paper trail

Anna Merlan on conspiracy theories; Elliot Ackerman on emotions and art

Anna Merlan

The New York Times offers a reading list to accompany When They See Us, Ava DuVernay’s new Netflix series about the Central Park Five.

Bustle Digital Group is working on relaunching Mic, the politics website they bought after the majority of its staff was laid off.

At The Conversation, Nicholas Diakopoulos looks at the ways that AI technology might change the journalism industry.

Anna Merlan talks to Maris Kreizman about conspiracy theories, fake news, and her new book, Republic of Lies. “I would say we are all conspiracy theorists in some way or another,” she said. “We’re all in the pool together, some in the deeper end than others.”

“These days there are no shortage of voices encouraging divisiveness, from the right, from the left, across international boundaries. . . . When I write, I feel something as I put the story on the page. If a piece of art succeeds — whether it’s literature, film, painting, etc. — it causes the person experiencing that art also to feel something,” Elliot Ackerman tells the New York Times. “That type of emotional transference is a powerful way to assert our shared humanity.”