Media, design & epistemology
Design thinking. Design doing.
When I’m not working on design and communications projects, I’m thinking about public discourse.
I’m interested in science, arts, libraries, research, and shared stories.
This is my personal blog. I can be a bit of a skeptic. I’m interested in media, public discourse, PR, journalism, philosophy, science. Politics.
At work
Professionally, I do brand development, graphic design, illustration, document layout, and communications at Pink Sheep Media .
Writing
Here’s a list of posts about journalism, epistemology, and design.
Find me
Mastodon: @sherwin@mastadon.social
Bluesky: @sherwinarnott.org
Equipment donation scam
All they had to do was send some money for packaging and shipping.
Archiving and curation
When we stare at paradoxes long enough, they can sometimes lose their mystery. When this happens to me, I take…
Guidelines on using a pie chart
This is a question that comes up from time to time regarding knowledge transfer in reports and presentations. When should…
Fresh approaches to skepticism
The skeptic social movement has been a big part of my social and intellectual world. In a world full of…
Journalism is a variety of public relations
Journalists complain about the rise and impact of public relations. It’s the “dark side”. Public relations (PR) “exerts a pressure”…
Masturbation: A Short History of a Great Taboo
Epic short film, Magical Caresses.
Reality testing: measuring the long term impact of journalism
When Margaret Wente was getting busted repeatedly for plagiarizing, her publisher, The Globe and Mail, more or less defended her…
Cognition trick: the Google Effect
We’ve developed a habit of forgetting, or declining to remember, the information that is readily available online.
The stickiness of so-called “reverse racism”
When an idea is “intuitive” but also steeped in a culture war we have a heightened duty to examine it…
The state of hyperlinking in journalism, a case study
From time to time I like to check in on how news orgs are doing with their online publishing practices…
How to stop increasing the reach and impact of hate (and misinformation) on Twitter
Some thoughts on how not to amplify hate accounts on Twitter.
Twitter, hate, harm, and misinformation
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the ambient misogyny and racism (and more) that floats around my Twitter communities…
Music, music history, and generational waves of white supremacy
The more generations that pass by, the more obscured women’s lives are, by waves of patriarchal interests. It’s a kind…
White supremacy, doing journalism, and the explanatory comma
This particular Code Switch episode on the explanatory comma is itself a kind of extended explanatory comma, or perhaps an…
Trudi Lynn Smith is the best
Sunday was coffee with a luminous being studying to be an even more powerful jedi. Art and anthropology Trudi Smith…
Headlines, cognitive processing, and problematic information
Headlines matter. Publishers know it. Good headlines help with the understanding, reach, and impact of a story. Headlines frame articles,…
How to unregister from Signal if you no longer use it as your texting app
Recently I encountered an issue while trying to text a colleague who no longer uses Signal. This app is popular…
Style guides, notes on “jihad”
https://www.wnyc.org/story/breaking-news-consumers-handbook-islamophobia-edition/ Guardian Reuters
Three unforgettable moments in [my] hockey history
Where I grew up in Northern Alberta, hockey was a big deal. My big brother played hockey. And my dad,…
Idea: Journalism is a convenience store
I like to imagine different metaphors for journalism. Consider that the press is a giant inertia machine, for example.1 I…
Journalism is the business of influence
Good journalists do what they do because they care. They have interests. The organizations that employ journalists also are guided…