No, The Times own version of its strategy is flawed. Without the huge audience that free brought, The Times would not have been able to convert the number of readers it has to subscription. nytimes.com/2021/04/10/bus…
See: digitalriptide.org/chapter-4-the-…
Later, the same story demonstrates the point: You have to have large sampling (read: free) to convert people to subs (read: paid).
Frustrating that the story about the WSJ barely touches the GOP elephant in the room: Murdoch's politics and the right's racism. This is his bully pulpit. nytimes.com/2021/04/10/bus…
Oops. Left out the most revealing quote.
The larger point: If one wonders how Murdoch--or any proprietor--promulgates a worldview through his (yes, his) publication, these snippets provide a small case study. How is, say, the internet covered? Or race? Editors & culture exert influence. They are black boxes.
BTW, whatever became of the vaunted committee that was supposed to oversee & assure the "independence" of Dow Jones & the WSJ. Independence from whom? It's owner? Yeah, sure.
Original slate: wsj.com/articles/SB119…
Latest sighting: nasdaq.com/press-release/…
What has it ever done?
Grrrr. *its.
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Interesting. German lawyer and writer Ferdinand von Schirach (grandson of Baldur) proposes six new fundamental rights for EU citizens. Let's review. 1/ you.wemove.eu/campaigns/for-…
Article 1: Agree.
Article 2: What does "digital self-determination" mean? What is "harvesting" data other than emotional reference? What amounts to manipulation: education? religion? propaganda? fraud? Where is the line? 2/
Article 3: Human beings must make key decisions? What are key decisions? Algorithms make decisions about air traffic control, investment, and so on. Humans aren't capable of calculating some choices. This is another emotional characterization. It is a symptom of moral panic. 3/
Hey, @Morning_Joe: The standard is not Nate Cohn's turnout prediction. It is not other states' bad laws (e.g. NY & absentee ballots). The standard is whether *every* vote is valued and made as easy to cast as possible.
Here is what Georgia's voting law does. It makes absentee voting harder. It reduces drop boxes. It lets the state overrule local officials. And, yes, it dehydrates voters in lines that should never exist. nytimes.com/2021/04/02/us/…
New York is not the standard for voting, @JoeNBC. New Jersey, however, mailed absentee ballots to every voter and had drop boxes everywhere. Sadly, NJ, is not going to maintain that standard. It should.
After conspiring with the most malign influence in democracy in the English-speaking world, named Murdoch, the country is now considering licensing social-media users and eliminating anonymity. So wrong. WTF is going on down there, Australia?
When I cry "moral panic" about media & government treatment of the internet, this is what I fear. I don't care about FB, Google, et al; they take care of themselves. I fear efforts by vestigial power-elites to control or eliminate the freedoms the net brings to the rest of us.
Media and government want to control speech on the net--directly & by attacking tech companies--because the voices of the people challenge the legacy institutions these self-declared elites still control. This is a moral panic of their invention.
Facebook head of policy & PR @nick_clegg responds to moral panic about the net, saying we do have agency. I agree.
But I hate this sentence: "Should governments set out what kinds of conversation citizens are allowed to participate in?" Don't even ask.
He also says: "The internet needs new rules — designed and agreed by democratically elected institutions..." This is FB's stand lately: Please regulate us. I worry about that regulatory capture & how it will impact new & small competitors. I worry about over-regulation.
But I do agree with @nick_clegg that we do have agency on the net, that personalization has benefits over mass media, and especially that media have responsibility for polarization and disinformation (which media, of course, ignore in their moral panic against the net).
Thanks also to @TowFdn & @knightfdn for funding @towknightcenter's communities of practice. We have others for audience, commerce, talent & inclusion, executives, and independent journalists. This is one way we try to help our industry, convening & aiding its best.
When @pilhofer & @dkiesow started plotting a news product alliance, they reached out to @halstraus & me at @towknightcenter to include our Product Community of Practice: a model of collaboration among journalism schools, thanks to their generosity. Congrats to all.
Microsoft is the Eddie Haskell of tech companies, cynically willing to throw net values overboard for any advantage. Now that I'm off Skype (how'd that acquisition work?), I use no Microsoft products. wsj.com/articles/micro…
I never set out not to use Microsoft products. Chrome OS et al simply led me there. But lately I'm pissed at Microsoft's dancing with devils in Australia and Congress against net freedoms. I hope this shifts.
I respect Brad Smith but the Microsoft policy stand of late is, I repeat, cynical and opportunistic. I wish the company would decide to stand for net values over exploiting others' PR weaknesses (especially when MS was there first).