“Facebook has become the richest and most powerful publisher in history by replacing editors with algorithms – shattering the public square into millions of personalised news feeds, shifting entire societies away from the open terrain of genuine debate and argument, while they make billions from our valued attention. This shift presents big challenges for liberal democracy. But it presents particular problems for journalism.”
The actual complaint is that the people are determining the conversation rather than as it used to be, when those who had climbed the greasy pole to become editor of The Guardian did. You know, the peasantry get to talk about what they want to talk about instead of being told what to think?
““Journalists must work to earn the trust of those they aim to serve. And we must make ourselves more representative of the societies we aim to represent. Members of the media are increasingly drawn from the same, privileged sector of society. This problem has actually worsened in recent decades,” she said.”
Bye, Polly!
The Grauniad wants a regulator but who regulates the regulator?
http://www.williamofockham.com/2017/11/14/who-regulates-the-regulator/
shifting entire societies away from the open terrain of genuine debate and argument,
I can remember people complaining that usenet was doing this.
Tim – there is a problem, but it’s not the one they say it is. It is that when reading a newspaper or watching the TV news you are exposed to a slightly wider range of views.
Most of us on the atomised web based individual new feeds tend to read only a chosen few sources, which are of course the ones we agree with like your good self.
The web has become a vast political and moral echo chamber.
Part of the fault lies with the MSM who have dumbed down and narrowed their views, and part lies with human nature being what it is.
But this does tend to explain the ugly phenomenon of government by twatterstorm, and I have no idea where we go from here.
Anything the Gladrag exudes is ether active, obvious MC/CM propaganda or an attempt to present MC/CM propaganda in various degrees of (unsuccessful) disguise.
That isn’t going to change ever. Not as long as the shiterag exists.
It is that when reading a newspaper or watching the TV news you are exposed to a slightly wider range of views.
You are exposed to a wider range of news when reading the Guardian?!!
The self-regard of MSM journalists is colossal. Amongst other things, they conceive of themselves and their influence as somehow essential, even as their influence leaches away.
That said, Faceache, Twatter and Gargle are not exactly benign either…
The fact that the entire msm is so far to the left of “the open terrain of genuine debate and argument” that it’s half way up to the snow line may have something to do with it.
More and more I find that the only worthwhile, meaningful and telling response to arguments from the left is to say “oh, ffffuck off”.
They won’t listen to sense, reason or facts. I’m beginning to think socialism is a brain abnormality.
The web has become a vast political and moral echo chamber.
That’s certainly partly true, but then if you only ever read one paper, glanced at the TV news now and then and chatted to like minded mates in the pub, the same would apply.
I still don’t understand the whole Facebook news thing. I’m on Facebook, but I don’t see any news there.
If you are right minded (in both meaning of the word), exposure to the Guardian is unlikely to change your mind despite being exposed to different views.
That’s not because of the echo chamber effect, but because what they spout is purile crap.
The self-regard of MSM journalists is colossal. Amongst other things, they conceive of themselves and their influence as somehow essential, even as their influence leaches away.
I think every single one sees themselves as Woodward/Bernstein, even while they copy and paste the latest press release from their favourite activist NGOs directly into their copy.
There was a time when I listened to R4 news at 7,8,9…1… 6,10,12. Sometime an item might be short on detail and I would expect to find that in a newspaper the next day. But then I found that what was in the newspaper was just the same paraphrase of an agency report or press release with no added detail. The newspaper was just opinion not news. And the radio news became so full of irrelevant nonsense and annoyances that it was no longer worth listening. Besides there are only so many time you can throw a radio across the room in disgust.
I look at the headlines on the bbc site once or twice a day, more to see what they would like me to believe than to be informed, I rarely read the detail.
I can read more than I want to know about the g. right here.
“It is that when reading a newspaper or watching the TV news you are exposed to a slightly wider range of views.
You are exposed to a wider range of news when reading the Guardian?!!”
Rob – I should have said you used to be. That is obviously no longer the case and probably hasn’t been since I was a nipper.
And the BBC is of course just as bad. Both now become echo chambers.
“. . . the open terrain of genuine debate and argument . . .”
This is The Guardian we’re talking about? You know, ‘No Comments’ Guardian?
Theo: The self-regard of MSM journalists is colossal
Try The Sun. For news it’s pretty much spot on which reflects the basic requirement of a readership that wants the bare bones of the story expressed clearly and simply.
The pics, opinion pieces and celeb gossip are what they are but the news is rather refreshingly non-partisan or preachy.
I doubt I’m the only person here who deliberately reads things that I normally don’t agree with to see what other people are thinking. If you are Mr Ecks, feel free to call it reconnaisance of the enemy, but however you define it this is a normal activity from most economically-right-wing people (the frothing lunatics of the Telegraph comment section aside perhaps (many of whom are actually statist scumbags anyway – just not socialist ones).
There is a notable lack of enthusiasm for similiar reading from the purity-obsessed totalitarians who dominate the public face of the left wing nowadays though. And I think the Guardian is without realising it complaining about its own small patch of the political spectrum.
Watchman – yes I do the same. Having worked in science, IT and politics I’ve ended up as a technical, numerate logical thinker and therefore on the old fashioned centre right in terms of government size, tax take and all the rest.
I therefore read other views to find out what the enemy thinks and is likely to do. And very occasionally I read something thought-provoking and change my mind.
I also like to read and listen to stuff that on the surface I might not agree with. It helps you crystallise your own thoughts and you may pick up something you hadn’t thought about or misunderstood.
On the other hand they drive you nuts. I’m attending the Bristol Festival of Economics and had just bean listening to Jean Tirol who was really good interesting, even though he thinks we’re wrong to leave the EU.
This was followed by a panel discussion on Trump, Brexit and trade. I had to leave before I threw my chair at one of them.
Watchy & Foxxy, I do the same, it’s part of why I come here to find people putting forward arguments I might diagree with and work out why mi disagreement might be wrong, or why they might be wrong and how to coherently put a counter-argument.
I too have worked in science, IT and politics I’ve ended up as a technical, numerate logical thinker and therefore on the old fashioned centre left – that is, the proper, old fashion, non-socialist centre left. The one that makes sure there’s a sign that says “Library” above the door, not the one that forces people to go there or burns the contents therein.