On the Media

Fact-checkers, and facts, become the targets of criticism, the reason why scammers tell you they're from Nigeria, and Florida's weirdness explained.  

The end of politicians tailoring their messages based on audience, license plate tracking nationwide, and following up with the people communicating the Libyan revolution one year later.

Talking about Ayn Rand's influence on Paul Ryan and the political landscape at large, half-truths and outright lies in this season's political advertising, remembering Cosmopolitan editor Helen Gurley Brown, and a website that tracks all the homicides in Washington D.C.

How one journalist lost his digital life to hackers, how worried you should be about Cyberwar, and the fascinating trial of punk band Pussy Riot in Russia. 

Criticism for how NBC is broadcasting the Olympics, the difference between venture capital and private equity, and revealing a public person's sexual orientation after death.

Syrian rebels appealing to donors through videos online, extreme measures to protect Olympic sponsorships, and a self proclaimed media manipulator tells all.

The death of the Disclose Act in the Senate, journalists getting quote approval from presidential campaigns before publication, an app that identifies the organizations behind political ads using sound alone, and an online museum that preserves endangered sounds.

A website that lets you argue with a complete stranger about politics over the phone, how online books sellers can monitor you reading a book WHILE you read it, and Bob examines his practice of binge-watching TV shows.

Bob looks at why some news organizations find it more important to be first than to be right, the benefits and risks of storing information in the 'cloud,' and the secret to Buzzfeed's success. Also, the history of the TV pitchman. 

Data. We’re awash in it, we make it, we save it, computers crunch it at an unprecedented rate. Radiolab’s Jad Abumrad talks with Brooke about how data inform us and can lead us astray.

This week, Brooke is joined by WNYC reporter Marianne McCune as OTM reports from Mexico! This hour features stories on the relationship between media and politics—and the youth-led movement that's fed up with it; the difficulties for journalists reporting in areas run by the drug cartels; and the image problem Mexico faces on the international stage. As we heard time and again while in Mexico: when it comes to the Mexican media, "it's very complicated."

The PR firms that work for dictators, a reporter decides whether to put the camera down, and a Lexicon Valley installment about an algorithm that detects anachronisms in Mad Men and Downton Abbey.

The importance of your right to petition your leaders in person, the 'secret' classified drone strike program and Ray Bradbury passes away.

How the US government differentiates between civilian and combatant casualties of drone strikes, the lengths Hollywood will go to please the Chinese government, and the "genericide" of Google.

On the Media explores the world of television, including how the industry is coping with changing consumer habits, the future of the communal viewing experience, and television on the web.