Media News

News about the media.

Conspiracies and the media

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Article in The Guardian by Steve Rose, 11/8./24

Headline:  “A reporter down the rabbit hole: Gabriel Gatehouse on edgelords, conspiracy theories and Trump’s America”

Subhead:  “The former BBC journalist has spent four years considering the misfits, misinformation and manipulation that are now central to US politics. In his new book, The Coming Storm, he weaves a terrifying narrative”

“. . . The parallels between media reporting and conspiracy theory manufacturing are uncomfortably close, especially now that “the media” is itself fragmented into different camps, each pushing its own conflicting version of reality. ‘If some people take this series as a sort of critique of establishment media, then we’ll be happy about that,’ he says. Bias is unavoidable: ‘You’re not just putting facts in there in a random order; you are crafting a narrative, so obviously you are choosing what to include and what to leave out.’ As a conspiracist, you can be more cavalier, but as a journalist, “You’ve got to do that in as honest a way as possible, but you can’t help but go into a story with some kind of preconceived idea of what the story is.”

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2024/nov/08/gabriel-gatehouse-coming-storm-conspiracy-theories-trump-america

Targeting Journalists

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Article in New York Times by By Kavitha Chekuru, 11/10/24

Headline: “Israel Keeps Attacking Journalists. When Will the U.S. Intervene?”

“At least 129 Palestinian journalists and media workers have been killed since the war in Gaza started last year, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists; the Gaza media office puts that number much higher, at 188. This has been the deadliest year for journalists since the C.P.J. began recording the numbers in 1992. The group has said that in the first 10 weeks of the war, more journalists were killed than had been killed in any country over an entire year.

“The C.P.J. has also determined that five journalists who were killed, including one in Lebanon, were ‘directly targeted” by Israeli forces, and the organization is investigating more than 20 others.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/10/opinion/israel-war-journalists-killed-gaza.html

Alternative Media Changed Things

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Article in The Washington Post by Manuel Roig-Franzia, Elahe Izadi, 11/8/24

Headline:  “As Trump joined the podcast revolution, legacy media got left out”

Subhead:  “The 2024 election result makes clear how much alternative forms of news have changed the game.”

” . . .There is no question that this election was probably a breaking point in terms of the role legacy media plays in political campaigns,” said Dan Pfeiffer, a co-host of the popular liberal podcast, “Pod Save America.” Trump “paid no price” for mostly ignoring legacy media — appearances on Fox News aside — in the final month-and-a-half of the campaign, something that would have been unheard of in elections past, said Pfeiffer, who was communications director in Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign.

“. . . At the same time, traditional legacy media audiences, particularly for news, have eroded over the decades. Daily newspaper circulation, digital traffic to newspaper websites and local television news ratings are all down, per Pew. About 15 years ago, as many as 90 percent of households paid to get TV channels; now, it’s barely half. Television is still the single most common way Americans get their political news, according to Pew, but it’s way more popular among older Americans than those younger than 29, whose most common source is social media.”

“. . . “They don’t need the legacy media,” she said. “They know they can sit in a room full of podcasters and whatever else you want to call the influencers that lead his base and they will write down his every word, even if it’s spelled backwards.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/media/2024/11/08/podcasts-joe-rogan-trump/

Falling Down?

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Article  in The Hollywood Reporter by Ales Wepring, 11/7/24

Headline:  “Media’s Crisis Point: It’s Losing Relevance and Scorned In Trump Era. A Reboot May Be Next”

Subhead: “Former President Trump’s decisive victory Tuesday will cause media outlets — particularly those that fashioned themselves as nonpartisan — to rethink their strategies.”

“Former President Trump’s decisive victory Tuesday led to a shockwave that was felt in newsrooms across Washington D.C. and New York. Everyone knew the polls were close and that a Trump win was a strong possibility, sure, but the scale of Trump’s win left one senior producer at a broadcast network stunned: “We are questioning our relevance right now,” they said Wednesday morning.”

“. . . Indeed, there are blaring red warnings signs for traditional media everywhere you look. Ratings for the broadcast and cable news channels saw steep declines in ratings from Nielsen (finals showed an average of 42.3 million people, down from nearly 57 million four years ago), with the lowest ratings in decades. The steepest drop was felt at CNN, which saw its numbers fall below MSNBC for the first election night since that channel launched nearly three decades ago.”

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/media-crisis-trump-era-1236055073/

Future of Media After Election?

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Article in Poynter by Tom Jones, 11/9/24

Headline:  “Opinion | Donald Trump and the media: a look back and a look ahead to the next four years

Subhead:  “Four media experts and analysts discuss how the press covered Trump in this election cycle and what to expect going forward”

“. . . [Trump had had] a relentless barrage of attacks on his enemies, which includes the press.

It’s that style, as well as a constantly evolving media landscape, that has left the journalism world continually reviewing how it has covered Trump and how it should cover him in the future. And it asks these questions while wondering if Trump will follow through on many of the threats he has made against the press.

