Internet Media

Propaganda is – Propaganda?

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Article in The Guardian by Arwa Mahdawi, 7/29/25

Headline:  “Ghislaine Maxwell is not a victim. And if she is pardoned, it won’t be for the sake of justice”

Subhead:  “The Epstein files may never be released, but it’s increasingly likely that Epstein’s right-hand woman could be. The groundwork is already being done”

“. . .The cable news channel, which is to the right of Fox News, is essentially a pro-Trump propaganda outlet with strong financial ties to the president. Earlier this month the outlet announced that it had struck a deal for the Trump Media and Technology Group Corp to stream Newsmax on its platform. Which obviously raises a lot of conflict-of-interest questions. “This is now the Trump network,” one Newsmax insider complained to the Independent last week. ‘Even the most conservative people at Newsmax think it’s a terrible look and they feel like state-run media.’ Also raising questions is the fact that Alex Acosta, the prosecutor who gave Epstein that plea deal in 2008, happens to be on the board of Newsmax.. .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jul/29/ghislaine-maxwell-pardon-epstein-files

Spreading the Right Word

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Article in The Washington Post by Sarah Ellison, 7/9/25

Headline:  “Trump’s social media company strikes deal with friendly news outlet”

Subhead:  “Truth+, a new streaming service attached to the Truth Social platform, will expand globally, featuring Trump-friendly Newsmax.“

“The company that owns the social media platform Truth Social and counts President Donald Trump as its largest shareholder said Monday that it had reached a deal with Newsmax, which its founder has described as “supportive of the President and his policies,” to stream Newsmax content globally.

“The unprecedented deal links a company whose largest shareholder is the sitting president with a conservative media ally, in a deal that could benefit both parties financially. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/07/09/trump-truth-social-newsmax-streaming-deal/

Publish a Thousand Points of View?

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Article in The New York Times by Benjamin Mullin, 6/25/25

Headline:  “The Washington Post Will Ask Some Sources to Annotate Its Stories”

Subhead:  “The program, called From the Source, will start with articles from the publication’s climate team. It could provide readers with more viewpoints but would also require moderation and vetting.”

“The Washington Post, facing serious financial shortfalls, has spent the past year working on new ways to draw more readers to its site, and encourage those who come to spend more time there.

“In November, executives rolled out ‘Ask The Post A.I.,’ an artificial intelligence tool that answers readers’ questions using published works from The Post. The publication has also been experimenting with lower-priced subscriptions, called flexible access, for readers who want to sample its journalism.

“On Wednesday, The Post’s top editor said in a memo that the publication would begin piloting another attempt to keep readers engaged: inviting some of the people quoted in its stories to annotate articles they appeared in. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/25/business/washington-post-annotations-comments.html

Old Media Blowing in the Wind?

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Jon Alsop 6/24/25

Headline:  “Old Media Meets New on Primary Day in New York”

Subhead:  “Is the race between Andrew Cuomo and Zohran Mamdani a proxy for changes in our media environment?”

“. . . If old media is now irrelevant in shaping voter perceptions, someone seemingly forgot to tell the Mamdani supporters (and others) who have criticized coverage of the candidate in major outlets, particularly when it comes to his positions on Israel. (Writing for In These Times earlier this month, Adam Johnson accused the Times of trying to manufacture tension between Mamdani and Jewish voters when he was not polling notably badly with that group; Lach, of The New Yorker, wrote yesterday that ‘outlets like the New York Post and the Free Press have tried to make him a bogeyman,’ though Lach allowed that ‘part of the reason that reporters have kept asking Mamdani about Israel is because his answer isn’t very convincing.’ . . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/old-new-media-new-york-primary-cuomo-mamdani-brad-lander.php

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Article in AP by David Bauder, 6/24/25

Headline:  “Life on the other side: Refugees from ‘old media’ flock to the promise of working for themselves”

“Six months ago, Jennifer Rubin had no idea whether she’d make it in a new media world. She just knew it was time to leave The Washington Post, where she’d been a political columnist for 15 years.

“The Contrarian, the democracy-focused website that Rubin founded with partner Norm Eisen in January, now has 10 employees and contributors like humorist Andy Borowitz and White House reporter April Ryan. Its 558,000 subscribers also get recipes and culture dispatches.

“In the blink of an eye, Rubin became a independent news entrepreneur. ‘I think we hit a moment, just after inauguration, when people were looking for something different and it has captured people’s imaginations,’ she says. ‘We’ve been having a ball with it.’

“YouTube, Substack, TikTok and others are spearheading a full-scale democratization of media and a generation of new voices and influencers . . .”

read the full article at:

https://apnews.com/article/new-media-mainstream-substack-youtube-influencers-076dfb132475aa42c3e4ebe81f63eb9a

“Media Matters” Sues FTC

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Article in Media Matters by Staff, 6/23/25

Headline:  “Media Matters files suit in federal court to block retaliatory FTC investigation and protect its First Amendment rights”

Subhead:  “Investigation into Media Matters is the latest example of Trump administration abusing power to target perceived political opponents”

“Media Matters for America filed suit today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to block an investigation launched by the Federal Trade Commission. The investigation is the latest effort by Elon Musk and his allies in the Trump administration to retaliate against Media Matters for its reporting on X, the social media site Musk controls, and it’s another example of the Trump administration weaponizing government authorities to target political opponents. The suit alleges that the FTC has violated Media Matters’ First Amendment rights by retaliating against the organization for its reporting on Elon Musk and X. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/justice-civil-liberties/media-matters-files-suit-federal-court-block-retaliatory-ftc-investigation

Getting News from Social Media

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Article in The Guardian by Michael Savage, 6/16/25

Headline:  “Social media overtakes TV as main source of news in US, analysis finds”

Subhead:  “Global study shows 54% of Americans receive news from social media, while the UK has highest proportion of news avoiders at 46%”

“Social media has overtaken television as a source of news in the US for the first time, according to a comprehensive analysis of media consumption confirming the rapid rise of “news influencers”.

