Seth Meyers Tells the Story of TAG and Sports Illustrated

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   PaulGoodman67posted 8 months ago

   It's done as comedy but he's intending to make a serious point. Whether you agree with it or not, I think it makes for an interesting and relevant watch. The relevant part occurs in the second half of the video where he talks about news and online publishing.
   
   Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfeke0GNYLU&t=602s

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      Kenna McHughposted 8 months agoin reply to this

      What he says is nothing new. The media twists facts with "reliable sources." The internet has exposed how easy it is to spread falsehoods. Joseph Goebbels was a master at slanting news, especially when he became the Reich Minister of Propaganda, exerting control over information, news media, and the arts. At the cusp of the 20th Century, William Randolf Hearst introduced yellow journalism, sensationalism, and "human interest" stories. Then, there is ignorance, which is as flagrant as ever.

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   Rupert Taylorposted 8 months ago

   The media in most democratic countries is now mostly under corporate control. What used to be operated as a public service is now a mouthpiece for neo-liberal economics and conservative politics.
   
   There are very few independent voices left that can hold corporations, and the politicians they own, to account.

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   PaulGoodman67posted 7 months ago

   The changes to media brought about by digital technology and the dawn of AI introduce completely new dynamics, in my opinion.
   
   The landscape was different in Goebbel's day. People got their news from radio and newspapers. The Nazis sought to control the media for purely political purposes and financial profits didn't come into it.
   
   Nowadays, it's usually the other way around, with commercial interests often being the primary driving force, even deciding political stances in many cases.
   
   It's saddening that local newspapers are increasingly extinct. I think they served an important purpose but nowadays, even the well-known national newspapers struggle to break even. Nearly all of them run at a loss.
   
   The current situation is often compared to the introduction of the printing press and the chaos that created for many decades. Things move more quickly nowadays and the digital revolution looks set to morph into the AI revolution and create a new wave of radical change.
   
   Goodness knows what that will mean for journalism and online publishing.

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      Kenna McHughposted 7 months agoin reply to this

      Enjoy! Despicable it all is, Alas!
      https://youtu.be/hF7ez8p8B78

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   Rupert Taylorposted 7 months ago

   Two years ago The Guardian reported on a U.S. study:
   
   "The country had 6,377 newspapers at the end of May, down from 8,891 in 2005, the report said. While the pandemic did not quite cause the reckoning that some in the industry feared, 360 newspapers have shut down since the end of 2019, all but 24 of them weeklies serving small communities.
   An estimated 75,000 journalists worked in newspapers in 2006, and now that is down to 31,000, Northwestern said ... "
   
   Many of those journalists covered city hall and school board beats thereby keeping elected official in check. Now, virtually nobody is keeping an eye on how public money is spent with the inevitable result is that corruption is rising.
   
   Are "citizen journalists" on TikTok, Instagram, Reddit and all the other platforms going to fill the gap left by out-of-work real reporters? No.

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      PaulGoodman67posted 7 months agoin reply to this

      Exactly, newspapers and serious journalism are disappearing at an alarming rate with no adequate replacement.
      
      Of course, one can pick fault with say the BBC or the Guardian, they're certainly not perfect, but they still have way higher editorial standards than most of the material that's found on Twitter (sorry but not sorry Mr Musk!).
      
      While Sports Illustrated was called out for using AI content and computer-generated writers, I still wouldn't be surprised if it becomes normal in the future for the majority of the "news" to consist of regurgitated AI material, much of it false or deliberately misleading.
      
      It's shocking how many people are drawn to the work of characters like Alex Jones and Russell Brand and appear taken in. Maybe some sanity will eventually be restored eventually, we can only hope. After the printing press was invented, there was a lot of chaos created with books fuelling anti-witchcraft hysteria etc.

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