4 ms·

Every time I see a hit piece on "big tech" from an established journalism entity like a newspaper or magazine I just consider who used to be the main ad-deliver

by twalla 7y ago

Every time I see a hit piece on "big tech" from an established journalism entity like a newspaper or magazine I just consider who used to be the main ad-delivery mechanism and who the main one is now.

core-questions 7y ago
Fantastic point.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
arkitaip 7y ago
Everything is a "hit piece" when the truth threatens your interests.
snowwrestler 7y ago
You fundamentally misunderstand how journalism works, then, and what is being lost in this shift. In a newspaper there are two or three teams: news and/or opinion, and business. The teams do not tell each other what to do. Business doesn't tell news what to report on or how to write their stories. News doesn't tell opinion what to write or publish. And news doesn't tell business what ads are OK to run. News and opinion take direct responsibility for what they publish. Every piece of content is put into the paper on purpose, usually written in-house. Their goal is to inform, enlighten, provoke, etc. -- to serve their society. The job of the business team is to keep the lights on so more journalism can get done. In a tech company like Facebook or YouTube, there are no such distinctions. Every decision, content or otherwise, is made for a business reason, and only for a business reason. That's why YouTube and Facebook publish horrible, abusive, ugly content every day that no news or opinion editor would ever have cleared for publication. Facebook and YouTube don't care; they have no sense of a duty to society, and have no master other than the pageview, the click, the ad sale. There are no "Chinese Walls" in modern ad-driven tech companies. It's worth remembering that those walls were built in journalism for a reason. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_wall https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_wall
- core-questions 7y ago
  There's no way any reasonable person can believe for a minute that advertising doesn't have a tremendous impact on what news outlets will publish. You seem to be operating in some 1950s dream world where the news media is honest and operating in the public interest. > Their goal is to inform, enlighten, provoke, etc. -- to serve their society. No. Their goal is to get eyeballs looking at ads and turn those into conversions so that the paper can sell more ads. If tabloid content achieves that goal, then that's what you will get. If pushing a narrative accomplishes that, or is more profitable in other ways for the shareholders, then you'll get that instead.

by twalla 7y ago

core-questions 7y ago

Fantastic point.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

arkitaip 7y ago

Everything is a "hit piece" when the truth threatens your interests.

snowwrestler 7y ago

You fundamentally misunderstand how journalism works, then, and what is being lost in this shift. In a newspaper there are two or three teams: news and/or opinion, and business. The teams do not tell each other what to do. Business doesn't tell news what to report on or how to write their stories. News doesn't tell opinion what to write or publish. And news doesn't tell business what ads are OK to run. News and opinion take direct responsibility for what they publish. Every piece of content is put into the paper on purpose, usually written in-house. Their goal is to inform, enlighten, provoke, etc. -- to serve their society. The job of the business team is to keep the lights on so more journalism can get done. In a tech company like Facebook or YouTube, there are no such distinctions. Every decision, content or otherwise, is made for a business reason, and only for a business reason. That's why YouTube and Facebook publish horrible, abusive, ugly content every day that no news or opinion editor would ever have cleared for publication. Facebook and YouTube don't care; they have no sense of a duty to society, and have no master other than the pageview, the click, the ad sale. There are no "Chinese Walls" in modern ad-driven tech companies. It's worth remembering that those walls were built in journalism for a reason. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_wall https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_wall

core-questions 7y ago
There's no way any reasonable person can believe for a minute that advertising doesn't have a tremendous impact on what news outlets will publish. You seem to be operating in some 1950s dream world where the news media is honest and operating in the public interest. > Their goal is to inform, enlighten, provoke, etc. -- to serve their society. No. Their goal is to get eyeballs looking at ads and turn those into conversions so that the paper can sell more ads. If tabloid content achieves that goal, then that's what you will get. If pushing a narrative accomplishes that, or is more profitable in other ways for the shareholders, then you'll get that instead.