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Is Twitter a News Medium or Just a Propaganda Outlet as Public Media Leave it in Droves?

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Artice from The Guardian by Guardian Staff,  4/14/23

Headline:  “PBS quits Twitter after being labeled ‘government-funded media’”

Sub-head:  “Broadcaster leaves platform a day after NPR’s exit over concerns labels undermine credibility as independent news outlets”


“The US’s Public Broadcasting Service, better known as PBS, has quit its use of Twitter after the platform labeled the organization as “government-funded media”.

“PBS’s announced its Twitter exit on Thursday, one day after National Public Radio also left the platform amid comments by the Twitter owner, Elon Musk, that NPR was “state-affiliated media” which should be defunded.

“The labels are shared by Russia Today and China’s Xinhua, whose editorial decisions are heavily influenced by their respective state regimes .. .”

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/apr/14/pbs-quits-twitter-government-funded-media-label-npr

 

In Our Brave New World, Will News Be Delivered by Pre-programmed AI Journalist Robots?

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From the Guardian, 4/11/23:

Headline: “AI generated news presenter debuts in Kuwait media”

Sub-head:  “Kuwait News introduced Fedha, promising that it could read online news in the future”

“A Kuwaiti media outlet has unveiled a virtual news presenter generated using artificial intelligence, with plans for it to read online bulletins.

‘Fedha’ appeared on the Twitter account of the Kuwait News website on Saturday as an image of a woman, hair uncovered, wearing a black jacket and white T-shirt.

“’I’m Fedha, the first presenter in Kuwait who works with artificial intelligence at Kuwait News. What kind of news do you prefer? Let’s hear your opinions,’ she said in Arabic.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/11/ai-generated-news-presenter-debuts-in-kuwait-media

Local News Disappearing? Here’s a Solution From Early Days.

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Article from Politico by Steven Waldman, 4/2/23

Headline: “There’s Already a Solution to the Crisis of Local News. Just Ask This Founding Father”

Sub-Head:  “As modern lawmakers consider various means of public assistance for besieged local news sites, they can learn from the founders’ approach to supporting journals and gazettes”

Solution:  Subsidize the news (without censoring  the news)

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/04/02/james-madison-subsidize-the-news-00090023

Photo from Politico

Friends of Community Media Annual Meeting

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Greetings:

      April 8, 2-4 PM, is the time for the 2023 annual meeting for Friends of Community Media.  This will be a hybrid event followed by a pot luck in the Oak Room of Oak Hall, 4550 Warwick Blvd, KCMO 64111.  Zoom credentials appear below.

      People who wish to attend in person are asked to RSVP, so I can notify the Oak Hall reception staff of whom to admit.

      Help us plan a series of events featuring local media leaders discussing media reform to improve democracy.

* McChesney recommends distributing 0.15% of GDP (roughly $100 per person per year) to local new organizations via local elections.

* This is comparable to the US Postal Service Act of 1792, which helped catapult the US into its leadership position in the world today.

* Most cities could fund this by matching what they spend for accounting, advertising, media and public relations.       Dues are $10 per year.  FCM members who have not contributed at least

$10 since January of this year can pay in person or via the PayPal “Donate” button on the “Donate” page: “https://ourfcm.org/donate/“.

      The key agenda item will be to elect four people for 2-year terms on the Board.  The terms of Spencer Graves, Lynn Norris, and Richard Thompson end with this meeting.  Susan Sarachek was on our board but is no longer with us.  (Tom Crane, Craig Lubow, and Greg Swartz were elected to 2-year terms last year.  Their terms will expire with the 2024 annual meeting.) 

Other agenda items will include a proposed series of public events with local media leaders, a fund raiser at Hamburger Mary’s scheduled for April 29 (Saturday), Grassroots Radio Conference,

Also considered will be the past, future, and management of this website.  A more detailed agenda will be distributed as we get closer.

Hope to see you then.      Spencer Graves, President, Friends of Community Media. 408-655-4567

 

Local Newspapers Matter, Their Demise Portends Trouble

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Headline: “Local journalism made me what I am today. Without it, we’ll all be the poorer”

Sub-head: “For budding journalists and citizens alike, the demise of local newspapers will leave a void that’s impossible to fill”Article in The Guardian by John Humphrys, 3/30/23

“. . . Then there’s the old controversy: how much has the ubiquity of BBC local news been to blame for so many local papers going out of business? As Hall acknowledges, in broadcasting the genuinely local commercial stations have for the most part been merged into larger entities. This has “important ramifications” for reporting on local councils, courts and so on.

“A few years ago, the BBC set up the Local Democracy Reporting Service to head off charges that it was killing off local newspapers. The scheme pays for journalists who can work for any local news outlet. There are 165 of them and about 1,000 individual news outlets are signed up.”

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/mar/30/local-journalism-journalists-newspapers

 

 

 

Disappearing Local News Calamity is Outlined in this Article.

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Article from Nieman Lab by Joshua Benton, 3/9/23

Headline: “The scale of local news destruction in Gannett’s markets is astonishing”

Sub-head:  “It might not be as mustache-twirling a villain as Alden Global Capital, but its enormous scale has meant enormous losses for local journalism.”

“And its most recent SEC filing reports that, as of the end of 2022, Gannett had just 11,200 U.S. employees remaining (plus another roughly 3,000 overseas).

“. . . Gannett has eliminated more than half of its jobs in the United States in four years. It’s as if, instead of merging America’s two largest newspaper chains, one of them was simply wiped off the face of the earth.

“That’s a cut substantially deeper than the rate of newspaper revenue decline. Why? . . . “

 
https://www.niemanlab.org/2023/03/the-scale-of-local-news-destruction-in-gannetts-markets-is-astonishing/