As I've mentioned before, there was a time when traditional newspapers being outcompeted into oblivion by network media would have seemed like good news to me. But that was when most network media were community-controlled and non-commercial. Locally-based, commercial outlets being driven out of business by corporate-owned propaganda machines, masquerading as neutral 'social media' platforms, was not the outcome I was hoping for.
There is a perception that the news media is biased toward the left. I wonder if the left is contributing to that by linking to their articles more when we agree with them? Maybe it might be help if we link more to right-leaning articles [edit: I mean in mainstream news media] and criticize them?
"New Zealand is far, far too small to bring the likes of Netflix, Google and Facebook to heel. California for example, is said to be the fifth largest economy in the world. Yet Meta and Google are threatening to cut off news items (and searches) about California if the state proceeds with... legislation [that] would require the social media giants to pay a “journalism useage fee” for linking to news sites based in California."
Links to these are in the article. This is an example of the time-consuming public interest work journalists do, regardless of the structural biases of their employer.
"People may not like the content of the news, its priorities, the emotive style in which it is presented and the nightly exposure it gives to polarising political figures. But do people 'value' the media being there? They probably do on balance, even if they may not 'trust' it much."
"... one of the challenges of [deliberative democracy] is to get the mainstream media interested in it. I think they're not interested partly because it's quite technical, and secondly because I actually think they're threatened."
"Since end-to-end encrypting communications on the platform as a measure to protect user privacy, Meta no longer has access to the content of messages so cannot monitor what is spreading. But the company now says it has technology to spot accounts engaging in abnormal behaviour, with 8m accounts banned a month – 75% of which are banned before those accounts are reported by users."
> still continue to disseminate terrible pieces of information, untruths, rumours
"[Politicians making blatantly untrue claims] is where media's role should be, to [say] 'no, that's just a lie', and just squash it. But they don't. They just repeat it. They amplify it."
A #juror was quickly dismissed at the start. She was among the 7 already selected, she said she was very worried that despite the fact the court ruled to keep jurors’ name secret, she would still be exposed & targeted.
We are down to 6 jurors, & apparently waiting to hear from another, juror 4. The judge is addressing the #NewsMedia, saying there is a reason #reporters are taking measures to keep the #jury#anonymous.
It “kind of defeats the purpose of that" when so much information is #publicized about them.
I don't know how to feel about the gradual heat death of live television, particularly news and current affairs shows.
A couple of decades ago, I joined a global network of Independent Media Centres, one of whose stated goals was to 'break the corporate media blockade'. Back then, I might have celebrated what's happening to NewsHub and the TVNZ newsroom as a victory.
But even then I would have mourned the loss of Fair Go.
‘Chevron launched its latest newsroom, called Permian Proud, in the Permian Basin in August 2022.
‘The site posts stories about West Texas and New Mexico. They are home to the nation's highest-producing oil fields, where Chevron has substantial drilling interests — and where local news has been hard hit.’ #Texas#PermianBasin#NewsMedia#Media#News
"These days innovating means following the audience and operating online. But those who do are not always rewarded with the required revenue.
Unless you can get enough online supporters or subscribers to pay, which also means trying to secure digital advertising - and the vast bulk of revenue from that goes offshore to the companies which have cornered that market."
A few things the NZ government could do about the news media crisis;
level the online advertising playing field by banning mass surveillance by websites
pass a law like the EU Digital Markets Act, obliging all online services to allow people using them to connect with people using similar services run by other operators (like they can with email)
impose a levy on all online ads, with the resulting revenue tied by legislation to a public media funding body like NZ on Air
The Narwhal snags 3 National Newspaper Awards nominations
The National Newspaper Awards celebrate some of the best journalism in Canada. This year, our work is in the running in three categories https://thenarwhal.ca/national-newspaper-awards-nominations-2024/
I feel like my comments back in Sept last year, about TVNZ not being viable as a commercial entity, are being vindicated. If the new government are looking for suggestions, here are a few I made at the time;
"#Outragemedia isn’t #news. It responds to the news. It reacts. It’s performative and entertaining. There is drama and conflict. The show hosts and pundits talk about the news, but they make no attempt to cover all the news. Instead, they select from the news of the day, and then reinterpret, reframe, and unpack the news “through the lens of ideological selectivity.”
Something I've been thinking about lately is that it's too much work for people to learn the histories of political people.
We almost need a website that summarizes their views.
The world moves too quickly for everybody to do independent research on candidates and representatives.
In fact, this isn't limited to political figures. News outlets are the same. There are some excellent small outlets that nobody knows about. (Although at least on this issue there are some news ranking sites)
"From my knowledge of the relationship between the platforms and New Zealand media, I would endorse this assessment but would add that there are some media entities with which the platforms simply refuse to engage. This is in spite of the fact that material produced and paid for by these entities is appropriated for use on the platforms."
Just when I think I've plumbed the depths of David Seymour's cluelessness, he responds to the NewsHub announcement by saying he'll save them by making TVNZ pay a dividend to Treasury again. This is the publicly-owned TV broadcaster that lost NZ$17 million in the first half of last year. Even Winston, who railed against the "mainstream" media through the election campaign, thinks that's dopey. https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/focusonpolitics/audio/2018928273/when-no-news-is-bad-news
"Research conducted at the Centre for Media, Journalism and Democracy (JMAD) shows public trust in news is falling dramatically in Aotearoa New Zealand. The reasons for this loss of trust are complex ...
But any attempts at rebuilding that trust and its role in a functioning democracy will be futile if the public perceives the production of news to be now largely controlled by self-interested global corporates."
"As one famous Australian constitutional lawyer said, and it remains the case even under MMP... NZ is an Executive paradise. The sovereignty of Parliament in NZ - which means Parliament can pass any law it likes - is actually the sovereignty of the Executive, not of the Parliament. And that is why so many Opposition MPs have such a frustrating life, because they have very little influence over anything."
This is what "foreign investment" looks like. If the Overseas Investment Commission had teeth, corporate raiders would never have been allowed to buy our major news media companies, and then downgrade or asset strip them when it's not profitable enough to own them.
Could a staff buyout save NewsHub? When Stuff was facing a similar fate at the hands of overseas owners, a member of staff bought it for $1. It's now a much better news service for being journalist-driven, instead of profit-driven. It would be even better if it put social enterprise principles into its constitution to enshrine that.