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All the exciting media outlets are dying – what comes next?

thewalrus.ca

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Re: All the exciting media outlets are dying – what comes next?

#21

Post by roer »

javajosh wrote: post #10

>"So what do we do for money now? I get this feeling when youtubers complain about being demonetized. Like, why were you monetized in the first place? Shouldn't this be a hobby for you, where your day job is actually helping people? Once a profession is named, there seems to be an expectation of durability. But market fundamentalism allows for no such constants. All professions are subject to the market; if there is…

I don't understand your comparison to youtubers? They get paid for their work, and complain when the platform demonetizes their videos without being transparent in their reasoning.

I understand if you meant that they were complaining about their views decreasing, or their content not being compatible with the guidelines of the platform, but that is in my experience not that common.

It feels to me like that part of your argument is just a subjective stab at the value of youtube as a job in society.

Re: All the exciting media outlets are dying – what comes next?

#23

Post by morkalork »

It's a shame since Vice's "Motherboard" was pretty good and even broke a few big stories. They understood hacking and tech in ways that traditional media didn't and weren't afraid dig in and involved. Print papers always were so passive, reporting other's investigative work.

Re: All the exciting media outlets are dying – what comes next?

#24

Post by capableweb »

lr4444lr wrote: post #14

One of the silver linings to AI mass generated fake news IMHO is that the professional gatekeepers of traditional media will once again be appreciated for the value they add in verification. The so-called "new media" with few exceptions is totally parasitic on them to do the real work which they would use just enough to maintain respectability over their clickbait editorializing. I don't think it's at all a positive…

Well, time will tell if it's a silver lining or not. In my experience, the traditional media tries to follow the trends instead, like clickbait was just done in scammy websites at first, then more and more "legitimate" websites started doing it and now I sometimes see even The Guardian doing clickbait titles sometimes.

My fear is that they will start using those AI tools instead of doubling down on quality, because they didn't double down on quality before so why would they now?

Re: All the exciting media outlets are dying – what comes next?

#25

Post by HPsquared »

candiddevmike wrote: post #12
pembrook wrote: post #6

A big factor in the decline of internet media companies that nobody talks about—every single dominant social platform (except this one) now aggressively penalizes external links in their algorithms. This should be illegal for any dominant platform IMO, external links are the lifeblood of a free and open internet. They are the only release valve from the walled gardens the inevitably result from human power-law cluste…

Social media became better at curating news than the news sites themselves, IMO, and most folks end up just reading comments or quotes in the comments. There's also too much noise on most media outlets. I think most media outlets should look at LWN as a model for sustainability: niche stories, hyper focused on what their audience is interested in.

Even when I'm on an actual newspaper's site, I only briefly check the headline and give the article a token perfunctory skim, then spend the bulk of my time reading the comments.

Re: All the exciting media outlets are dying – what comes next?

#26

Post by incone123 »

javajosh wrote: post #10

>"So what do we do for money now? I get this feeling when youtubers complain about being demonetized. Like, why were you monetized in the first place? Shouldn't this be a hobby for you, where your day job is actually helping people? Once a profession is named, there seems to be an expectation of durability. But market fundamentalism allows for no such constants. All professions are subject to the market; if there is…

That seems unfair. The profession and the platform are not the same thing - obviously there is a lot of risk in building your business on someone else's platform, but what are their other options?

Re: All the exciting media outlets are dying – what comes next?

#27

Post by karaterobot »

flappyeagle wrote: post #9
pembrook wrote: post #6

A big factor in the decline of internet media companies that nobody talks about—every single dominant social platform (except this one) now aggressively penalizes external links in their algorithms. This should be illegal for any dominant platform IMO, external links are the lifeblood of a free and open internet. They are the only release valve from the walled gardens the inevitably result from human power-law cluste…

What are you on about? I have to link to external websites from mine? Lost the plot on this one.

Can't tell if you're joking, but it seems pretty clear. If you are a news outlet, reporting on something written by someone else — for example, a government report, a scientific article, even a tweet — it makes sense to link to that external resource in the article. Yet, many websites refuse to do that, because it takes eyeballs away from the ads they're serving. I'd cite a reference supporting what I'm saying here, but I don't want you to stop reading my comment and go to a new page, just take my word for it.

Re: All the exciting media outlets are dying – what comes next?

#28

Post by wrycoder »

javajosh wrote: post #10

>"So what do we do for money now? I get this feeling when youtubers complain about being demonetized. Like, why were you monetized in the first place? Shouldn't this be a hobby for you, where your day job is actually helping people? Once a profession is named, there seems to be an expectation of durability. But market fundamentalism allows for no such constants. All professions are subject to the market; if there is…

There are many YouTube channels that are more helpful to other people than most day jobs would ever be.

Re: All the exciting media outlets are dying – what comes next?

#30

Post by FredPret »

roenxi wrote: post #17

The major problem I've observed is that the most important topic is politics - ie, what should we do next? The world of journalists is nearly the last place on earth people should be looking for political information. There are lies, few serious attempts at understanding the views of opponents, disinterest in the implications of the policies expounded and not even straightforward reporting of what people actually sai…

Exactly. Now that everyone has a megaphone, there will be rockstar economists, mathematicians, computer scientists, and the like that distribute their message directly.

I would much rather get info directly from a popular expert than from an English major who interviewed said expert.

Even better - I get to decide which people I regard as experts, and not the journalist.

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