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kittenstrudel.bsky.social
Terry Ananny, Winter Village, acrylic on canvas, 2006
January 13, 2026 at 2:38 PM
kittenstrudel.bsky.social
Terry Ananny, Winter Village, acrylic on canvas, 2006
January 27, 2025 at 3:20 PM
shengokai.blacksky.app
Week 5: Beer – The Social Power of Algorithms
Crawford – Can an Algorithm Be Agonistic

Week 6: Williams – Bias Optimizers
Ananny – Seeing Like An Algorithm
Benjamin – Race After Technology Ch.2

(Shout out to @wolvendamien.bsky.social )
August 19, 2023 at 2:52 AM
benpatrickwill.bsky.social
Detecting some defensive (and dismissive) responses to critical takes on AI in education lately. My view, drawing in part on this short piece by Mike Ananny, is AI in education is a public problem that can't be left to charismatics, engineers, or entrepreneurs issues.org/ai-public-pr...
March 16, 2024 at 11:03 PM
mikeananny.bsky.social
With big thanks to editors extraordinaire @katehennessy.bsky.social & Stephanie Takaragawa, of forthcoming "Bad Habitus" volume, I'm thrilled to share my new essay:

"Good Enough Generative AI? The Ambivalences of Settling for Sufficient Synthetic Media"

Preprint: drive.google.com/file/d/1qxm4...
Screen capture of first page of essay: "Ananny, M. (Forthcoming). Good Enough Generative AI? The Ambivalences of Settling for Sufficient Synthetic Media. In Hennessy, Kate & Stephanie Takaragawa (Eds). Bad Habitus: Toward an Anthropology of the Multimodal. New York: Routledge. Good Enough Generative AI? The Ambivalences of Settling for Sufficient Synthetic Media Mike Ananny ABSTRACT What kind of problem is Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI)? Though it is arguably a technology with varied social, political, cultural, and economic dynamics, its instability and resistance to easy characterization stems in part from how well it elides the question of what, exactly, makes it ‘good enough.’ This chapter examines the idea of ‘good enough’ GenAI by critically interrogating various scenes of GenAI in terms of pragmatist philosophy, tracing what makes GenAI sufficient for communication, and framing ‘bad habitus’ as the sociotechnical process of constructing ‘good enough’ technology."
June 1, 2026 at 3:57 PM
puellaludens.bsky.social
tomorrow! "‘Stabilising Generative AI as a Public Concern’" with Mike Annany, as part of the Critical AI Studies Seminar Series: www.create.humanities.uva.nl/events/2-cri...
#2 Critical AI Seminar Series: Stabilising Generative AI as a Public Concern
Invited lecture by Mike Ananny  on ‘Stabilising Generative AI as a Public Concern’ Mike Ananny is an associate professor of communication and journalism at USC Annenberg, where he studies how technolo...
www.create.humanities.uva.nl
December 2, 2024 at 8:36 PM
clearwing3.bsky.social
Mike Ananny, a media scholar I interviewed for my history of @theonion.com, did a study of Facebook fact checkers. And they told him by far the biggest problem was not incorrect facts about economics or whatever but urban legends, which were absolutely rampant.
cethanleahy.com Cethan Leahy @cethanleahy.com · Apr 27
When I was a kid, I was obsessed with urban legends and conspiracies and I now wonder if I accidentally gave myself a media literacy course.
April 27, 2025 at 5:09 PM
nataliialaba.com
Stabilising Generative AI as a Public Concern? Mike Ananny on the interplay between "seeing something as having gone wrong as an indication of what people think it means for a system to go right" at #CriticalAI seminar series, program & sign up at www.create.humanities.uva.nl/events/2-cri... 🧵/1
#2 Critical AI Seminar Series: Stabilising Generative AI as a Public Concern
Invited lecture by Mike Ananny  on ‘Stabilising Generative AI as a Public Concern’ Mike Ananny is an associate professor of communication and journalism at USC Annenberg, where he studies how technolo...
www.create.humanities.uva.nl
December 3, 2024 at 4:59 PM
dluitse.bsky.social
For session #2 on December 3, 5:30–7 PM (CET), @mikeananny.bsky.social will focus on his exciting conceptual project 'stabalizing generative AI as a public concern' — registration here: www.create.humanities.uva.nl/events/2-cri...
#2 Critical AI Seminar Series: Stabilising Generative AI as a Public Concern
Invited lecture by Mike Ananny  on ‘Stabilising Generative AI as a Public Concern’ Mike Ananny is an associate professor of communication and journalism at USC Annenberg, where he studies how technolo...
www.create.humanities.uva.nl
November 27, 2024 at 11:59 AM
mikeananny.bsky.social
So much is broken right now, but I want to share an amazing new set of short, teachable interdisciplinary essays on

** Sociotechnical Error **

Live at IJOC journal @ijoc-usc.bsky.social: ijoc.org/index.php/ij... (scroll to Forum)

Intro by me & Simogne Hudson: ijoc.org/index.php/ij...

