Media News

News about the media.

Defund Public Media?

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Article in the New York Times by Benjamin Mullin and Kate Conger, 12/27/24

Headline:  “NPR and PBS Stations Brace for Funding Battle Under Trump”

Subhead:  “Republicans in Congress have tried to defund public media for decades. With the help of Elon Musk, could they finally make good on their threat?”

“Elon Musk is gunning for public media.

“In his new role advising President-elect Donald J. Trump, Mr. Musk has floated sweeping cuts to the federal government, including the elimination of entire departments and the firing of agency leaders. One of the most concrete proposals on his list is eliminating hundreds of millions of dollars in annual funding that the government funnels to PBS and NPR stations, home to cultural touchstones like Elmo, Big Bird and “Fresh Air.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/27/business/media/npr-pbs-funding-trump-musk.html

Too Much News

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ARticle in The Hill by Ashleigh Fields, 12/26/24

Headline:  “Most Americans want to reduce political news consumption due to fatigue: Survey”

“Americans feel like they should increasingly avoid political news content, according to a study published Thursday by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research at the University of Chicago.

Their research found 65 percent of adults have felt the need to limit their media consumption about the government and politics due to information overload, fatigue, or similar reasons, and half feel the same for overseas conflicts.

Democrats were the demographic most likely to say they feel the need to avoid media referencing the government and politics, with 72 percent of party participants saying they avoid the topic in the survey.”

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/5056424-americans-political-news-consumption-poll/

Legacy Media Clickbait

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Article in Daily Kos by DrLou 12/24/24

Headline:  “A complicit corporate mainstream media ‘sustained, resurrected’ and enabled Trump – because he sells”

Suhbhead:  ” ‘Never Trump:’ a sorry tale”

” ‘Trump was created by the media. He was sustained and resurrected by the media’ and is the ‘best hope of a dying cable TV business.’ I’ve been arguing these very points for years. The media, with special attention going to the New York Times, was directly complicit in helping Trump slither into the White House in 2016. The corporate media then did it again in 2024.

“The corporate Right mainstream media has enabled and continued to use Trump to create the stories THEY want to present. To generate clickbait rather than reporting honestly on the stories that are happening. False equivalent and ‘both sideism’ journalism have ruled. If Thomas Paine or Alexander Hamilton were still alive, the collusion and outright cowardice of American corporate media would kill them all over again.”

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/12/24/2293563/-A-complicit-corporate-mainstream-media-sustained-and-resurrected-Trump-because-he-sells?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web

News Mis-informer Award

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Steve Mesler photo

Article in Media Matters by Matt Gertz, 12/23/24

Headline:  “Misinformer of the year: Anti-media intimidation”

“The role of the free press, enshrined by the Constitution’s First Amendment, is an essential element of our democracy. The public cannot become informed about the problems facing our country and the efforts to improve or worsen them without robust protections for journalism.

“But powerful people hate the light journalism shines on them and the dissent it can spur. A coalition of right-wing billionaires, Republican law enforcement officials, and an authoritarian once and future president are using wealth, lawfare, and government power to silence the press and carry out their political agenda unimpeded. And they are perilously close to succeeding.”

https://www.mediamatters.org/misinformer-year/misinformer-year-anti-media-intimidation

Journalist Afterlife

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Staff, 12/23/24

Headline: “Afterlife”

Subhead:  “Journalists who have left the traditional media on what they lost and what they gained.”

“At the start of this year, Condé Nast announced that Pitchfork would merge with GQ, and in the process laid off a dozen employees—or about half the publication’s staff. “Both Pitchfork and GQ have unique and valuable ways that they approach music journalism,” Anna Wintour, the chief content officer at Condé Nast, said in a staff memo at the time. . . .”

““It’s been a real learning curve, because, you know, I was an editor—I wasn’t really a manager at Pitchfork. Now we’re kind of all managers,” . . .”

https://www.cjr.org/business_of_news/afterlife-journalists-leaving-traditional-media-jobs.php

Media Better Duck

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Article in The Atlantic by Jonathan Chait, 12/18/24

Headline:  “Trump Has Found the Media’s Biggest Vulnerability”

Subhead:  “Most major media properties are tied to larger business interests that can benefit from government policy—or be harmed by it.”

“Now that the election is over, Donald Trump has returned to one of his most cherished pastimes: filing nuisance lawsuits. Abusing the legal system was a key precept of Trump’s decades-long career as a celebrity business tycoon, and he kept it up, out of habit or perhaps enjoyment, during his first term as president.

