Many outlets were complicit in the rise and normalization of Donald Trump. They'll do it again. Corporate media is in a conflict of interest as it tries to make a profit from being a public good.
This is exactly the problem in Alberta. We just started an election campaign with an incumbent Premier who lies, is aggressively ignorant, doesn't understand (or care) how the law and government work in this province or this country, still thinks she's an oil company lobbyist, and is courting the authoritarian far right.
But for some reason the NDP, who have been out of power for 4 years, have to run on *their* record.
This, the current state of media, is a particularly nasty part of the democratic decline were are in.
You could easily add to what Dr. Moscrop writes. There's enough data now for a book. Sarah Isgur, for example, is a former Republican spokeswoman who worked in the Trump administration. Before being hired by CNN she was among the first to refer to her new employer as, “Clinton News Network.” Now she's in charge of their programming development. I don't mention this because Isgur is an anomaly, but because she is the rule. The increasing nepotism between powerful, usually right wing, actors and the media and by extension social media, should worry us all. At the same time, attacks on, what by any objective account, are centrist outlets who still have some thin connection to the idea of truth and an independent fourth estate, are also increasing. And it isn't a coincidence. The desired result is information entropy - a place where nothing is true and disorder reigns which then allows information/truth/facts to be reduced to competing brands. It is only in that kind of truthless environment that outrageous accumulation and concentrations of wealth can be justified.
It feels like our press is reacting to our leader of His Majesties Loyal Opposition similarly to how US press treated Trump. Every bark and howl made by Pierre Poilievre is duly noted and treated like it is justified and backed up by facts.
There is seemingly no attention given to the sustained vilification of Justine Trudeau as an effective tool of voter suppression .
David, it is strategic lethargy and operational clay-footedness that has induced corporate media into the performance funk now wiping it out. The Globe hasn't made a profit in years; the Star is a capital sinkhole and the CBC costs would be better allocated to health funding. Most corporate media exist through the philanthropy of good people--sans ROI. These are hardly runaways from attempts to "be a public good".
Any one of the larger companies could have innovated on the web; any one could have stimulated journalistic entrepreneurism such as yours; any one could have experimented with online video. None did. And now, like the CBC, they gobble at the government trough for survival.
This isn't a Trump/Biden thing; it's management ineptitude.
decline accelerated when craigslist killed off classified ads revenue. next gut punch was social media stealing and monitoring their content. they needed "if it bleeds it leads" because content alone monetizes eye balls. online metrics allows fine grained tracking of who is driving engagement so their is a feedback loop that feeds the direction. it comes down to lack of regulation. why are social media platforms not publishers / broadcasters? etc.
This is exactly the problem in Alberta. We just started an election campaign with an incumbent Premier who lies, is aggressively ignorant, doesn't understand (or care) how the law and government work in this province or this country, still thinks she's an oil company lobbyist, and is courting the authoritarian far right.
But for some reason the NDP, who have been out of power for 4 years, have to run on *their* record.
This, the current state of media, is a particularly nasty part of the democratic decline were are in.
You could easily add to what Dr. Moscrop writes. There's enough data now for a book. Sarah Isgur, for example, is a former Republican spokeswoman who worked in the Trump administration. Before being hired by CNN she was among the first to refer to her new employer as, “Clinton News Network.” Now she's in charge of their programming development. I don't mention this because Isgur is an anomaly, but because she is the rule. The increasing nepotism between powerful, usually right wing, actors and the media and by extension social media, should worry us all. At the same time, attacks on, what by any objective account, are centrist outlets who still have some thin connection to the idea of truth and an independent fourth estate, are also increasing. And it isn't a coincidence. The desired result is information entropy - a place where nothing is true and disorder reigns which then allows information/truth/facts to be reduced to competing brands. It is only in that kind of truthless environment that outrageous accumulation and concentrations of wealth can be justified.
Thanks for this David.
It feels like our press is reacting to our leader of His Majesties Loyal Opposition similarly to how US press treated Trump. Every bark and howl made by Pierre Poilievre is duly noted and treated like it is justified and backed up by facts.
There is seemingly no attention given to the sustained vilification of Justine Trudeau as an effective tool of voter suppression .
David, it is strategic lethargy and operational clay-footedness that has induced corporate media into the performance funk now wiping it out. The Globe hasn't made a profit in years; the Star is a capital sinkhole and the CBC costs would be better allocated to health funding. Most corporate media exist through the philanthropy of good people--sans ROI. These are hardly runaways from attempts to "be a public good".
Any one of the larger companies could have innovated on the web; any one could have stimulated journalistic entrepreneurism such as yours; any one could have experimented with online video. None did. And now, like the CBC, they gobble at the government trough for survival.
This isn't a Trump/Biden thing; it's management ineptitude.
decline accelerated when craigslist killed off classified ads revenue. next gut punch was social media stealing and monitoring their content. they needed "if it bleeds it leads" because content alone monetizes eye balls. online metrics allows fine grained tracking of who is driving engagement so their is a feedback loop that feeds the direction. it comes down to lack of regulation. why are social media platforms not publishers / broadcasters? etc.
Hard to serve two masters... can’t serve both people and $/power.