News Over Noise

Special thanks to our guest:

Kate Starbird is a Professor at the Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering (HCDE) at the University of Washington (UW). Kate’s research sits within the fields of human-computer interaction (HCI) and computer supported cooperative work (CSCW). Extending from early work in crisis informatics, her research program has followed the phenomenon of online rumoring down the rabbit hole and into some of the toxic online spaces that are increasingly (re)shaping discourse, values, and politics around the world. Her work has revealed how online disinformation — i.e. the intentional manipulation of discourse for political gain — is inherently participatory, taking shape through collaborations between witting agents and unwitting (though willing) crowds. Dr. Starbird received her BS in Computer Science from Stanford (1997) and her PhD in Technology, Media and Society from the University of Colorado (2012). She is a co-founder of the UW Center for an Informed Public, which works to strengthen democratic discourse by building resilience to online manipulation.

News Over Noise is a co-production of WPSU and Penn State’s Bellisario College of Communications. 

News Over Noise is a co-production of WPSU and Penn State’s Bellisario College of Communications. 

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Special thanks to our guest:

Barbie Zelizer is the Raymond Williams Professor of Communication and Director of the Center for Media at Risk at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication. A former journalist, Zelizer is known for her work on journalism, crisis, culture, memory and images. She has authored/edited fifteen books and 200 articles/essays. Recipient of multiple fellowships, including the American Academy of Arts and Science, the British Academy and the European Academy, her work has appeared in national and global media. Coeditor of Journalism: Theory, Practice and Criticism, she is past President of the International Communication Association. Her most recent book is the forthcoming How the Cold War Broke the News (Polity, 2025).

News Over Noise is a co-production of WPSU and Penn State’s Bellisario College of Communications. 

News Over Noise is a co-production of WPSU and Penn State’s Bellisario College of Communications. 

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Special thanks to our guest:

Award-winning writer Tony Norman is the longtime columnist and editorial writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. A former Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellow at the University of Michigan and an adjunct journalism professor at Chatham University, he now freelances for several local and national publications.]

Read Tony's Essay, "Requiem for the Post-Gazette."

News Over Noise is a co-production of WPSU and Penn State’s Bellisario College of Communications. 

News Over Noise is a co-production of WPSU and Penn State’s Bellisario College of Communications. 

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Special thanks to our guest:

Timothy Richardson is the Program Director, Journalism and Disinformation. Timothy previously worked as an Editor at The Washington Post for thirteen years, where he served as the Breaking News Editor on the Metro Desk, placing him in the center of some of the nation’s highest-profile stories, including the protests that followed the killing of George Floyd and the Storming of the U.S. Capitol. Richardson oversaw accountability-driven reporting of the infrastructure law, the airline industry, transit systems, and the federal Department of Transportation. Richardson’s role at the Post was focused on launching and running day-to-day operations of the organization’s foray into hyperlocal news. He began his journey as the Digital Managing Editor of the Las Vegas Sun, then returned to The Post as the Metro Staff’s Digital Editor, strengthening its digital-first strategy. His earlier roles included serving as Digital Editor for the Naples (Fla.) Daily News and the Topeka (Kan.) Capital-Journal, helping each legacy print publication to establish a digital presence and strategy. Richardson is a graduate of Kansas State University.

News Over Noise is a co-production of WPSU and Penn State’s Bellisario College of Communications. 

News Over Noise is a co-production of WPSU and Penn State’s Bellisario College of Communications. 

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Special thanks to our guest:

Rachel Besharat Mann, PhD is a scholar at Wesleyan University interested in the academic and personal literacy practices that support adolescents through a sensitive developmental period marked by identity exploration, that in turn provides the foundation for behavior and self-conceptualization in adulthood. Her current work explores how social media impacts adolescent consumption and interpretation of information used to inform the development of civic identities and political ideology. Past work has explored the impact of social media use on self-esteem and identity development through the lens of possible self-ideation​​.

News Over Noise is a co-production of WPSU and Penn State’s Bellisario College of Communications. 

News Over Noise is a co-production of WPSU and Penn State’s Bellisario College of Communications. 

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Special thanks to our guest:

Judd Legum is the founder and author of Popular Information, an independent newsletter dedicated to accountability journalism. PopularInformation won the 2020 Online Journalism Award for Excellence inNewsletters, and its reporting was credited by Bloomberg for bringing a "political reckoning" to corporate America. Previously, Legumfounded and served as editor-in-chief of ThinkProgress, a progressive media outlet. In 2008, Legum was the research director for HillaryClinton's first presidential campaign. He is a graduate of GeorgetownUniversity Law Center and Pomona College.

News Over Noise is a co-production of WPSU and Penn State’s Bellisario College of Communications. 
 

News Over Noise is a co-production of WPSU and Penn State’s Bellisario College of Communications. 

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Special thanks to our guest:

Dr. Amy Kristin Sanders is the John and Ann Curley Professor of First Amendment Studies at Penn State. A licensed attorney and award-winning former journalist, Sanders is an internationally recognized expert on the legal regulation and ethical use of emerging technologies, with an emphasis on freedom of expression and democratic values.