The newest round of litigation is different. Trump has broadened his targets to include not just reporters and commentators but pollsters. On Monday, his lawyers filed an absurd lawsuit against the polster J. Ann Selzer, accusing her of “election interference” and consumer fraud for a now-infamous poll released on the eve of the election that showed Trump losing to Kamala Harris in Iowa. (The lawsuit also names The Des Moines Register, which published the poll, and its parent company, Gannett, as defendants.) An even more important difference is the behavior of the targets of his threats. Unlike during his first term, when they mostly laughed off his ridiculous suits, much of the media’s ownership class now seems inclined to submit.”

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/12/trump-media-lawsuits-vulnerability/681082/

Future of Journalism is Here

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Article in TechXplore by Megan Schumann, 12/19/24

Headline:  “Survey highlights public concerns over AI’s political and media impact”

“As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes more prevalent, a new Rutgers University-New Brunswick survey sheds light on public attitudes, revealing widespread concerns about its impact on politics and the media, alongside an increasing adoption of AI tools in daily life.

“More than half of the respondents expressed worry about AI’s impact on politics (58%) and news media (53%), with researchers suggesting these concerns may stem from fears of misinformation and manipulation, particularly during the 2024 election cycle when the survey was conducted.”

https://techxplore.com/news/2024-12-survey-highlights-ai-political-media.html

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Sarah Grevy, Gotfredsen, 12/19./24

Headline:  “An AI Chatbot Joins Time”

Subhead:  “The magazine calls it ‘a pivotal step toward charting the future of journalism.’ “

“Last week, Time continued its nearly century-old annual tradition of choosing a Person of the Year, or an individual who, “for better or for worse,” has had the biggest impact on the world over the previous twelve months. Donald Trump, who the magazine said has perhaps played the largest role of any individual in changing the course of politics and history, was Time’s pick for 2024. Alongside its big reveal, the magazine launched TIME AI: a platform that consists of generative AI tools meant to assist people as they read the story. It’s a move that Time optimistically describes as setting a new standard for immersive storytelling. “It’s more than an experiment,” a Time announcement proclaimed. “It’s a pivotal step toward charting the future of journalism.”

https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/time-magazine-ai-chatbot-openai-perplexity.php

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Article in The Washington Post by Sarah Ellison and Jeremy Barr, 12/22/24

Headline:  “Trump signals plans to use all levers of power against the media”

Subhead:  “Press freedom advocates say they fear that the second Trump administration will ramp up pressure on journalists, in keeping with the president-elect’s combative rhetoric.”

“For many years, Donald Trump repeatedly threatened to sue the press but often didn’t follow through. When he did, he almost always lost.

“But Trump’s recent settlement with ABC News and a cascade of lawsuits and other complaints against media entities from him and his allies signal a ramped-up campaign from the president-elect. Together, the action has spurred concerns that his efforts could drastically undermine the institutions tasked with reporting on his coming administration, which Trump has promised will take revenge on those he perceives as having wronged him.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/12/22/trump-abc-news-settlement-george-stephanopoulos/

 

Stomping Out the Media

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Article in The Guardian by Victoria Bekiempis, 12/21/24

Headline:  “Trump and allies are waging campaign against media to stifle dissent – experts”

Subhead:  “Lawsuits against Iowa paper and settlement with ABC signal beginning of aggressive legal action to silence critics”

“Donald Trump and his allies have started to wage a campaign against media organisations in the US that are critical of the president-elect by launching lawsuits that media experts warn are designed to stifle dissent and potentially put them out of business.

“The tactic appears to be to aggressively pursue legal action against news organisations – which Trump has long dubbed “enemies of the people” – by asking for often hefty sums in damages. The cases are launched even if the odds of success sometimes appear long, because even an unsuccessful court action can be expensive for a cash-strapped media company and act as a deterrent.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/21/trump-media-assault-silence-criticism

Race and Media

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University of Houston

Article in The Guardian by Gloria Oladipo 12/21/24

Headline:  “Media’s empathetic coverage of Luigi Mangione reveals an obsession with humanizing white male suspects”

Subhead:  “Interest in the United Healthcare CEO shooting suspect’s background underscores research that the media covers white and Black perpetrators differently”

“Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old who allegedly shot and killed the United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, has received an avalanche of media attention as people attempt to understand what may have driven him to commit such a violent crime.”

“. . .Multiple studies have shown that white male perpetrators of gun violence, especially ones in high profile incidents such as mass shootings, are often depicted more compassionately by news outlets. According to one study, publications routinely speculate about white perpetrators’ mental health as a possible explanation for their actions, painting a complex picture of their motivations, whereas suspects of color are reduced to racial stereotypes.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/21/luigi-mangione-racism-media