A new licensing program to support the news industry • Hacker News Board

Re: A new licensing program to support the news industry

#11

Post by doublesCs » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 9:38 AM UTC

Just to get a sense for the crowd: am I the only one who doesn't care much about the news industry?

Keeping with what's new in society is important insofar as having an informed population is vital for the correct functioning of a democracy. But the "news industry" is 95% gargabe and contributes zero to getting people informed. I firmly believe that if the news industry disappeared tomorrow, we wouldn't be much worse off as a society.

That google is a bad player should be dealt with on its own. We shouldn't be using the "news industry" as a justification for breaking google up.

EDIT: In fact I had never thought about it, but even as far as keeping people informed, google is better than the "news industry". At least with google I can find links which I use as starting points for reasearching something.

Re: A new licensing program to support the news industry

#12

Post by PaulKeeble » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 9:43 AM UTC

doublesCs wrote: post #11

Just to get a sense for the crowd: am I the only one who doesn't care much about the news industry? Keeping with what's new in society is important insofar as having an informed population is vital for the correct functioning of a democracy. But the "news industry" is 95% gargabe and contributes zero to getting people informed. I firmly believe that if the news industry disappeared tomorrow, we wouldn't be much worse…

If much of todays news disappeared I suspect we would be better off as a society. Most of it passes more for propaganda than reporting of noteworthy things that happened. Good news, journalism, we need but it is in ever decreasing supply with the modern clickbait news cycle.

Re: A new licensing program to support the news industry

#13

Post by eitland » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 9:52 AM UTC

PaulKeeble wrote: post #12

doublesCs wrote: post #11

Just to get a sense for the crowd: am I the only one who doesn't care much about the news industry? Keeping with what's new in society is important insofar as having an informed population is vital for the correct functioning of a democracy. But the "news industry" is 95% gargabe and contributes zero to getting people informed. I firmly believe that if the news industry disappeared tomorrow, we wouldn't be much worse…

If much of todays news disappeared I suspect we would be better off as a society. Most of it passes more for propaganda than reporting of noteworthy things that happened. Good news, journalism, we need but it is in ever decreasing supply with the modern clickbait news cycle.

I'm afraid that even given how bad the news industry is now, if it disappeared I fear something worse would fill the vacuum.

State run broadcasting has always been mandatory around here but at least when there's a number of competitors - even when I don't like any of them particularly much - I can still shop around to see more angles that one or more of them don't want me to see.

Re: A new licensing program to support the news industry

#14

Post by Shivetya » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 10:16 AM UTC

tannhaeuser wrote: post #3

> ... these events are happening at a time when the news industry is also being challenged financially Yeah, and what's challenging to the "news industry" is the monopolistic situation on the web and the utter lack of action on the part of US antitrust authorities and their allies. I find it very worrying that Der Spiegel , once the most frequently visited ad-supported news sites in the "old" German web, sees no othe…

tl;dr it isn't truly google, aggregators force news organizations into competition and the lack of willingness of people to pay

you cannot solve google unless you want to outlaw any site aggregating results from across the web. that is what is really clobbering the news industry. they now have to compete with each other when before at most they competed across one city and at most one country for people's attention and money.

I do find it bizarre that on this site that people complain about Google and ads when most brag about blocking them and still complaining about how intrusive some advertising solutions are. Then throw in the crowd that is always complaining about how much something cost or how some services should be free or reduced and then you might be getting close to the other half of the problem.

People are fucking cheap. If they don't have to pay they will more than likely go that route and quite a few will accept a sub standard experience. Part of that acceptance is from truly desiring to save money but some if from "sticking it to them" in reference to the company they perceive they are short changing.

Re: A new licensing program to support the news industry

#15

Post by syshum » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 10:17 AM UTC

Mirioron wrote: post #2

Will these news publishers also get "demonetized" when they report on something Google doesn't like? I'm not sure I like Google having this much power over (smaller) news organizations.

