“It doesn’t get any better than this,” I texted Brendan minutes before the start of the 2016 NCAA Finals in Houston. “It’s weird. It’s surreal.” Brendan’s answer was a perfect description of the collective energy in the arena that night and the special magic that brought him to that precise moment in time. The basketball angels worked overtime to turn a life-long dream to go to the NCAA Finals into something transcendent; Brendan was not only witnessing basketball history but realizing a personal dream. Underneath all the plans was a deep desire to see our team, Villanova, win the tournament.…
Our Noosphere
By Christine Tracy
I am a media ecologist, student of life, and observer of the current news environment.
Geppetto To The Rescue: Automated Fact-Checkers Are The Antidote For Liars
The 2106 election will be the most fact-checked in history, but will people believe the truth even when it’s verified? Much like an army of truth-telling Geppettos, fact-checking journalists are battling the global pandemic of false and misleading claims so easily spread by the ubiquitous use of smart phones and sophisticated social media apps. While…
“Atomizing” The News To Make It Smarter
Let’s blow up the story and create new forms Politifact Founder and Journalism Professor Bill Adair urged his 2012 Ted talk audience. And that’s exactly what he’s done. Together with with David Caswell, former product manager of Yahoo, Adair is “atmoizing” the news and writing stories for computers to read. They’ve designed a new platform,…
What happens when vast numbers of people focus on the same thing at the same time?
“Our individual minds, though distinct and uniquely ours, may also join with others in a kind of mental symphony that now and then becomes audible against a prevailing background of static,” says Richard Samson, director of the EraNova Institute, whose mission is empowering human development. Using random number generators, scientists from Princeton’s Global Consciousness Project…
Teilhard de Chardin: A Pilgrim Of The Future
Visionary philosopher Jean Houston was 14 when she literally ran into the famous priest, scientist, poet, paleontologist and mystic Pierre Teilhard de Chardin while jogging in Central Park with her dog Champ. Houston developed a strong friendship with the then-aged priest, whom she called Mr. Tayer, and took regular walks with him until his…
Take-Aways from Michael Wolff’s “Television is the New Television: The Unexpected Triumph Of Old Media In the Digital Age.”
Michael Wolff’s PBS interview motivated me to buy his “Television is the New Television: The Unexpected Triumph of Old Media In the Digital Age.” I am very interested in online economic models, and I was intrigued by his ideas about the money behind old and new media. As the title implies, the book is mostly…
The Changing Face Of Activism
Six Lessons From ‘60s Activists “We had the fervent belief that we could change America. We believed in our country, but we believed our country was making some mistakes,” says Roger Manela, an early member of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), a ‘60s political action group founded in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Manela…
How to innovate journalism? Start by reimagining the news story.
The Times must be willing to experiment more in terms of how it presents its content.” That is one of the many findings in this summary of the leaked 2014 New York Times Innovation report published by Harvard’s Neiman Journalism Lab. When one looks closely at the news outlets that are aggressively mastering new digital tools,…
Now I’m A Professor: Wisdom For My Undergrad Self
I was an English major at Villanova University in Villanova, Pennsylvania, a very pretty school on the Main Line of Philadelphia best known for its track and basketball teams. I knew I wanted to be a writer and a reporter, but that was about it. Here’s what I know now that I wish I…
Love Is A Force Of Attraction That Works Through Evolution
I have been wanting to attend a meeting of the American Teilhard Association (ATA) for some time. I have been a member of the association for several years and enjoyed reading their newsletter and monograph series. I was also able to combine my travel to NYC for this year’s meeting with wonderful visits with…
The Writings of Christine M. Tracy 