Pls share!
Headline: " International Journal of Communication Publishes a Forum on "Oops? Interdisciplinary Stories of Sociotechnical Error"" Abstract: " What can we learn about people and technology through interdisciplinary stories of sociotechnical errors, failures, breakdowns, and mistakes? Guest edited by Mike Ananny and Simogne Hudson, the Forum on Oops? Interdisciplinary Stories of Sociotechnical Error takes up the question through a playful and provocative mix of projects that show how sociotechnical errors happen, why they matter, and what they reveal about people, technology, and power. Amidst so many complex collisions among people, data, engineering, and media—and in an age when technological "innovation" is widely celebrated and inescapable—these articles offer changes to pause and ask what system failures show about how people and machines intersect and vie for power. Including scholars from communication, media studies, urban planning, critical data studies, and science and technology studies, the collection of essays invites readers to see failures anew—to consider errors, breakdowns, and mistakes from a different perspective, method, or normative stake. Use these essays to start conversations about what "error" means in your work or community, and why it matters. We invite you to read these articles that published in the International Journal of Communication on April 23, 2025. Please log into ijoc.org to read the papers of interest. We look forward to your feedback!" List of authors and essay titles: Oops? Sociotechnical Errors as Interdisciplinary Stories of Complex Relations, Shared Consequences, and Resilient Hopes—Introduction Mike Ananny, Simogne Hudson Uncertainty as Spectacle: Real-Time Algorithmic Techniques on the Live Music Stage Stephen Yang When Faulty AI Falls Into the Wrong Hands: The Risks of Erroneous AI-Driven Healthcare Decisions Eugene Jang Fake It Till You Make It: Synthetic Data and Algorithmic Bias Sook-Lin Toh, Jiwon Park Discourses of Sociotechnical Error and Accuracy in U.S. and PRC News Media: The Case of the 1999 Bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade Max Berwald Affective Experiences of Error Megan Finn, Youngrim Kim, Ryan Ellis, Amelia Acker, Bidisha Chaudhuri, Stacey Wedlake Peeling Back the Layers of “Paint on Rotten Wood”: Unraveling the Senate’s “Big Tech and Child Sexual Exploitation Crisis” Hearing Kyooeun Jang Kicking Error Out of the Game: Video Assistant Referee as Technosolutionism Pratik Nyaupane, Alejandro Alvarado Rojas When User Consent Fails: How Platforms Undermine Data Governance Rohan Grover Ephemeral Platforms, Enduring Memories: Errors and Digital Afterlife Sui Wang :Chatting: Errors in Live Streamer Discord Servers Kirsten Crowe Hole in the (Pay)Wall: Monetized Access, Content Leaks, and Community Responsibility Celeste Oon Edges, Seams, and Ecotones: Error in Interstate Landscapes Cindy Lin, Steve J. Jackson Quantifying Housing Need in California: The Erroneous Practice of Evidence-Based Policy Elana R. Simon
April 24, 2025 at 4:12 PM
dluitse.bsky.social
✨ Join us tomorrow ✨ We are very excited to have @mikeananny.bsky.social joining the online #CriticalAI seminar series for his talk 'Stabilising Generative AI as a Public Concern'

🗓️ December 3, from 5.30-7PM (CET). Sign up: www.create.humanities.uva.nl/events/2-cri...
#2 Critical AI Seminar Series: Stabilising Generative AI as a Public Concern
Invited lecture by Mike Ananny  on ‘Stabilising Generative AI as a Public Concern’ Mike Ananny is an associate professor of communication and journalism at USC Annenberg, where he studies how technolo...
www.create.humanities.uva.nl
December 2, 2024 at 3:00 PM
knightcolumbia.org
2:45PM–4:00PM ET: PANEL 4 – New Frontiers for Protecting the Press Function. Speakers: Mike Ananny, USC; @ckoningisor.bsky.social, U.C. Law San Francisco; @jnvictor.bsky.social, Cardozo School of Law;
@attorneynora.bsky.social, Free Press. Moderator: @katygb.bsky.social.
April 9, 2024 at 6:29 PM
mikeananny.bsky.social
“Canadians should expect straight answers from media companies about their policies & principles for dealing with American content, Ananny says.

‘Cdn ownership & Cdn control of media needs to be bright-line separated from the U.S; it can’t just be a carrier.’”

