Thursday, October 17, 2024

BIG Mouth

It’s time to shift the focus of this Titanic struggle

Am I stranded alone on an island here, or is it everyone else that is missing the boat? Since before COVID-19 became a thing in North America, it has been clear that this virus really picks on those who are not in shipshape. Yes, there are statistical outliers that mainstream media tend to showcase as much as possible, but the fact is, the majority of severe outcomes from COVID infection are among people who did not possess...

Striving to avoid bias in our own coverage

We have said from the beginning that BIG Media’s goal is to provide objective, unbiased, spin-free journalism. But this was never and will never be an easy mark to hit. One of my earliest articles, Nudge and the uneasy pursuit of context and objectivity, on nudges spoke about bias. It generated a great deal of commentary from readers. Even my closest friends told me that being unbiased would be close to impossible. They were right;...

A case study on expert testimony and accuracy in vaccine effectiveness reporting

As part of my research for this article Mounting COVID frustration is no reason to abandon fundamental principles, BIG Media, I read an article in a news post about a Texas doctor, her data on infectivity between the vaccinated and unvaccinated, and the doctor’s conclusions about vaccine effectiveness. I noted to myself that the doctor’s conclusions appeared suspicious and that the news report failed to either note the anomalous report or support its incongruity. This led...

When failure is not failure: the rationality of positivity amid catastrophe

No one looks forward to failing, or to enduring an accident. We want to succeed in every aspect of our personal and professional lives and with our goals. We believe these things are important to achieving success. And it is difficult to argue with that desire. Everyone loves a winner, and we all like to win. But not every missed goal – in the short term – is necessarily a terrible thing, and not...

Join us in the fight against apathy

"Apathy can be overcome by enthusiasm, and enthusiasm can only be aroused by two things: first, an ideal, with takes the imagination by storm, and, second, a definite intelligible plan for carrying that ideal into practice." – Arnold J. Toynbee There is no shortage of signals that North American society is spiralling toward utter chaos. The chasm between the left and right grows wider and deeper by the day. Whether it is Democrats vs Republicans, Liberals vs...

BIG team making big waves

Please indulge me while I help explain how in just 8 months our little startup has managed to make a BIG impact on the media scene. With plenty of assistance from co-founder Laurie Weston, I constructed what I believed to be a heck of a business model that would allow us to introduce new levels of truth and accuracy in news reporting. Then the team at Innovative Digital Solutions helped build a beautiful, high-functioning site...

It’s time to challenge modern-day bullies

One year ago, I was enjoying a constructive debate on the big issue of the day on the thread of one of my LinkedIn posts. People from all over North America were weighing in with their insights. Some even commented about how nice it was to be having a respectful discussion featuring many viewpoints. Then a prominent Calgary doctor joined the discussion with what he intended to be a mic-drop moment. I challenged him, as...

California university students renew faith in future of media

My faith in humanity has been restored. When former marketing agency client Fiona Robinson asked me to be a guest lecturer in the Solving Big World Challenges class that she and fellow professor Dr. David Askay lead at California Polytechnic State University, I was glad to oblige. The theme for the current semester is “Misinformation”. I am quite familiar with misinformation in the media (though I do not practise it), but I was concerned that the...

Assigning blame in the latest Facebook fiasco

OMG. OMG. OMG. I am reading the transcript of this week's 60 Minutes interview with whistleblower Frances Haugen, a data scientist who since June 2019 has been working as a product manager at Facebook. "When we live in an information environment that is full of angry, hateful, polarizing content, it erodes our civic trust, it erodes our faith in each other, it erodes our ability to want to care for each other," Haugen said to CBS correspondent Scott...

Tough times for the intelligent set

It is a very difficult time to be an intelligent, respectful person. I have surrounded myself with accomplished scientists and am privy to conversations that help me understand their plight. When someone says, "What is wrong with the unvaccinated; can't they see that the science is settled, and that it is incredibly selfish to avoid vaccination?", my astute associates would say something like, "Anyone who understands science knows that we are all still learning about COVID-19 vaccines,...