The No Fly Zone with Greg Maybury
Interview with Alexandra Kitty, Canadian Author, Media Analyst, Academic, June 18th, 2023
The No Fly Zone with Greg Maybury
Interview with Alexandra Kitty, Canadian Author, Media Analyst, Journalist, Academic, June 18th, 2023
‘In many ways, 2020 broke the world's spirit and its collective heart with a single word: COVID- 19. The global press coverage was psychologically crushing with…incessant reports from media outlets, social media feeds, and even commercials without anyone in communications wondering what kind of damaging impact they would have on children, those fighting depression, or those in domestic violence environments. The emotional abusiveness of the press was relentless, skewed and disturbing.’ — Alexandra Kitty.
This innovative book shows how empirical methods and emotional literacy can create a therapeutic form of journalism. Thought ostensibly written for practicing journalists and communications students, discerning news consumers and anyone concerned with the current state of journalism will find much in this tome that’s informative and insightful.
After the emotional global suffering in 2020, it presents a new form of journalism where raw information can be analyzed through an emotional and therapeutic lens to bring psychological wellness to the journalism product as it informs. This exciting new model gives rationality, sensitivity, and plurality that empower students to see the world with a fresh pair of eyes: for the first time, students can learn to incorporate analytical, emotional and primal literacy to inform with empathy and the methods of clinical psychology.
How can a journalist use emotionality to inform a public? How does psychology transform journalism with a new lens? The focus of this book is to allow for objective sensitivity to align perceptions with reality. Students are introduced to new core literacies, as the reader will explore the meaning of reality and truth to pick up the pieces of a shattered world to make it stronger and more resilient than before. For more on Alexandra’s important work, see her website below.
👀👉🔗 Website: alexandrakitty.com
When Journalism Used to be a Thing.
Journalism used to be a thing. It used to be a powerful and wonderful thing, yet now it has become a curiosity, and not even the Internet can resurrect it. When Journalism was a Thing considers the downfall and the reasons why, but also offers a model for a new approach to the once-noble profession.
“Ms. Kitty elaborates on the problem brilliantly. Anyone who perceives herself or himself as an intelligent person should familiarise themselves with ‘When Journalism was a Thing.’” — Ben Goldberg, Journalist.
Hello Friends, My guest on this episode is Alexandra Kitty, Canadian author, media analyst, journalist, and communications academic. Alexandra is the author of several books, the first two Don’t Believe It!: How lies become news, and Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s war on Journalism (with an Introduction by Robert Greenwald, director of the documentary of the same name), were critical takes on the problems of contemporary journalism.
She had two different columns in two major daily newspapers by the time she was 23. Her articles have been published in academic journals such as Skeptic and Critical Review, trade publications such as Quill, Editor & Publisher, Current, and Presstime, and newsstand magazines from Elle Canada to Maisonneuve, including cover stories.
One of the recurring considerations for any writer, analyst, podcaster or commentator seeking to present for their audience a deeper understanding of what’s happening in our world is the way our establishment media reports on any given issue. That it should be a recurring concern for discerning news consumers is also critical.
Sadly though, the fact is that the EM is like the McDonalds of the news business—it’s the McMedia if you like (would you like lies with that?) Like fast food, fast news is homogenous, mass produced, prepackaged, nutritionally challenged, and served very quickly on a one-size-fits-all basis. Try going to another outlet, and you find them serving up the same standardised fare with little or no variation. It’s also cheap and convenient. For those who might struggle with such a critique, this short video underscores it emphatically.
But like FF, it comes at a cost, not least of which is an informed, engaged citizenry. I’m constantly astounded and unnerved by the number of otherwise intelligent people who seem all too prepared to ingest what’s on offer by the mainstream outlets without question. Yet who wouldn’t be caught dead in a McDonalds. And these are folks who consider themselves to be critical thinkers. Pick any issue or topic you like: climate change, the war in Ukraine, the pandemic and the “vaccines”, wokeism, the interminable conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. The gap between the perception some people have of these topics and the more tangible, demonstrable reality is wider than ever.
Alexandra Kitty is someone who understands this deeply. We spoke about a number of issues, themes and topics, including the following:
— The primal, emotional, and analytical responses that affect how we views the world around us, specifically how they shapes our understanding of reality;
— the nature of this psychological construct and why it is important for us all to understand it? What is primal, analytical and emotional literacy?
— Why is it important for journalists to have this same understanding?
— How has the profession of journalism changed over the years, and what are the key factors that have given rise to these changes?
— How do lies become news? And why do they remain embedded in people’s understanding long after evidence is produced to counter the lies; (e.g. RussiaGate; Covid;
— How propaganda and censorship works in tandem to create our perceptions of reality (“false sense of security/insecurity”)
Again, like some of Alexandra’s previous work, the above book—A New Approach to Journalism—is primarily aimed at professional journalists and students of the trade. Yet lay folks—especially discerning news consumers and independent (or freelance journalists) will also find much herein of considerable interest.
In much the same way that the response by the medical profession to the Covid “crisis” and the mandated vaccines has revealed unsavoury characteristics and unacceptable conflicts of interest of that same profession, so has it done the same for the establishment media. In both cases, the Covid “crisis” has brought into sharp relief the urgent need for “a new approach”, indeed one might suggest a complete reinvention if one likes.
Website: alexandrakitty.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alexandra.kitty