Wrong Media Message?

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Article from The Hill by Steve Krakauer, 11/7/24

Headline:  “Trump won because Americans rejected false media narratives”

“It’s fair to assess that most Americans fully rejected the framing employed by large portions of the mainstream media about the stakes in the election. They didn’t buy that Trump is “the tyrant George Washington feared,” as The Atlantic screamed. They don’t believe that Trump represents “American fascism,” as the New Republic tried to argue.

The core thesis from the Trump-addicted Acela media was that Trump was a threat to “democracy,” and that Harris was positioned as the “unity” candidate. These were the narrative throughlines presented.

And yet there is good reason to see them as antithetical to how the average American views these issues. This fundamental disconnect is why the press failed to convince the country to rebuff Trump on Tuesday.

https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/4978909-trump-won-because-americans-rejected-false-media-narratives/

Digital Media Win Again!

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Article in The Washington Post by Eric Wemple , 11/7/24

Headline: “Opinion – Trump wins! Another chapter in mainstream media’s decline.”

Subhead:  “A media critic’s tools seem ill-suited to analyze election night 2024, but a new era is at hand. “

“. . . Mainstream media organizations are suffering from cratering public trust and obsessing about how best to revive it. Does such an industry want to continue promoting polling results and polling averages and so on? Bailing on the setup would require a newsroom upheaval of sorts, meaning a reduction in the sugar-high horse-race stories that deliver daily click-a-thons for newspapers and broadcasters alike.”

“. . . There are other sources out there, to be sure, including cable news, podcasts and social media, on which a broad range of views and even misinformation are represented. But Trump in the final weeks of his campaign backed out of interviews with mainstream outlets — NBC News, CNBC, CBS News’ “60 Minutes” — and reveled in the embrace from nonmainstream voices with enormous audiences, like Joe Rogan, Megyn Kelly and Tucker Carlson. It’s possible that Trump will feel so coddled by those folks that he’ll forget all about legacy media outlets, along with his compulsion to bash them.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/11/07/trump-media-future-fragmentation/

Media Blackout in Gaza

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Headline:  “”We are witnessing the final stage of genocide in Gaza”

Article in The Guardian by Arwa Madawi, 11/6/24

“I obviously have no idea how many people have been killed in Gaza. Partly that’s because – and I don’t understand why every single journalist in the west is not appalled by this – the foreign press is not freely allowed in. Meanwhile – and, again, I don’t understand why every single journalist in the west is not enraged by this – Palestinian journalists are being wiped out. There is essentially a media blackout. So it’s hard to assess the death toll. But what I do know is this: citing that official 43,000 figure without providing a long list of caveats feels like journalistic malpractice at this point.”

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/nov/06/we-are-witnessing-the-final-stage-of-genocide-in-gaza

 

Defending Legacy Media Over Internet Media?

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Article in The Washington Post by Catherine Rampell, 11/5/24

Headline:  “Opinion:  This election year, legacy media consumers came out on top”

Subhead:  “We’ve made our share of mistakes, but readers of traditional media understand the stakes of this election.”

“. . . If you had consumed all your election news this year exclusively from The Post, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal or other journalistic dinosaurs, you’d probably be well-informed. You’d have a sense of what the stakes are this election. You might even know what the candidates stand for! The same cannot be said if you instead primarily relied on TikTok influencers, random bros with podcasts or Discord streams, and Elon Musk’s X platform.”

“. . . We traditional journalists don’t get things right all the time. We have biases we’re often blind to. We make errors of omission, commission and emphasis. But we are (usually) embarrassed when we get stuff wrong, and we have procedures for transparently correcting our mistakes.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/11/05/media-2024-presidential-election/

Media and Decision-Makers

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Article in Axios by Avery Lotz, 11/5/24

Headline: “How media decision desks declare history”

“Behind-the-scenes decision desks have come to define the modern political media mechanics of Election Night, which stretches well beyond a single day.

“Why it matters: These desks’ role has been complicated by the challenges of declaring a winner in swing states with tight margins and the growing popularity of mail-in or early voting.”

https://www.axios.com/2024/11/05/decision-desks-election-night-trump-harris

Social Media Also Influence Climate

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Article in Techxplore by by Domenico Vicinanza

Headline: “Social media and generative AI can have a large climate impact—here’s how to reduce yours”

“. . . Every time we read an article, see an advertisement, watch a photo or video, that content needs to be transferred from the social media platform’s servers to our device. The larger the file, the more data needs to be transferred. And high-resolution images or long videos involve lots of data.”

“. . . But there are things we can do to reduce the carbon footprint of our internet use, involving a combination of individual actions and systemic changes.”

https://techxplore.com/news/2024-11-social-media-generative-ai-large.html

 

Social Media Politically Ghosting?

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Article in Vox by Aja Romano, 11/2/24

Headline:  “Were Bad Bunny and Ricky Martin really shadow banned by Instagram and X?”

Subhead:  “What social media shadow ban rumors tell us about election anxiety.”

“In the lead-up to the election, allegations are flying that social media platforms have been “shadow banning,” or in some way filtering the political content of, celebrities. After multiple Latine stars spoke out against the racism and misogyny on display at last week’s Madison Square Garden rally, Ricky Martin posted an Instagram Story claiming that the platform was blocking a post he’d published on the subject. Users also speculated that their access to other public figures who posted about the rally, including Bad Bunny, was being somehow restricted.”

https://www.vox.com/culture/381925/instagram-shadow-ban-political-election-posts-ricky-martin-bad-bunny-twitter-x-censorship

Mainstream Media Trust is Low Now

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Article in The New Republic by Parker Malloy, 11/4/24

Headline: “We Already Know One Big Loser in This Election: the Mainstream Media”

Subhead:  “When your most loyal supporters start questioning your integrity, that’s not just a red flag—it’s a siren blaring in the newsroom.”

“Americans will head to the polls Tuesday in what feels like the most consequential election of our lifetimes. Again. Whether Donald Trump or Kamala Harris emerges as the victor, there’s an issue that transcends outcome: a reckoning that’s long overdue in mainstream media.

“For years, major news outlets have twisted themselves into knots trying to appease critics on the right. In the process, they’ve alienated not just the left but anyone who cares about honest, fearless journalism. This isn’t just about bad optics or bruised egos; it’s about the very foundation of our democracy and the essential role a free press plays within it.”

“. . . The decision by The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times to spike their endorsements of Kamala Harris without warning or satisfactory explanation serves as a case study. This move didn’t come across as a principled stand for neutrality; it felt like capitulation, a betrayal of trust. ”

https://newrepublic.com/article/187890/2024-election-loser-mainstream-media

Slamming the Media

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Article in Al Jazerra, 11/3/24

Headline: “Trump slams media in Pennsylvania as Harris stumps in Michigan”

Subhead: “Republican presidential candidate also suggested he should not have left the White House after 2020 election defeat.”

“Trump slams media in Pennsylvania as Harris stumps in Michigan

Republican presidential candidate also suggested he should not have left the White House after 2020 election defeat.”

“. . . Trump said: “ ‘To get me, somebody would have to shoot through the fake news and I don’t mind that so much.’ ”

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/11/3/trump-slams-media-in-pennsylvia-as-harris-talks-to-black-church-in-michigan