Exploration #151

Treat Your Shelf! Books for Media Innovators

Author

Chad Davis
December 01, 2025

Image Generated with ChatGPT 5.1 (Thinking)

But First…

Registration is now open for our December 11 webinar, SEO + AI: Best Practices for 2026. Join us for a talk about what is changing (and more importantly what is not) now that AI has entered the chat via search and web browsers. And there will be plenty of time for Q&A, so bring all your SEO questions (even if they aren’t specifically AI-focused).

Treat Your Shelf! Books for Media Innovators…

Most of you open this email the day it goes out, so likely you’re seeing this on Cyber Monday. If you are reading this instead of shopping, thank you.

In lieu of a column this week, I thought it might be interesting to throw out a few suggested tomes as gift ideas for the innovators in your life (or, if appropriate, for your own holiday wish list). These are really just titles I’m reading or have read, and that I find interesting for those working in media. But then, that’s kind of the whole newsletter, isn’t it?

(To be clear, the links below are not affiliate links. This newsletter is free, which is to say revenue-free, and we hope to keep it that way for the foreseeable future. With the exception of the first suggestion, I have used Bookshop.org or Thrift Books for all the links. Shop local, when you can.)

So, here - in an order that probably only makes sense to me - are some books you might want to consider for the media innovator in your life this holiday season:

Okay, on to the links.

Webinars and Tutorials…

SEO + AI: Best Practices for 2026 (Thursday, December 11, 1pET/10aPT)
2025 was the year we all learned the phrase “Goggle Zero.” But whether you believe Google will completely stop delivering traffic to your organization’s website or not, AI is definitely changing how we get information from and find content on the internet. Join PBS’s Richard Traylor, SEO Manager, and Emily Clark, Manager of Multiplatform Marketing, for a talk about what is changing (and more importantly what is not) now that AI has entered the chat on search and web browsers. If you saw Richard speak at the PBS Annual Meeting in Atlanta, this will be an evolution, 6 months on, of the information presented there. And if you missed that one, you don’t want to miss this one. Register here.

Thoughts on Public Media…

Trump’s War On Public Media, with PBS CEO Paula Kerger (Mixed Signals - Semafor) 
From the Pod: Paula, in response to a provocation that broadcast is a dying technology that won't be relevant in 50 years: "I'm arguing right now there are a lot of people that rely on over the air and there are a lot of people that - you know, it may be for geographic reasons or it may be for economic reasons - that are really very much beholden to over the air. And if you live in a city and if you live around a lot of people that spend all of their time or a lot of their time consuming media from different digital platforms we have a robust presence there too. So, I'm not suggesting that we are just locked into broadcast as our sole purpose. But what I am saying is that you're talking about a lot of people that always get left behind. And I think in this moment when people are getting hammered on so many other levels, whether that's access to food and access to, you know, other services [like] health care, [that] to also cut off information feels like not a great idea." [Lightly edited to take out verbal ticks from the transcript.]
Why It Matters: The questions weren't softballs, so I did appreciate her charisma and media savvy (and if you want to see how good we have it in that regard, check out the Roblox CEO’s slow burn fail on Hard Fork). If I had a quibble, it would be that during the question about merging with the BBC, not enough words are spent explaining local station agency…basically that we aren’t a network. But I get that those deep weeds confuse travelers easily, and for all I know that bit was edited out. If you saw the Mixed Signals interview with Ken Burns, which I highlighted a few weeks back, this time the hosts are way more skeptical of public media's value. And the more skeptical of the two says in the post-mortem to the conversation that “it’s hard for them [PBS] to think really hard about the future” because we have an elderly audience we have to serve. Even the more sympathetic host, who reportedly grew up on PBS, refers to us in the intro as “sleepy.” So, we clearly still have a lot of work to do to show outsiders that we are innovative.
Related: If you’d rather listen, you can check out Mixed Signals show page on Semafor, or also find the episode wherever good podcasts are streamed.

🎧 Without Federal Funding, What Is Public Media Really? (Jennifer Ferro, KCRW, with Eric Schurenberg - In Reality) 
From the Pod: “Well, in some way, like now not having public funding and now really not having that audience to have to talk to, right? It’s like, in looking at what’s happening on a First Amendment level, we’re the ones that have to have the courage to speak up. And we are free. We’re free.... First of all, we’re free to people - we’re accessible - but we’re now [also] free to be able to speak the truth in ways that weren’t, even though we did it before, we don’t have to worry about the threat of defunding, it’s been defunded. So now our mandate has to be to have the courage to speak the truth. And I do think the courage is there. I’m not saying it wasn’t there, but there’s some kind of… freedom in a sense when you don’t have a particular audience to cater to. Now, when I say cater to, we got those funds for, they were called community service grants, and that’s exactly how we use those funds. It was to provide community service. It wasn’t to power the journalism that we were doing. So we’ll continue to do that, but I think it now puts public radio and NPR in a unique space.”
Why It Matters: I'm always looking for the radio/audio perspectives on our current moment, because my background has mostly been on the visual/interactive side. And generally, I can seem to count on KCRW to oblige. I also like what Ferro had to say about focusing on personalities.