She has published more than 30 scholarly articles and co-authors the widely recognized law school casebook First Amendment and the Fourth Estate: The Law of Mass Media. Sanders regularly serves as an expert witness and consultant to Fortune 500 companies on media law and ethics issues and her words have been published by major news organizations, including USA Today, The Conversation, the Houston Chronicle and the Austin American-Statesman.

As a native of rural Missouri, Sanders is proud to serve on the Truman State University Foundation Board of the Directors and is a lifelong fan of the St. Louis Cardinals.

News Over Noise is a co-production of WPSU and Penn State’s Bellisario College of Communications. 

News Over Noise is a co-production of WPSU and Penn State’s Bellisario College of Communications. 

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Special thanks to our guest:

Sofia Rubinson is an analyst at NewsGuard and the senior editor of Reality Check, NewsGuard’s daily newsletter about how false claims spread — and who’s behind them. She investigates emerging false narratives spreading across social platforms and tracks the growing use of AI systems to manufacture and scale misinformation.

Producer: Lindsey Whissel Fenton

Audio Engineers: Mickey Klein, Scott Gros, Clint Yoder

News Over Noise is a co-production of WPSU and Penn State’s Bellisario College of Communications. 
 

News Over Noise is a co-production of WPSU and Penn State’s Bellisario College of Communications. 

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Special thanks to our guest:

For the past 16 years, Jim Rodenbush has worked with award-winning student media organizations, helping to mentor the next generation of journalists. Most recently, he served as Director of Student Media at Indiana University and taught in The Media School. During his time there, the Indiana Daily Student won 12 Pacemaker Awards and was twice named College Media Outlet of the Year. Before coming to IU, Rodenbush managed student media programs at Colorado State, Penn State, and Webster universities. Along the way, he taught courses in reporting, writing, editing and media management. Rodenbush is a frequent conference speaker and former president of WAUPM and executive director of the Indiana Collegiate Press Association. He holds a bachelor’s in journalism from Webster University and a master’s from the Newhouse School at Syracuse University.

News Over Noise is a co-production of WPSU and Penn State’s Bellisario College of Communications. 

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This is a special crossover episode between News Over Noise and the Democracy Works podcast featuring guest co-host Jenna Spinelle. Jenna is the Communications Specialist for the McCourtney Institute for Democracy. She is responsible for shaping all of the institute’s external communication, including website content, social media, multimedia, and media outreach. She also hosts and produces the Institute’s Democracy Works podcast. She holds a B.A. in journalism from Penn State and is an adjunct instructor in the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications. Prior to joining the McCourtney Institute, Spinelle worked in Penn State’s Undergraduate Admissions Office and College of Information Sciences and Technology.

Special thanks to our guests:

Pamela Brunskill is a senior director of education design at theNews Literacy Project. Pamela joined NLP in August 2021 after 20 years of experience in education and education publishing. She was a teacher in Clarence and Williamsville, New York; a literacy coach at Enterprise Charter School; and an adjunct instructor at Bloomsburg University, Bucknell University and the University at Buffalo. She has written five books for the education market and co-authored Information Literacy: Separating Fact from Fiction. Pamela holds a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from SUNY College at Buffalo and a master’s degree in education from the University at Buffalo.

Sean Marcus is the Interactive Learning Designer for MediaWise here he designs and develops learning material for a wide range of audiences and purposes, ranging from senior citizens to high school students, and traditional classroom lessons to asynchronous, online learning experiences. Sean spent over 20 years teaching high school in Tampa Bay, twelve in public schools and eight in local independent schools. He has taught journalism, television production, creative writing and graphic design, and advised nationally recognized publications. Marcus holds a bachelor’s degree in creative writing and a master’s degree in English education, both from the University of South Florida. As a lifelong learner, he has pursued learning opportunities ranging from bookbinding and letterpress printing to digital citizenship and internet safety. He has presented at the Florida Council of Independent Schools’ annual conference, as well as at journalism education conferences at the local, state and regional level.

Jenna Meleedy is the Communication Coordinator at the National Association of Media Literacy Educators (NAMLE), where she manages the organization’s digital communications strategy. Her work includes running NAMLE’s social media channels, newsletters, website, and serving as a liaison to partner organizations. Jenna first joined NAMLE as a Social Media Intern in 2023 and later contributed as a member of the Youth Advisory Council for two years before stepping into her current role. A recent graduate of Pennsylvania State University, Jenna holds a Bachelor’s degree in Media Studies with minors in Civic and Community Engagement and Communication Arts and Sciences. Her passion for media literacy is reflected in her previous roles as a News Literacy Ambassador with the News Literacy Initiative and as an Education Advocacy Intern with the Media Education Lab. In 2024, she traveled to the Czech Republic as a Digital Citizenship Curriculum Development Intern, where she created and taught media literacy curriculum to secondary school students. Coming of age in the COVID-19 pandemic drove her to media literacy as a tool for empowerment, a combatant to political radicalization, and a framework for mental health and well-being. She is deeply committed to empowering digital natives to use media literacy as a means to foster critical thinking and engage in the democratic process.

News Over Noise is a co-production of WPSU and Penn State’s Bellisario College of Communications. 

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.