Google would never politically bias their service /s

Re: A new licensing program to support the news industry

#16

Post by syshum » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 10:19 AM UTC

doublesCs wrote: post #11

Just to get a sense for the crowd: am I the only one who doesn't care much about the news industry? Keeping with what's new in society is important insofar as having an informed population is vital for the correct functioning of a democracy. But the "news industry" is 95% gargabe and contributes zero to getting people informed. I firmly believe that if the news industry disappeared tomorrow, we wouldn't be much worse…

I care about NEWS, factual reporting on current event

We no longer have a news industry, we have a propaganda industry filled with political commenters and activists not journalists (that is both left and right)

Re: A new licensing program to support the news industry

#17

Post by ngold » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 10:22 AM UTC

No one forced all news organizations to dump their in house advertising for easily ad blocked versions.

They all had perfectly good reasons to not have to deal with the headache of losing money.

But that would require keeping the ad sales team they had on board and making a similiar product online.

But everyone got scared and lazy and saw a one quarter jump by dumping a bunch of staff.

Re: A new licensing program to support the news industry

#18

Post by aboringusername » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 10:25 AM UTC

PaulKeeble wrote: post #12

doublesCs wrote: post #11

Just to get a sense for the crowd: am I the only one who doesn't care much about the news industry? Keeping with what's new in society is important insofar as having an informed population is vital for the correct functioning of a democracy. But the "news industry" is 95% gargabe and contributes zero to getting people informed. I firmly believe that if the news industry disappeared tomorrow, we wouldn't be much worse…

If much of todays news disappeared I suspect we would be better off as a society. Most of it passes more for propaganda than reporting of noteworthy things that happened. Good news, journalism, we need but it is in ever decreasing supply with the modern clickbait news cycle.

I'm inclined to agree, the primary focus is on numbers and engagement rather than strictly bound truthful reporting. How about websites just serve .txt files with a couple links to donate and publish facts/information.

I don't need a 5GB JS-infested "website" to access what amounts to a few KB of the actual information I was looking for. This is something hackernews gets right as far as community engagement goes.

Truthfully, you could probably get by just reading wikipedia and utilize the sources. Most news doesn't have have a baring on my life and if it does it'll work its way to me.

I suspect those who are happier in life forget all of this and focus on themselves, no news, no machines picking out what content you'll see or read.

Re: A new licensing program to support the news industry

#19

Post by agustif » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 10:31 AM UTC

eitland wrote: post #13

PaulKeeble wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If much of todays news disappeared I suspect we would be better off as a society. Most of it passes more for propaganda than reporting of noteworthy things that happened. Good news, journalism, we need but it is in ever decreasing supply with the modern clickbait news cycle.

I'm afraid that even given how bad the news industry is now, if it disappeared I fear something worse would fill the vacuum. State run broadcasting has always been mandatory around here but at least when there's a number of competitors - even when I don't like any of them particularly much - I can still shop around to see more angles that one or more of them don't want me to see.

When state is also licensing the competitors, as in broadcast tv at least in my country, you don't get much else than an oliglopoly tbh...

You're still only seeing the angles the govt permits and sanctions.

Re: A new licensing program to support the news industry

#20

Post by wbl » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 10:36 AM UTC

quantummkv wrote: post #9

tannhaeuser wrote: post #3

> ... these events are happening at a time when the news industry is also being challenged financially Yeah, and what's challenging to the "news industry" is the monopolistic situation on the web and the utter lack of action on the part of US antitrust authorities and their allies. I find it very worrying that Der Spiegel , once the most frequently visited ad-supported news sites in the "old" German web, sees no othe…

Actions like these start making a lot of sense if you start viewing Google and their friends as a bunch of hi-tech mafioso. Newspapers are essentially forced to pay protection money and then publicly kiss the ring, declare their allegiance and pray that the deal is not altered further.

Google doesn't compete with papers but link papers to readers.