Media These Days…

News publishers embrace vertical video with in-app “watch” tabs (Hanaa' Tameez - NiemanLab) 
From the Article: "Nearly three-quarters of Americans watch news videos online and most of them (61%) use social media or YouTube to do so. This year, The Economist, Newsday, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and CNN all launched dedicated tabs for video viewing in their apps, to try to keep some of those users on their own sites."
Why It Matters: Once I read this it (finally) clicked for me that I actually have been seeing vertical video (usually presented like YouTube Shorts) on more and more sites this fall. I be interested if any public media organizations are thinking about trying this on your site/apps, or if you have tried it and have some results you can share.

More than half of new articles on the internet are being written by AI – is human writing headed for extinction? (Francesco Agnellini - The Conversation) From the Article: "In it, [Umberto] Eco draws a contrast between two attitudes toward mass media. There are the “apocalyptics” who fear cultural degradation and moral collapse. Then there are the “integrated” who champion new media technologies as a democratizing force for culture. Back then, Eco was writing about the proliferation of TV and radio. Today, you’ll often see similar reactions to AI. Yet Eco argued that both positions were too extreme. It isn’t helpful, he wrote, to see new media as either a dire threat or a miracle. Instead, he urged readers to look at how people and communities use these new tools, what risks and opportunities they create, and how they shape – and sometimes reinforce – power structures."
Why It Matters: The headline is a little clickbait-y, but there are still some valuable nuggets for consideration inside, like discussion of the types of written content that are increasingly AI generated (and what types of writers stand to lose from that trend).
Related: You can also read the study from Graphite, on which the article is based.

We Asked Roblox's C.E.O. About Child Safety. It Got Tense (Hard Fork - New York Times) 
From the Pod: "I totally buy what you're saying about using the the best technology on the market to keep people safe. And I want to highlight [that] I came here cuz I love your podcast and came to talk about everything. So, if our PR people said, "Let's talk about age gating for an hour, I'm up for it." But I love your I thought I came here to talk about everything." - Roblox CEO [Lightly edited to take out verbal ticks from the transcript.]
Why It Matters: Beyond the fundamental necessity of keeping children safe online (without resorting to ‘Maude Flanders’ extremes) it’s important to remember that Roblox is ostensibly vying to be one of the key nodes in the eventual next generation of the internet (don’t call it “the metaverse”) As the CEO says their fastest growth is with younger adult audiences. And while I normally don't like to post others analyses, the Deconstructor of Fun newsletter nailed it, so I'm making an exception: "The tension exposed Roblox’s biggest paradox: it wants to be seen as an entertainment company, a creative platform, and a guardian of children, all while monetizing like a Vegas casino for minors. The interview wasn’t a catastrophe, but it was a reminder that the company’s ethical surface area is expanding faster than its ability to contain it."
Related: David Gilbert's piece for Wired: He Hunted Alleged Groomers on Roblox. Then the Company Banned Him (possibly paywalled)

Generative Buzz…

Opus 4.5 Is the Coding Model We’ve Been Waiting For (Katie Parrott, Dan Shipper, & Kieran Klaassen - Every) 
From the Article: "It’s not perfect, however. It still has a classic Claude-ism to watch out for: When it’s missing a tool it needs or can’t connect to an online service, it sometimes makes up its own replacement instead of telling you there’s a problem. On the writing front, it is excellent at writing compelling copy without AI-isms, but as an editor, it tends to be way too gentle, missing out on critiques that other models catch. The dichotomy between strength at coding and weaker performance in editing is an interesting example of how the race to dominate coding is reshaping frontier models. Coding is economically valuable and has clearer success metrics than creative work. Labs are optimizing hard for it, and sometimes focusing less on improvements in other domains."
Why It Matters: A couple weeks back, Google dropped Gemini 3. Last week, Anthropic dropped Claude 4.5 and the review from the Every team is useful. I'm probably not switching from my current reliance on ChatGPT Plus with supplemental support from Gemini 3 (free version). But I'm glad to know Claude is still in the game. I'm also curious if we're going to get another major ChatGPT announcement before then end of the year. They can't be loving the press Google especially is getting these days.