Great talk w @nestruck.bsky.social
February 20, 2026 at 11:58 PM
altibel.bsky.social
"Public problems are collectively debated, accounted for, and managed; they are not the purview of private companies or self-identified caretakers who work on their own timelines with proprietary knowledge. Truly public problems are never outsourced to private interests or charismatic authorities."
To Reckon with Generative AI, Make It a Public Problem
Recasting generative artificial intelligence as a “public problem” offers new avenues for action, Mike Ananny writes.
issues.org
March 27, 2024 at 10:19 AM
columjournreview.bsky.social
AI is already changing how journalists operate. Reporters, editors, executives, and others across the news industry share their advice on how to engage—and where to draw the line. By Mike Ananny and Matt Pearce in collaboration with USC's AI for Media & Storytelling. www.cjr.org/feature-2/ho...
How We’re Using AI
The rapid development of AI is already changing how journalists operate. Reporters, editors, executives, and others across the news industry share their advice on how to engage—and where to draw the l...
www.cjr.org
May 13, 2025 at 10:28 PM
mediatechdemocracy.bsky.social
In our second panel of the evening, @anjakaradeglija.bsky.social ‬was joined by @jessicajohnson.bsky.social‬ and @mikeananny.bsky.social‬ to discuss how public media remains vital to democratic health in a fragmented information ecosystem.
Jessica Johnson, Senior Fellow, Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy and Former Editor-in-Chief, The Walrus Mike Ananny, Professor, USC Annenberg School for Communications and Journalism Anja Karadeglija,Tech Reporter, the Canadian Press
June 11, 2025 at 10:15 PM
stephenyang.bsky.social
Check out my colleagues’ and my work on sociotechnical errors published in @ijoc-usc.bsky.social (edited by Mike Ananny and Simogne Hudson)! I found the collection incredibly illuminating in helping me think through how errors are/may be claimed, mobilized, accounted for, and cared for
mikeananny.bsky.social Mike Ananny 🇨🇦 @mikeananny.bsky.social · May 20
Re-upping this with better direct link to this @ijoc-usc.bsky.social collection:

annenbergpress.com/2025/04/23/i...

If you've ever been curious abt tech system errors, failures, breakdowns, & mistakes, check out this amazing new collection edited by me & Dr. Simogne Hudson, with fantastic authors.
May 20, 2025 at 8:59 PM
mikeananny.bsky.social
With thanks to @uvic.ca @uvicarts.bsky.social, the talk from my Orion Fellowship is now up!

I talk about how that creepy picture of my synthetic "family" prompts reckoning with GenAI errors, the politics of categories, & "good enough" language.

youtube.com/watch?v=752cJIjGG78&feature=youtu.be
April 13, 2026 at 8:43 PM
mikeananny.bsky.social
Love this from @wired.com.

Reminds me of 2016 @ijoc-usc.bsky.social study Leila Bighash & I did on why publishers drop paywalls -- & what those reasons reveal about how journalists' define "public": ijoc.org/index.php/ij...

@niemanlab.org covered it here: www.niemanlab.org/2016/07/here...
March 18, 2025 at 5:23 PM
mikeananny.bsky.social
~12 years ago when Bezos bought the Washington Post I wrote a piece for @niemanlab.org tracing the varied, subtle, invisible ways that an owner can control a publication — lots of scholarship on this question is urgent again.

This still feels very accurate: www.niemanlab.org/2013/08/invi...
January 4, 2025 at 4:16 PM
mikeananny.bsky.social
“‘Universities & university presidents need to be the ones to stand up to Trump and say no, because we are not seeing industry leaders in specifically media & technology taking that kind of stance,’ said Mike Ananny.”

cc @annenbergmedia.bsky.social

www.uscannenbergmedia.com/2025/10/06/r...
‘Reject the Compact’ petition urges USC not to sign Trump’s contract
Faculty show support for USC to reject the federal government’s Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education.
www.uscannenbergmedia.com
October 7, 2025 at 3:19 AM
knightcolumbia.org
In "Recursive Press Freedom as the Capacity to Control and Learn from Mistakes," Mike Ananny posits that generative AI poses a threat to press autonomy and its practices of self-correction, and explores how to respond. knightcolumbia.org/content/recu...
July 16, 2024 at 7:35 PM
kegill.bsky.social
@ginasue.bsky.social
Hey! Met Mike Ananny, USC Annenburg, on Wednesday - he was giving a talk on AI problems and publics at UW Comm. He mentioned your "permanently beta" theory twice. ;-)
April 24, 2026 at 2:22 AM
mssiren.bsky.social
Interesting debate on it by Ananny & Karr www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
HOW MEDIA UNIONS STABILIZE TECHNOLOGICAL HYPE Tracing Organized Journalism’s Discursive Constructions of Generative Artificial Intelligence
Amidst ongoing challenges to journalism’s economic models, labor markets, and technological practices, a new pressure has recently appeared in many newsrooms: the power of Generative Artificial Int...
www.tandfonline.com
January 30, 2025 at 12:28 PM
mikeananny.bsky.social
Had a great convo w Brendan Pho for @missionlocal.org piece.

A small bit of what we talked about:

"'The pattern I’m seeing behind this phenomenon,' said Ananny, 'is mostly non-journalists seeing journalism as an information product opportunity.'"

News != Content
Readers != Users
Story != Product
Screen capture of article segment: "Mike Ananny, an associate professor of journalism at the University of Southern California, and the author of “Networked Press Freedom,” a book about media in the digital age, said The Dissent is part of a larger pattern of entrepreneurs trying to use AI to break into fields that they don’t understand. “The pattern I’m seeing behind this phenomenon,” said Ananny, “is mostly non-journalists seeing journalism as an information product opportunity.”" Article link: https://missionlocal.org/2026/08/the-dissent-uses-ai-reporters-to-cover-s-f-taking-the-work-of-human-journalists/
August 13, 2026 at 7:57 PM