“In a watershed moment for the US media, 54% of Americans said they received news from social media, according to the research carried out after President Trump’s second inauguration. Half said they sourced news from the once all-powerful TV networks. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2025/jun/17/social-media-overtakes-tv-as-main-source-of-news-in-us-analysis-finds

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Article in Poynter by Angela Fu, 6/16/25

Headline:  “Americans turn to social media and video for news more than any other source”

Subhead:  “A new Reuters Institute report also found that 7% of Americans use AI chatbots to access news”

“Social media and video networks have overtaken television to become the most widely used source of news among Americans, according to a new Reuters Institute report.

“In a survey conducted at the end of January and beginning of February, 54% of Americans said they had accessed news via social and video networks within the past week. TV and online news sites were the next most common sources, with roughly half of respondents saying they had gotten news from those media. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2025/where-do-americans-get-news/

Advertiser Boycott, Free-Speech?

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Article in Status by Oliver Darcy, 5/22/25

Headline:  “Muzzling Media Matters”

Subhead:  “What began as Elon Musk’s personal vendetta against Media Matters has now escalated into a full-blown government-backed campaign, with Donald Trump’s FTC launching a probe into the non-profit group”.

On Wednesday morning, an IT staffer at Media Matters for America received a letter, hand-delivered by a process server. The staffer didn’t panic. These days, being served legal documents has become an almost routine occurrence at the progressive watchdog group, a direct consequence of the litigation unleashed by Elon Musk and other prominent right-wing figures. . .”

“That casual demeanor didn’t last. The moment the executive began to read the document, her tone shifted dramatically. It was not merely another legal missive; it was an official demand letter from the Federal Trade Commission. The federal government, it appeared, was initiating a formal probe into Media Matters. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.status.news/p/ftc-investigates-media-matters-elon-musk

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Article in The Guardian by Staff, 5/22/25

Headline:  “FTC investigates media watchdog over Musk’s X boycott claims, document shows”

Subhead:  “Media Matters faces government inquiry into whether it helped advertisers coordinate to pull ad dollars from X”

“The US Federal Trade Commission has demanded documents from Media Matters about possible coordination with other media watchdogs accused by Elon Musk of helping orchestrate advertiser boycotts of X, according to a document seen by Reuters on Thursday.

“The civil investigative demand seen by Reuters seeks information about Media Matters’ communications with other groups that evaluate misinformation and hate speech in news and social media, including a World Federation of Advertisers initiative called Global Alliance for Responsible Media. X has ongoing lawsuits against both organizations. . .”

“Last year, X sued the World Federation of Advertisers and a group of major brands in federal court in Texas, accusing them of illegally conspiring to curtail ad spending. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/22/ftc-media-matters-x-investigation

No Journalistic Standards for Bots?

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Laura Preston, 5/13/25

Headline:  “Study Guide Supremacy”

Subhead:  “Getting my news from ChatGPT”

“If you spend any time among people in the AI space, you’ll hear a common refrain. Large language models (LLMs) like Google’s Gemini, Anthropic’s Claude, and OpenAI’s ChatGPT are handy tools for searching the internet, separating facts from the chaff, and delivering information objectively. Of course, we’ve already invented a system for dispatching neutral information, and that system is called journalism. Herein lies a serious irony. Many LLMs are trained on content produced by journalistic institutions, but do not adhere to journalistic standards when rehashing the material. . .”

https://www.cjr.org/feature-2/getting-my-news-from-chatgpt-ai.php

Some of the “New Media”

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Article in The Guardian by Richard Luscombe, 5/5/25

Headline:  “Maga media mob: meet the new rightwing faces in the White House briefing room”

Subhead:  “A banjo player and a Black Maga influencer, among others, now attend Trump administration press briefings”

“A disgraced ultra-conservative banjo player ousted from his Grammy-winning band; a far-right conspiracy theorist with alleged ties to Russia; a TikTok creator known as ‘Maga Malfoy’ for his resemblance to the Harry Potter character; and an extremist social media ‘influencer’ once banned from Twitter for posting a video depicting sexual abuse of a child.”

“These are just some of the ‘new media’ personalities courted by the White House to take part in a series of alternative briefings championed by Donald Trump’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt. . .”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/05/white-house-briefing-rightwing-media

Social Media Posts – In What Language?

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Article in The Guardian by Adam Gabbatt, 5/3/25

Headline:  “Trump’s Truth Social posts make no sense – what do they say about his mentality?”

Subhead:  “The president’s little used social media platform offers him a forum for his nonstop haranguing and score-settling”

“No political leader has used social media quite like Donald Trump. But his recent posts on Truth Social, the social media platform he founded in 2021, have become increasingly bizarre: the president using the lack of scrutiny afforded by the platform’s small user base to truly let loose.

“In the hundreds of ‘Truths’ since he took office, Trump has variously used Truth Social to reimagine himself as a king and to urge Americans to ‘BE COOL!’ as the stock market tanked in the wake of his trade war, the president’s seemingly random use of capital letters, punctuation and inaccurate spelling consistent across the messages. . .”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/03/trump-truth-social-media-posts