Warner Music signs deal with AI music startup Suno, settles lawsuit (Aisha Malik - TechCrunch) 
From the Article: “WMG’s settlements with Suno and Udio mark a significant shift in the music industry’s approach to AI. Last year, Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group, and Sony Music Entertainment sued Suno and Udio for copyright infringement. While WMG has settled its lawsuits with Suno and Udio, Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment are also reportedly in talks to license their work to Udio and Suno and settle their lawsuits against the startups.” 
Why It Matters: I'm getting nostalgic Napster 1.0 vibes here. Again, the music industry has sued its way to the negotiating table. What this means for us is that generative music will soon be considered street legal by the industry. I wouldn't want to own a needle drop music library right now.
Related: Read Malik's previous piece in TechCrunch about Warner's earlier settlement with generative music company Udio.
Also Related: You can read the announcement from Suno here.
Still Related: Ethan Millman’s coverage of the settlement in The Hollywood Reporter.

AI + Us…

How to Use AI Browsers Without Getting Hacked (Isolation Guide + 3 AI Prompts) (Sean Ellis - Excellent AI Prompts) 
From the Piece: "OpenAI’s chief information security officer publicly acknowledged that prompt injection remains an unsolved frontier problem. You cannot detect your way out of this vulnerability. You can only isolate your way around it. Isolation works where detection fails."
Why It Matters: First, a note, the three prompts are behind a paywall. But at least you know to look for them (or prompts like them) elsewhere. I've been treading very carefully into the world of AI browsers (except for the forced march in Google Chrome) because the security issues are so rife with peril. So, I found this guidance was an easy read and not bogged down in jargon.
Related: If you'd like to dive a bit deeper into prompt injection, here's a slightly more technical (but still readable) explanation from François Aubry on Datacamp.
Also Related: OpenAI’s own explanation of the security risks relative to prompt injections.

How can someone position themselves to take advantage of AI opportunities? (Chris Barber (@chrisbarber) via X) 
From the Tweet: "Try to build relationships with people you can work directly with. Really good working relationships and high trust relationships feel important. The way to build relationships is not by directly trying to network, it's just by doing stuff that interests you and finding the other people who are doing things you find interesting. In places where you don't need to play social and political games you're going to be able to leverage AI more."
Why It Matters: This one is potentially worth sharing with younger staff or colleagues in your organization.
Related: Nazrul Islam's piece for The Conversation: AI won’t replace you – but it will redefine what makes you valuable at work 

AI + Production…

6 Practical Use Cases for Sora 2 Image-to-Video (Daniel Nest - Why Try AI?)
From the Article: "This seemingly simple concept of combining a reference image with a text prompt lets you use Sora 2 for all kinds of practical applications. For instance: 1. First frame of a scene;… 2. Character consistency across clips;… 3. Scene setting;… 4. Object or item reference;… 5. Pose reference;… 6. Multi-panel storyboarding…."
Why It Matters: AI slop comes from sloppy (or shady) creators. But generative videos tools will have their place in our workflows. I like Nest's hype-free assessment and think this could be vital to better articulating the vision public media projects to potential grantees, potential collaborators or even to your boss.

If you thought infographics were great…wait until you see an animated infographic. (Jaclyn Konzelmann (@jacalulu) via X) 
From the Tweet: "Workflow: GeminiApp → Nano Banana Pro for the infographic → Veo to animate it."
Why It Matters: Carefully crafted and reviewed (so no errors were injected or implied by the animation), I could see this being a useful tool for more engaging art attached to journalism. I coul also see it having educational value as well.

Google's Gemini 3 (Nano Banana Pro) Added Into Adobe Firefly & Photoshop (Andy Stout - RedShark News) 
From the Article: "'Creators tell us that they use different models for different tasks,' writes the company. 'In our recent global study of 16,000+ creators, more than 60% said they use multiple creative AI models to match the right tool to the right task. So we’re making it easier to work the way you want, right inside our apps.'"
Why It Matters: I like that Adobe is striving to be a one-stop shop for the best models. It's not a unique strategy per se, but since a lot of creatives in public media use Adobe it's worth a mention. I will say, that I think you have to use the Nano Banana Pro version to get the result about which the internet is raving. Generating images for this newsletter, I have found the free version to be obstinate (in action, not communication) and not as creative as ChatGPT Plus.
Related: Someone collected a host of effective prompts for Nano Banana Pro on Github, should you want to give them a try.

And finally…

Holidays Are Coming (Coca Cola via YouTube) - And finally, the unofficial baseline reading for the state of generative video seems to now be the annual Coca Cola holiday ad. This year’s version came with a BTS video.
Related: They also did a longer version where almost all the characters are anthropomorphic forest creatures (also with a BTS video).

Have a creative, productive week!

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