Internet Media

S.O.S.! Someone Wants to Burn Down the Media

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Article in the New York Times by By Michael M. Grynbaum and David McCabe, 10/21/24

Headline:  “Trump Ratchets Up Threats on the Media”

Subhead:  “Presidents are not all-powerful, but, if elected, Donald Trump would have some influence with the federal regulators who oversee major television networks.”

“Threatening the news media is nothing new for former President Donald J. Trump. He has accused major news outlets of defamation, blocked journalists from rallies and White House events, goaded followers into profane chants about CNN and popularized the term “fake news,” now embraced by autocrats around the world.

“. . . Broadcast networks like ABC, CBS and NBC do not actually need a license to produce or publish news content. But the local affiliate stations that carry their broadcasts do require licenses. Those licenses are overseen by the F.C.C., which is independent from the White House.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/21/business/media/trump-media-broadcast-licenses.html

“Who me, I’m Innocent?” – Said to the Media

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Article in AP by Emma Burrows, 10/17/24

Headline: “Tech firms remove social media accounts of a Russian drone factory after an AP investigation”

“Google, Meta and TikTok have removed social media accounts belonging to an industrial plant in Russia’s Tatarstan region aimed at recruiting young foreign women to make drones for Moscow’s war in Ukraine.

“Posts on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok were taken down following an investigation by The Associated Press published Oct. 10 that detailed working conditions in the drone factory in the Alabuga Special Economic Zone, which is under U.S. and British sanctions.”

https://apnews.com/article/alabuga-russia-africa-ukraine-war-shahed-drones-bc175c4c98d752dc298c23434637417e

Shaping Media Through AI – Sinister or Sincere?

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Article in 404media by Emanuel Maiberg, 10/16/24

Headline:  “AI-Powered Social Media Manipulation App Promises to ‘Shape Reality’ “

Subhead:  “A prototype app called Impact describes “A Volunteer Fire Department For The Digital World,” which would summon real people to copy and paste AI-generated talking points on social media.”

“Impact, an app that describes itself as ‘AI-powered infrastructure for shaping and managing narratives in the modern world,’ is testing a way to organize and activate supporters on social media in order to promote certain political messages. The app aims to summon groups of supporters who will flood social media with AI-written talking points designed to game social media algorithms.

“In video demos and an overview document provided to people interested in using a prototype of the app that have been viewed by 404 Media, Impact shows how it can send push notifications to groups of supporters directing them at a specific social media post and provide them with AI-generated text they can copy and paste in order to flood the replies with counter arguments.”

“.  .  . ‘Coordinated groups of people can show up and help, or coordinated groups of people can show up and harass,’ Shapiro said. ‘We don’t think coordination is in any way a bad thing. We think it’s a great thing, because you can get stuff done, and if you’re doing good, truthful things, then I don’t see any problems.’ ”

https://www.404media.co/ai-powered-social-media-manipulation-app-promises-to-shape-reality-4/

Media Hate Speech Isn’t Just for Humans Anymore

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Article in TechXplore by by Kristina Radivojevic – University of Notre Dame, 10/15/24

Headline: “AI bots easily bypass some social media safeguards, study reveals”

Subhead: “Potential risks of unregulated MFM-Powered (digital recording) chatBots on platforms”

“While artificial intelligence (AI) bots can serve a legitimate purpose on social media—such as marketing or customer service—some are designed to manipulate public discussion, incite hate speech, spread misinformation or enact fraud and scams. To combat potentially harmful bot activity, some platforms have published policies on using bots and created technical mechanisms to enforce those policies.

“But are those policies and mechanisms enough to keep social media users safe?”

https://techxplore.com/news/2024-10-ai-bots-easily-bypass-social.html

False Claims Spread in Some Media

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Article in Media Matters  by Gideon Taaffe, 10/11/24

Headline:  “Right-wing media spread false claim that Kamala Harris used a teleprompter during town hall”

This article lists media outlets that used the lie.

“After Vice President Kamala Harris’ Univision town hall, right-wing media incorrectly claimed that Harris was using a teleprompter. Even though the host of the town hall and the Univision News president quickly debunked the claim, the lie spread rapidly among prominent right-wing media personalities.”

https://www.mediamatters.org/kamala-harris/right-wing-media-spread-false-claim-kamala-harris-used-teleprompter-during-town-hall

 

 

Will Using Non-Mainstream Media Change an Election?

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Article in the Washington Post by Jennifer Rubin, 10/11/24

Headline: “Harris takes her message well beyond the usual venues. Good.”

