“Today is a celebration for my colleagues at RT, Sputnik, and other outlets, because Trump unexpectedly announced that he’s closing down Radio Liberty and Voice of America, and now they’re closed. This is an awesome decision,” said Margarita Simonyan, RT’s chief editor. - NiemanLab
“There could be deep psychological – even evolutionary – factors behind the success of Minecraft and games like it, say experts. Such games tap into an innate instinct within all of us – one that underpins the success of our entire species. The desire to build.” - BBC
There is a sizeable body of research looking at how gender, sexuality and interconnecting identities are represented in video games. - The Conversation
“As the deadline nears for TikTok‘s Chinese parent to cut a deal to divest controlling ownership of the app or face a U.S. ban, new bidders are coming out of the woodwork. Among the interested investors in TikTok is Tim Stokely, founder of OnlyFans. … In addition, Amazon submitted a last-minute offer.” - Variety
Radio Liechtenstein, which began broadcasting in 1995, went off the air at 6:00 pm Thursday, following a referendum last October in which 55.4% of voters elected to revoke the law that funds the station. Plans for privatization never materialized, as no buyer appeared interested in such a tiny market. - AP
Pursuant to a judge’s order, the US Agency for Global Media said last week it has rescinded its decision to terminate funding for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Yet no money has actually arrived from Washington, so the agency has started furloughing all staff at its headquarters in Prague. - Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
“When we were less assaulted by news on a daily basis — and, crucially, when we had no access to social media — April Fool adverts did manage to make us laugh.” But our relationship with truth and misinformation wasn’t quite as fraught back then as it is in 2025. - Prospect (UK)
Works like Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation (1974) and Sydney Pollack’s Three Days of the Condor (1975) were rife with anxiety about the country’s future, unsure if change was possible. - The Nation
The question is central to two wrongful dismissal lawsuits now before courts: those of Gina Carano, fired by Disney from The Mandalorian for social media posts which clashed with the public image Disney wishes to maintain, and Brent Sexton, dropped from Apple’s Manhunt for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine. - The Hollywood Reporter
The “No NPR and PBS Act” would simply prohibit funding of either network. It mirrors a bill Ronny Jackson introduced in March 2023 that says federal funding could not be used to purchase programming or payment of dues for either one of the national networks. - InsideRadio
Revisiting the long-running series’s biggest misstep: the January 6, 2012, episode, “Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory,” and its sequel, “Retraction,” which aired two months later. - Literary Hub
NPR can weather the funding cut, its document predicts, thanks in part to aggrieved listeners: Executives predict a sudden boom in donations if Congress defunds it, as listeners rush to defend their favorite programs. But they will likely give more in big-city markets. - The New York Times
A plummet in international co-productions is one major factor that led to an expected surplus for the past year becoming a £33 million ($42.5 million) deficit. (That followed a £492 million/$634 million deficit the previous year.) So the BBC’s content budget has been reduced by £150 million to £2.5 billion ($3.222 billion). - Deadline
It was only two years ago that actors and writers shut down Hollywood with strikes demanding protections from AI. Now the technology is controversially creeping into TV, movies and video games. Two films honoured at the Oscars even used the technology. - BBC
What if this so-called “extinction-level event” isn’t the end of journalism but just the end of a certain kind of journalism? It’s a crisis, yes—for the people losing their jobs, for the old-school media barons, for the hedge funds. But for journalism as an institution? - The Walrus