“. . . I’m no longer sure what “the press” is, and what speakers mean when they refer to it. Is it The New York Times, The Washington Post, NBC, CBS, CNN, Fox, USA Today? Yes. Is it The Atlantic, NPR, PBS, BBC and The Associated Press? Yes again. Is it a thousand local newspapers? OK. Talk radio? Well … Podcasts? Umm … TikTok, X and social media?

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2024/what-to-expect-next-trump-presidency-media/

Legacy Media Dead?

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Article in The Atlantic by Charlie Warzel, 11/8/24

Headline:  “Bad News”

Subhead:   “Legacy media must compete against a choose-your-own-adventure reality.”

By Charlie Warzel

” ‘You are the media now.’ That’s the message that began to cohere among right-wing influencers shortly after Donald Trump won the election this week. Elon Musk first posted the phrase, and others followed. ‘The legacy media is dead. Hollywood is done. Truth telling is in. No more complaining about the media,’ the right-wing activist James O’Keefe posted shortly after. ‘You are the media.’

“It’s a particularly effective message for Musk, who spent $44 billion to purchase a communications platform that he has harnessed to undermine existing media institutions and directly support Trump’s campaign.”

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/11/you-are-the-media-now/680602/

Fear in the Media Moves Voters

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Article in FAIR by Julie Hollar and Jim Naureckas, 11/7/24

Headline:  “Media Blame Left for Trump Victory—Rather Than Their Own Fear-Based Business Model”

“Corporate media may not have all the same goals as MAGA Republicans, but they share the same strategy: Fear works.

“Appeals to fear have an advantage over other kinds of messages in that they stimulate the deeper parts of our brains, those associated with fight-or-flight responses. Fear-based messages tend to circumvent our higher reasoning faculties and demand our attention, because evolution has taught our species to react strongly and quickly to things that are dangerous.

“. . . With refugees treated as a scourge in centrist and right-wing media alike, is it any wonder that Trump can harvest votes by promising to do something about this menace?  . . . ”

“. . .Kamala Harris did not run as a progressive, either in terms of economic policy or identity politics. But to a corporate media that largely complemented, rather than countered, Trump’s fear-based narratives on immigrants, trans people and crime, blaming the left is infinitely more appealing than recognizing their own culpability.”

https://fair.org/home/media-blame-left-for-trump-victory-rather-than-their-own-fear-based-business-model/

and in Common Dreams:

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/mainstream-media-trump-win

 

Farewell Unrestricted Media?

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Article on CNN by Hadas Gold, 11/8/24

Headline:  ”  ‘Death by a thousand cuts’: How experts warn Trump could use an authoritarian playbook to go after the media”

“President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to go after much of the media in his second term, threatening to jail journalists, revoke broadcast licenses and target outlets with a flurry of lawsuits. It’s a playbook he’s threatened to use before.

“During his first term in the White House, Trump regularly tangled with journalists, assailed the press as the “enemy of the people,” and banned reporters from official briefings. In recent months on the campaign trail, Trump employed dark and violent rhetoric to attack the media — telling a crowd this week that he wouldn’t mind if journalists got shot — and sparking fears he will attempt to weaponize the government against the free press.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/08/media/trump-authoritarian-press-media-attacks/index.html

Australia’s Social Media Action

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Article in the New York Times by By Eve Sampson, 11/7/24

Headline:  “Australia Moves to Ban Young Teens From Social Media”

Subhead:  “The proposed legislation would put the country at the forefront of regulating social media access for children.”

“Far-reaching legislation announced on Thursday would make the platforms that are the lifeblood of many teenagers — among them TikTok — off limits to anyone under 16.

“Social media is doing harm to our kids and I’m calling time on it,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese declared at a news conference. “I’ve spoken to thousands of parents, grandparents, aunties and uncles. They, like me, are worried sick about the safety of our kids online.”

The proposed legislation, which puts Australia at the forefront of regulating social media access for children, would hold platforms accountable for enforcing the new rules, Mr. Albanese said. There will be no exemptions for children with parental permission, he said, but neither underage users nor their parents will face punishment for violations.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/07/world/australia/australia-teens-social-media.html

From AP:

” The Australian government announced on Thursday what it described as world-leading legislation that would institute an age limit of 16 years for children to start using social media, and hold platforms responsible for ensuring compliance.”

https://apnews.com/article/australia-social-media-age-limit-e8259408c0b1456f41967decd474782a

From UPI:

“Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Thursday his government will introduce legislation to ban children under 16 years of age from social media.”

Universal Right Media

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Article in Daily Kos by Martone, 11/7/24

Headline: “It’s the right wing disinformatio media stupid”

Subhead:  “It seems like everyone is missing the bigger picture here”

“No progressive candidate was going to win this year nor is likely to win in the U.S. anytime soon. Over the past 30 years, the right-wing has achieved near-total control of the media landscape in the U.S.

“In conservative areas, Fox News is omnipresent—not only in homes but also in bars, laundromats, and even doctors’ waiting rooms. This saturation gives Fox News the appearance of being a legitimate news source. And Fox isn’t alone; other “news” channels with even more extreme right-wing slants compete for attention.”

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/11/7/2284024/-It-s-the-right-wing-disinformation-media-stupid?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web