Subhead: “She goes on podcasts, satellite radio and daytime TV, promoting her agenda to big audiences.”

“Vice President Kamala Harris, realizing the limited reach of mainstream news outlets, spent the week reaching millions of Americans through appearances on the podcast “Call Her Daddy,” CBS’s “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” the daytime chat show “The View,” Howard Stern on SiriusXM and even the Weather Channel.”

“. . . Mainstream media outlets might be irked by Harris’s strategy, but if she wants to get this substantive message out to the widest possible audience, she’s doing exactly the right thing in taking it to as many alternative media venues as possible.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/10/13/kamala-harris-interviews-podcasts/

 

 

Adapting to New-Media Environment

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Image from hannahcute0779.blogspot.com

 

Article in Axios by Eleanor Hawking, 10/10/24

Headline: “TikTok, podcasts, Substack: How Harris, Trump and CEOs adapt to new media”

While legacy media shrivel, online media-bubbles take over.

“Newsrooms are shrinking and audiences are becoming more dispersed as independent journalists successfully launch Substacks, content creators pivot into podcasting and TikTokers report on the news.”

” . . . While the role of traditional media shouldn’t be ignored, communication teams must be cognizant of what (Josh Rosenberg, CEO of Day One Agency) refers to as “data dissonance” or the idea that volume doesn’t always equal depth.

” ‘When everything has a billion views or a billion impressions, who’s actually, listening? How is that actually moving the needle?’ he said.”

https://www.axios.com/2024/10/10/media-strategy-tiktok-podcasts-creators

The evolution of media from slideshare:

https://www.slideshare.net/rubenjezarryborja/the-evolution-of-traditional-media-to-new-media

Foreign Manipulators, Social Media and Elections

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Article By Filippo Menczer, Indiana University in UPI 10/8/24

Headline: “Foreign operations manipulate social media to influence your views”

“. . . we found accounts that flood the network with tens or hundreds of thousands of posts in a single day. The same campaign can post a message with one account and then have other accounts that its organizers also control “like” and “unlike” it hundreds of times in a short time span. Once the campaign achieves its objective, all these messages can be deleted to evade detection. Using these tricks, foreign governments and their agents can manipulate social media algorithms that determine what is trending and what is engaging to decide what users see in their feeds.

“. . . The consequences of such operations are difficult to evaluate due to the challenges posed by collecting data and carrying out ethical experiments that would influence online communities. Therefore it is unclear, for example, whether online influence campaigns can sway election outcomes. Yet, it is vital to understand society’s vulnerability to different manipulation tactics.”

https://www.upi.com/Voices/2024/10/08/foreign-operations-manipulate-social-media-influence-views/7961728392145/

Media Hate Speech Stopped in Brazil

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Article by Allen Cone on UPI, 9/21/24

Headline: “Elon Musk to comply with Brazilian court’s orders to restore X in nation”

“Billionaire Elon Musk has decided to comply with court orders in Brazil in an effort to end the ban on his his social platform X in the Latin American nation.

. . . “The company formerly known as Twitter also informed the court that it blocked accounts allegedly responsible for disseminating hate speech and fake news, two sources told Bloomberg.”

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2024/09/21/Brazil-X-Musk-comply-orders/5741726963376/

Article update from the Electronic Freedom Foundation  by  Corynned McSherry, 10/8/24

Headline:  “The X Corp. Shoutdown in Brazil:  What We Can Learn”

“Update (10/8/2024): Brazil lifted a ban on the X Corp. social media platform today after the country’s Supreme Court said the company had complied with all of its orders. Regulators have 24 hours to reinstate the platform, though it could take longer for it to come back online.”

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/10/x-corp-shutdown-brazil-what-we-can-learn

Google May Cut-Off New Zealand News Media

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Article in TechXplore by Charlotte Grahamm-McLay-McLAY, 10/4/24

Headline: “Google says it will stop linking to New Zealand news if a law passes forcing it to pay for content”

“Google said Friday it will stop linking to New Zealand news content and will reverse its support of local media outlets if the government passes a law forcing tech companies to pay for articles displayed on their platforms.

The vow to sever Google traffic to New Zealand news sites—made in a blog post by the search giant on Friday—echoes strategies the firm deployed as Australia and Canada prepared to enact similar laws in recent years.

It followed a surprise announcement by New Zealand’s government in July that lawmakers would advance a bill forcing tech platforms to strike deals for sharing revenue generated from news content with the media outlets producing it”

https://techxplore.com/news/2024-10-google-linking-zealand-news-law.html