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Fox News might be bad but nowhere as bad as a company that makes its money on giving crazies a place to congregate and "engage" and even spreads the craziness t
by Nextgrid 4y ago
Fox News might be bad but nowhere as bad as a company that makes its money on giving crazies a place to congregate and "engage" and even spreads the craziness to others who might otherwise be still on the fence.
Biased media has always been a thing, but giving every dumbass a megaphone (and making money off it, spending some to create even more megaphones) is a very new thing and we're now seeing the effects of it on society.
You could say that it's inevitable and that if it wasn't for social media then forums would fill the niche, and while that's true, those forums would be something you'd explicitly need to seek out if you were already interested in this kind of content, where as right now the same thing you used to keep in touch with your family harbors this disgusting content and might even show it to you if it thinks there's a probability you'll "engage" with it.
- geraldyo 4y agoYep, cause Fox News makes no money giving crazies a place to congregate lol. MyPillowMan TM sends his regards, brother
- Nextgrid 4y agoFox News gives the crazies a single, read-only feed with a limited amount of ad space and at least some regulatory oversight. The largest "congregation" you could make with that is to ask all your neighbors to go to your Fox News viewing party. Furthermore, other channels with different (opposite?) biases are a button press away. Biased media has always existed and didn't lead to this kind of large-scale polarization, so it seems like a read-only feed is mostly safe. Facebook gives the crazies a town square and a set of megaphones, the volumes of which dynamically vary depending on who's at the receiving end to maximize "engagement" (which usually translates to outrage or arguments). The size of the congregation is virtually unlimited. There's also no "channel" you can just switch - if Facebook thinks you will "engage" with a certain kind of content it will slowly but surely start feeding you more and more of it, which would also draw in and radicalize people that were otherwise well-meaning. This is a whole other level compared to a biased TV channel, and something society hasn't dealt with before.
- geraldyo 4y agoI for sure agree, I accidentally made it seem I was defending Facebook or Social Media in general. I think I meant it's also not accurate to say Fox News DOESN'T do that. But fair points!
- edmcnulty101 4y agoCan't argue there. Social.....media and the web is the competition for normal...media. And why in my opinion normal media has to create sensationalized content to compete for clicks with the insanity of social...media.