11th march quicklinks: first, kill all the journalists

...not really. but many of the links i have from this past week have an element of critiquing the media to them, so i thought i'd pluck the low-hanging fruit, theme-wise.

totalitarian kitsch: i'm as guilty as anyone else of this particular offense. in light of the recent oppressive quashing of revolutions, the sometimes outrageously hypocritical responses to them, and the disheartening and infuriating revelations about US intellectuals' roles in the rehabilitation of dictators' images, can we afford not to re-examine the role that we, as media purveyors and consumers, have in downplaying the crimes of dictators by painting them as wacky but harmless, or even sort of adorable? the ajnabee has some thoughts.

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from bitch media, a guide to getting past the terrible, sensationalist coverage that too often characterizes scientific reporting, particularly on gender, race, and culture. [h/t christine]

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speaking of feminist media i enjoy, jezebel reported on the follow up to the DKE fraternity rape chant at yale, where they've done an admirable of committing to seriously looking at the university's culture and policies on sexual misconduct and misogyny. most of the post is the email sent from yale college dean mary miller, who deserves a LOT of credit for getting things rolling in a legitimate way. the fact that she was the master of my residential college (SAY WHAT? SAYBROOK!) and, briefly, my advisor, shouldn't invalidate it when i say that she is a feminist and general baller of the first order. i DO wish that the article had given more of a shout out to the yale women faculty forum, which submitted the original report with recommendations for reforming sexual misconduct policy at yale even before the DKE incident (full disclosure: i drafted it). but still. heady times.

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neelika jayawardane offers a very cogent, and rightfully indignant criticism of a newsweek "guide for seize-the-day types" on where to travel before the next revolution hits. as if the general premise weren't in pretty poor taste, and the descriptions weren't rife with essentializing Orientalist crap, jayawardane points out that the authors don't even seem to have a very good sense of the political situations they're commenting on. the description of nepal's current status is sparse and sort of unobjectionable, except for the sort of weird, historical non-sequitor about china, which didn't actually border nepal until the annexation of tibet (with whom nepal HAD fought several previous wars), at which point CHINA chose to close the border. [h/t blattman]

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and (one of) my internet crush(es), scott gilmore at PDT, has a serious gripe with selective coverage of kidnappings, and how that affects the safety of aid workers.

happy weekend!