.uk/our-staff/profile/9190671/benedetta-crisafulli] is a Senior Lecturer in Marketing at Birkbeck University in London. Rafqa Touma chats to her about the growing and largely unregulated market power of influencers. Also writer Hannah Copestake [https://twitter.com/internetnerdgrl] on adopting a Cottagecore aesthetic to deal with the pandemic. Stuff we dig: This interview with Evelyn Douek about the crumbling idea of Free Speech on platforms [https://www.wired.com/story/on-social-media-american-style-free-speech-is-dead/] This feature by Josh Taylor from The Guardian on how Cellebrite’s hack-ability will impact how much Australian police love using it to help prosecute criminal cases [https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/may/02/how-the-hacking-of-surveillance-tech-used-by-police-could-undermine-australian-criminal-cases] The news that Uganda is splashing on facial recognition CCTV joining the list of countries using crime as an excuse to expand mass surveillance [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-uganda-crime/ugandas-cash-strapped-cops-spend-126-million-on-cctv-from-huawei-idUSKCN1V50RF] Also, check out this award-winning AI which promises to end gender inequality in the workplace by generating CV brags. [https://www.bigup.ai/] Does it work? Well… No. Subscribe at radiosms.substack.com [https://radiosms.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast]

Dr Monish Bhatia is a Lecturer in Criminology at the Birkbeck University of London where he researches the use of electronic monitoring on refugees in the UK. Since a similar scheme has been proposed in Australia in lieu of indefinite detention, Miles chats to Monish about what happens when you turn society into a prison. Read more of Monish’s work here [https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/42588/]. And more on how Australia uses electronic monitoring here [https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/sep/01/fears-australia-being-turned-into-a-prison-after-surge-in-electronic-monitoring-of-offenders]. Stuff we dig: This Conversation piece we referenced in the show about why NSW Police and Tinder teaming up is a bad idea [https://theconversation.com/nsw-police-want-access-to-tinders-sexual-assault-data-cybersafety-experts-explain-why-its-a-date-with-disaster-159811] Also more detail on India’s speech crackdown over their COVID crisis [https://twitter.com/N_Waters89/status/1387480447853244420?s=20] Meanwhile Joe Rogan is telling people not to get vaccinated so it’s really cool he still has a platform [https://www.theverge.com/2021/4/27/22406315/joe-rogan-vaccine-spotify-podcast-covid-19] We happen to totally agree that Substack is a pyramid scheme (ours is/will always be free and accessible to non-subscribers!!) [https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/apr/29/substack-news-writing-pyramind-scheme] This Rest of World story about Mexico City’s incredible grid of video surveillance and how it does f**k all to actually help people [https://restofworld.org/2021/mexico-city-security-theater/https://restofworld.org/2021/mexico-city-security-theater/] Some cool archaeology news about using modelling tech to map prehistoric human movement [https://theconversation.com/we-mapped-the-super-highways-the-first-australians-used-to-cross-the-ancient-land-154263] The latest Flash Forward pod take down of the Smart City [https://www.flashforwardpod.com/2021/04/27/what-if-our-cities-were-smart/] And finally, speaking of the situation in India: Subscribe at radiosms.substack.com [https://radiosms.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast]

In the wake of the Capitol Hill insurrection, Cam Wilson joined us to chat about the Australian media’s relationship to the far right ecosystem, and how to cover hate without giving a platform. Cam Wilson [https://twitter.com/cameronwilson] is an internet and tech reporter for Crikey News and previously Gizmodo. Among many other things, Cam has reported on Sky News [https://www.businessinsider.com.au/sky-news-australia-biggest-social-media-channel-culture-wars-2020-11]’ digital reach; Australia’s role in Capitol Hill [https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2021/01/how-australia-helped-pave-the-way-for-the-us-insurrection/]; and neo-Nazis [https://www.crikey.com.au/2021/04/20/leaked-neo-nazi-manual-manipulating-media-recruit/]. **Re-broadcast from January 2021** Stuff we dig: This WIRED long read about the hackers who tried to fix McDonald’s soft-serve [https://www.wired.com/story/they-hacked-mcdonalds-ice-cream-makers-started-cold-war/] More hacking news, this time from Signal’s founder doing internet security a solid [https://signal.org/blog/cellebrite-vulnerabilities/] MIT Technology Review on growing regulation against algorithmic bias which really just shows how long it takes to get the most basic guidelines up and running [https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/04/21/1023254/ftc-eu-ai-regulation-bias-algorithms-civil-rights/?utm_campaign=site_visitor.unpaid.engagement&utm_medium=tr_social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1619026121] And, finally, remember NFT’s? That thing you can use to buy minted Armie Hammer DMs? [https://www.insider.com/armie-hammer-messages-sex-slaves-sold-as-nft-daily-beast-2021-4] Subscribe at radiosms.substack.com [https://radiosms.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast]