Democracy Dies Behind Paywalls
theatlantic.com
Democracy Dies Behind Paywalls
1–10 of 25 posts
Re: Democracy Dies Behind Paywalls
#2An interesting dilemma for media owners - the subscription model is the future of news, yet the self suppression of reach that this necessarily entails means that media owners now have far less influence over politics than they did during the ad-funded era, hence this unsatisfactory half-way house of 'its free when we want to influence your voting behaviour'
Also: democracy isn't dying just because media stops have the reach it once did. People will still vote, that is not being suppressed
Re: Democracy Dies Behind Paywalls
#3I think a more-specific example of guarded democracy would be politicians whom only communicate with the public via gardened walls (e.g. Facebook, Twitter).
Re: Democracy Dies Behind Paywalls
#4Is this supposed to be ironic? This article is literally behind a paywall…
Re: Democracy Dies Behind Paywalls
#5Re: Democracy Dies Behind Paywalls
#6The irony here is insane
Re: Democracy Dies Behind Paywalls
#7It also dies behind dark patterns that prevent you from canceling the subscription. I've subscribed to a few publications over the years but not any more.
After getting burned a few times from an easy to sign up but impossible to cancel user experience I have sworn them all off.
I refuse to support subscriptions that require talking to a person. And waiting on hold and having to navigate the operator trying to prevent you from canceling. In my experience all media and news subscriptions do this.
Re: Democracy Dies Behind Paywalls
#8The irony here is insane
It's already called out in the article, "(Yes, you may face this very dilemma reading this story in The Atlantic.)"
The author doesn't have control over the paywall policy, and he probably isn't a full-time journalist. So I don't think this is as much of a "gotcha" as other comments make it out to be.
But, interestingly enough, another author wrote a very similar, non-paywalled article at https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2022/all-news-election-ar... a few years ago! I wonder if Stengel was aware of it.
Re: Democracy Dies Behind Paywalls
#9Yes, it's behind a paywall. mitchbob posted the archive link, and as I have noted, when factual information is paywalled, only lies, propaganda and conspiracy theories will be free to many.
A raft of subscriptions is ridiculous and dangerous. Every one increases your odds of identity theft.
And the idea is not new. "Someone" created a cool graphic a long time ago.
Re: Democracy Dies Behind Paywalls
#10It also dies behind dark patterns that prevent you from canceling the subscription. I've subscribed to a few publications over the years but not any more. After getting burned a few times from an easy to sign up but impossible to cancel user experience I have sworn them all off. I refuse to support subscriptions that require talking to a person. And waiting on hold and having to navigate the operator trying to preven…
Why not just use a virtual credit card?