5 ms·

Living in a country of 1.5 million people, it often feels devastating how big a part of political/intellectual discussion in our (tiny) language actually takes

by marttt 5y ago

Living in a country of 1.5 million people, it often feels devastating how big a part of political/intellectual discussion in our (tiny) language actually takes place in Facebook. I have worked in journalism, so maybe it's sour grapes in a way, but: most of the great writers are there. All the politicians are there. Our prime minister first announces crucial things on her FB wall, etc. In short, if you want to participate in the public sphere of our tiny society that yet speaks its own tiny language, you'd better have a FB account. The account provided by an American Megacorp, that is. This actually feels really strange. I've been more or less off FB for 5-6 years, occasionally feeling lonely and intellectually isolated. I would love to see things like the Fediverse/Mastodon or tilde.town take off for speakers of our language, but I'm having doubts whether this could ever happen. For the lingua francas, there will always be a considerable chunk of alternative culture and great, bright discussion outside dominant platforms (howdy, HN!). For smaller cultures, this relationship status is surely complicated. FB is just so damn big.

olivermarks 5y ago
I feel you can apply the maxim 'in politics nothing happens by accident' to Facebook despite their earnest attempts to claim unintended consequences. They are a highly important component of our divide and rule political era on multiple levels and sadly are doing an excellent job.
- marttt 5y ago
  True. In the early 2010s, I used to ponder whether journalism is actually dying -- meaning, now that we have social media, traditional gatekeeper-journalism [1] is simply not needed any more. During the passed decade, it has become obvious that as long as a social network is also a megacorporation, this idea won't work. We still need the better parts of traditional journalism to check what's going on behind the curtains of profit-driven social networks. Really messy, but also truly interesting times for journalism for sure. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gatekeeping_(communication) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gatekeeping_(communication)
  - olivermarks 5y ago
    The huge challenge for journalism is the reality that professionals are almost always paid to promote the agenda of their employer and advertisers. Independent, investigative reporting is very rare in corporate media these days. Many (Chris Hedges, ex NYT foreign correspondent is a good example) set up as independents in the golden era of blogging prior to the social media/smartphone tsunamai. I would argue people such as Matt Taibbi, Matt Stoller, Michael Tracey, Chris Hedges in the US are the true gatekeepers right now based on my understanding of the planet. These people appear to survive by publishing books and keeping up a strong social media presence critiquing the platforms that host them, and with companies like substack paying them to promote their platforms.

by marttt 5y ago

olivermarks 5y ago

I feel you can apply the maxim 'in politics nothing happens by accident' to Facebook despite their earnest attempts to claim unintended consequences. They are a highly important component of our divide and rule political era on multiple levels and sadly are doing an excellent job.

marttt 5y ago
True. In the early 2010s, I used to ponder whether journalism is actually dying -- meaning, now that we have social media, traditional gatekeeper-journalism [1] is simply not needed any more. During the passed decade, it has become obvious that as long as a social network is also a megacorporation, this idea won't work. We still need the better parts of traditional journalism to check what's going on behind the curtains of profit-driven social networks. Really messy, but also truly interesting times for journalism for sure. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gatekeeping_(communication) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gatekeeping_(communication)
- olivermarks 5y ago
  The huge challenge for journalism is the reality that professionals are almost always paid to promote the agenda of their employer and advertisers. Independent, investigative reporting is very rare in corporate media these days. Many (Chris Hedges, ex NYT foreign correspondent is a good example) set up as independents in the golden era of blogging prior to the social media/smartphone tsunamai. I would argue people such as Matt Taibbi, Matt Stoller, Michael Tracey, Chris Hedges in the US are the true gatekeepers right now based on my understanding of the planet. These people appear to survive by publishing books and keeping up a strong social media presence critiquing the platforms that host them, and with companies like substack paying them to promote their platforms.