Last summer, solidarity became a national buzzword. Thousands of people declared and demanded solidarity against racism in the wake of police murdering George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. Some news organizations swiftly moved beyond the statement by implementing and amplifying solidarity reporting: the practice of going directly to marginalized communities to…

Spoiler warning: WandaVision, season 1, episodes 1–6 Millions of people have lost someone they love to covid-19 in the past year, and millions more have lost someone they love to causes that don’t make headlines. Watching WandaVision offers a rare glimpse of complicated grief that younger adults (not to be…

Anita Varma, PhD is the assistant director of Journalism & Media Ethics as well as Social Sector Ethics. Views are her own. In these unprecedented times, déjà vu still hits hard: birtherism against a rare candidate of color on a presidential ticket, “alternative facts” from Kellyanne Conway, and horse race…

“We stand in solidarity with Black communities. Black Lives Matter.” Organizations, businesses, and groups across the United States sent this statement to millions of people via social media feeds and e-mail lists in early June 2020, in the wake of widespread protests for racial justice. …

How journalists can better humanize death tolls, coronavirus cases, and unemployment rates — Anita Varma, PhD is the assistant director of Journalism & Media Ethics as well as Social Sector Ethics. Views are her own. Each morning, a new set of numbers awaits in the news: the number of documented cases of coronavirus (by country, by state, and by county), the number of…

Two alternative questions to “Should Facebook allow politicians to lie in ads?” — Anita Varma is the assistant director of Journalism and Media Ethics, as well as Social Sector Ethics. Views are her own. Debates over whether tech companies should fact-check political ads or prohibit them altogether have continued with a rising pitch since Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg spoke at Georgetown University in…

Sanitizing digital content by fetishizing information will not remedy the root issue at hand Anita Varma is the program manager for Journalism & Media Ethics as well as Business, Leadership, and Social Sector Ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics. Views are her own. Governments around the world have…

The Kavanaugh confirmation hearings and collective action in response have filled me with pain and pride. Watching protestors flood the Hart Senate Office Building atrium on Capitol Hill, seeing thousands of sexual assault survivors and allies walk out at coordinated times, and receiving petition after petition to sign to indicate…

Anita Varma and Tanja Aitamurto Over Memorial Day weekend, uproar arose about the US federal government not knowing the whereabouts of 1,475 immigrant children. An opinion column in azcentral, affiliated with USA Today, titled “The feds lost — yes, lost — 1,475 migrant children” sparked outrage from activists, citizens, celebrities…