3 ms·

> Too much importance is made on free press But how free is our press? 3 companies control 99% of UK newspapers. 6 companies control most of UK press of any ki

• troad 2y ago
  The UK has a weak media sector because it's impossible to compete with the 800-pound taxpayer-funded gorilla in the room, which doesn't need to turn a profit. The only way for UK media to remain remotely financially viable is to scour all the muck that the BBC won't touch, hence all the terrible tabloids, and even then it's touch and go at best. The libel laws are in turn a consequence of the excesses of the terrible tabloids. Incentives and disincentives, as always.
  • mdhb 2y ago
    I’d put a slightly different framing to you. Even in places like the US (where there is no clear comparison to the BBC when looking at audience and influence with public funding) you still see those exact same dynamics play out as you describe it with a huge rush to the bottom style mentality. The problem wasn’t the public funding but rather that good journalism is incompatible with a profit maximising corporate structure. We saw the exact same thing play out online with how the fact that the internets primary business model is advertising and what that has done to content creation across all formats and all platforms almost without exception. So like you’re saying but the opposite in some ways.