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Vice files for Bankruptcy

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Re: Vice files for Bankruptcy

#31
Some years ago they had a large audience, me included, who got great value out of their investigative journalism. At some point they started pivoting into some weird form of advocacy journalism and clickbait garbage, alienating their existing audience, and apparently failing to find a new one.

Good riddance.

Re: Vice files for Bankruptcy

#32
post #4

Do people consider this as a great loss? I did not liked the sensationalistic format very much, so I avoided them, but they seemed to have done some investigative journalism?

They've had some really good content... sensationalist, maybe, but focusing on interesting parts of life few other publications would touch. For that insight I am grateful.

Re: Vice files for Bankruptcy

#33
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There must be some other reasons. Disney and Netflix are doing fine while pushing propaganda.

Really? https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/queen_cleopatra/s01

You do understand that riling up right-wing nutjobs is a deliberate marketing strategy?

Imagine you're a production company working on a low-budget docudrama for Netflix where you know it will be displayed as just one more UI tile among an endless tsunami of similar low-budget dramas from around the world. Which marketing approach do you think would work better:

1) Make a historically accurate show with the little money you have, release it, and watch it sink to oblivion with a slightly below average rating;

2) Add a provocative bait that you know the most bored unemployed crowd on Twitter won't be able to resist; watch everybody talk about your show; enjoy your 11% rating because it came with massive online notoriety and a fat Netflix royalty wire for a few months.

Re: Vice files for Bankruptcy

#35
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There must be some other reasons. Disney and Netflix are doing fine while pushing propaganda.

Really? https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/queen_cleopatra/s01

Yes, Netflix is doing financially very good, considering the most of it's movies are shitty.

Re: Vice files for Bankruptcy

#36
post #16
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There must be some other reasons. Disney and Netflix are doing fine while pushing propaganda.

ok I'll bite, because I must be missing the bus in the last 10 years. Please do tell what propagandas, as in topics, or ideas, Netflix and Disney are pushing and so was Vice? Thanks.

You missed the bus.

Re: Vice files for Bankruptcy

#37
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/queen_cleopatra/s01

You do understand that riling up right-wing nutjobs is a deliberate marketing strategy? Imagine you're a production company working on a low-budget docudrama for Netflix where you know it will be displayed as just one more UI tile among an endless tsunami of similar low-budget dramas from around the world. Which marketing approach do you think would work better: 1) Make a historically accurate show with the little mo…

There are not enough right-wing nutjobs. It is strategy of insulting thinking humans.

Re: Vice files for Bankruptcy

#38
post #4

Do people consider this as a great loss? I did not liked the sensationalistic format very much, so I avoided them, but they seemed to have done some investigative journalism?

I do. Was it all good? Certainly not. But they tried to get some money into actual journalism instead of just doing a presentation layer filled with copy paste.

That's a tough problem in this day and age of reader-paid news simply not happening. That's not happening not only because we are so greedy, it's also not happening because we certainly don't want to get back to only reading that one paper we happen to be subscribers of, as it used to be before the web.

We desperately need a "spotify for news", preferably with a two tier setup that allows a "play" of something investigative to have more weight than simple news agency copypasta. And preferably not with a central giant gatekeeper squeezing content suppliers as hard as possible but as a bottom-up coop, with reverse syndication (subscribers of A get elevated guest access at B and subscribers at B get guest at A) that redistributes a percentage of subscription revenue according to the spotify model (play/read counts). But as long as that doesn't exist, Vice was the closest thing we had to get post-print journalism funded.

Re: Vice files for Bankruptcy

#39
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It amazes me that any major organisation believes pitching themselves at a minority group of deniers of the commonly-held views of everyone else - that most people therefore find abrasive and alienating - makes good business sense.

So you think the minorities don't deserve news outlets and opinion platforms? I've been through that already and it was behind the iron curtain, welcome back to the old world - I definitely didn't expect it to be called "good".

No. Minorities do not deserve carte blanche control of the output of mass communication. That's the most basic enabler of authoritarian dictatorship. Under democratic capitalism, power must cater to the majority, or lose it/go broke.

It's not a perfect system, and remains susceptible to corruption from extremism, but it's historically superior to anything else that's been tried. Presumably this is a reality you've since enjoyed.

Key - for minorities as much as anyone else - is ensuring principles of free speech are upheld. The "woke" crowd have generally promoted censorship ("cancelling"), and therefore are incompatible with protecting their own rights.

As we're seeing here, with exactly this.

Re: Vice files for Bankruptcy

#40

Some years ago they had a large audience, me included, who got great value out of their investigative journalism. At some point they started pivoting into some weird form of advocacy journalism and clickbait garbage, alienating their existing audience, and apparently failing to find a new one. Good riddance.

What happen is that they took market money which means they no longer had to be hungry and do good and honest journalism.
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