Social media as news

Oct 31, 17 4:47

Post #1 of 21 (2192 views)

I was listening to World Service radio and find the following statistics pretty shocking: ~60% of North Americans get their news via social media (Facebook, Twitter et al); and ~125 million North Americans came into contact with propaganda/#fakenews/false narratives originating in Russia.

Given that neither Facebook or Twitter have any interest in acting as an editor or being beholden to commonly considered journalistic standards, what’s the future?

To use a topical example, Trump has violated Twitter’s usage agreements but doesn’t face a ban as that account is deemed “newsworthy” despite frequently being proven as pushing falsehoods.

So the political process has been handed over to representing corporations’ interests, and now news has been usurped by propaganda.

Trump’s presidency is refreshingly honest and has dropped the carefully constructed premise that the USA is interested in being part of, or even leading, a global social construct. So I would consider dropping that pretence an upside of social media.

What’s the solution? We all must have witnessed an acquaintance or friend earnestly share/retweet some “news” article that is easily disproved. How do citizens (American and Global) fight this? Without knowledgeable and quality, unbiased investigative journalists - is news now just another propaganda channel?

Re: Social media as news [JerseyBigfoot] [ In reply to ]

Oct 31, 17 5:24

Post #2 of 21 (2170 views)

The News gets their news from Twitter.

That whole Dakota Access Pipeline protest was based on a lie that main news outlets (Fox. CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC) never exposed.

That lie being that the pipeline was never actually being built on reservation land.

Quote:

...is news now just another propaganda channel?

Yes, and it has been for as far back as I can remember.

Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

Re: Social media as news [JerseyBigfoot] [ In reply to ]

Oct 31, 17 5:38

Post #3 of 21 (2154 views)

You don't fight it unless you want to infringe free speech. Always assume everyone is less well informed than you until proven otherwise.

Re: Social media as news [Duffy] [ In reply to ]

Oct 31, 17 5:44

Post #4 of 21 (2146 views)

When CNN hit it big during the Gulf War/ Desert Storm and became a profitable cable channel, the other networks realized there was huge profit potential in news channels and that is the point at which America and the world collectively got dumber. After this, the reporting of news facts became secondary to news programming and all of the commentary on the news and analysis and constant spin and since with this model came an agenda (left or right) people would pick the stream which best reinforced their own biases and America became more fractured along political lines than ever before. Now you have facebook which further feeds you reinforcement of your own biases based on your clicks and likes and now we have the anti vaxxers, more fake news and conspiracy theories and now Donald Trump as president.

A false humanity is used to impose its opposite, by people whose cruelty is equalled only by their arrogance

Re: Social media as news [windywave] [ In reply to ]

Oct 31, 17 5:44

Post #5 of 21 (2145 views)

windywave wrote:

You don't fight it unless you want to infringe free speech. Always assume everyone is less well informed than you until proven otherwise.

That's all well and good except the masses think that they are well informed. Then the go and elect Trump. Or Hillary. Because they thought that there were only two choices. That's what they have been told.

See Empfield, Dan.

How does Danny Hart sit down with balls that big?

Re: Social media as news [Chri55] [ In reply to ]

Oct 31, 17 5:50

Post #6 of 21 (2142 views)

Chri55 wrote:

When CNN hit it big during the Gulf War/ Desert Storm and became a profitable cable channel, the other networks realized there was huge profit potential in news channels and that is the point at which America and the world collectively got dumber. After this, the reporting of news facts became secondary to news programming and all of the commentary on the news and analysis and constant spin and since with this model came an agenda (left or right) people would pick the stream which best reinforced their own biases and America became more fractured along political lines than ever before. Now you have facebook which further feeds you reinforcement of your own biases based on your clicks and likes and now we have the anti vaxxers, more fake news and conspiracy theories and now Donald Trump as president.

News was fake long before Desert Storm.

And I hate to say this but it’s true (and I hope beyond all hope that the people of this country come to understand this soon), Trump’s election happened in large part because so many people have finally realized that the news they’re being fed by “mainstream” sources is nothing more than corporate/globalist/leftist propaganda.

In a way Trump’s presidency is the anti-fakenews.

I’m sure what I said here will be misunderstood and if that collective misunderstanding is large enough Trump will re-elected in 2020.

Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

Re: Social media as news [Duffy] [ In reply to ]

Oct 31, 17 12:56

Post #7 of 21 (2028 views)

Interesting story about how the Russians used FaceBook to help get Trump elected

************************
#WeAreTheForge #BlackGunsMatter

"Look, will you guys at leats accept that you are a bunch of dumb asses and just trust me on this one? Please?" BarryP 7/30/2012

Re: Social media as news [CruseVegas] [ In reply to ]

Oct 31, 17 14:05

Post #8 of 21 (2002 views)

CruseVegas wrote:

Interesting story about how the Russians used FaceBook to help get Trump elected

So are they trying to say that showcasing liberal groups doing their liberalism helped elect Trump?

I’ve always said, tell the truth about leftist policies and they will lose every time.

Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

Re: Social media as news [Duffy] [ In reply to ]

Oct 31, 17 14:08

Post #9 of 21 (1996 views)

Looking through the article, I got the impression they are more focusing on division than really supporting one side or the other. I believe they want to try to be relevant and have the ability to come across as helping the winner, which again is divisive.

************************
#WeAreTheForge #BlackGunsMatter

"Look, will you guys at leats accept that you are a bunch of dumb asses and just trust me on this one? Please?" BarryP 7/30/2012

Re: Social media as news [CruseVegas] [ In reply to ]

Oct 31, 17 16:04

Post #10 of 21 (1972 views)

CruseVegas wrote:

Interesting story about how the Russians used FaceBook to help get Trump elected

Yeah, sure. And they did this with $100K of spending on Facebook. Ack--excuse me--$50K of spending before the election. Meanwhile Hillary spent $1.5B. So either the Russians are the greatest guerrilla marketers the world has ever seen--in which case every company in the world should be scrambling to hire these guys at any price--or Hillary ran the most incompetent campaign in history.

Re: Social media as news [Duffy] [ In reply to ]

Oct 31, 17 16:39

Post #11 of 21 (1961 views)

Duffy wrote:

That lie being that the pipeline was never actually being built on reservation land.

I'm sure it's happened, but I've never read an article on the subject that claimed it was on tribal land. I've always read it was largely an issue with possible water contamination due to crossing a tribal water source as well as following Federal law requiring in include the tribe as a stakeholder in the permitting process.

So you're using social media (this forum) to generate fake news. :)

Last edited by: trail: Oct 31, 17 16:47

Re: Social media as news [Duffy] [ In reply to ]

Oct 31, 17 16:47

Post #12 of 21 (1956 views)

Duffy wrote:

In a way Trump’s presidency is the anti-fakenews.

Sure, and the response to fakenews was to double down on the fakeness of the fakenews. To replace even the modicum of handwaving at journalistic standards with the pure propaganda of Breitbart.

Quote:

that collective misunderstanding is large enough Trump will re-elected in 2020.

Yawn. The precious butthurt white boys of "Trump's base" who believe, because they managed one victory against arguably the least likeable candidate of all time despite losing the popular vote, that they're now somehow some super-special electoral force that can dictate all future elections by only them having some super-power ability to "anoint" the winning candidate. Good luck with that. You win sometimes, you lose sometimes. You're not "special."

Edit: "You" referring to the butthurt white boys who claim extra-special-victim status granted them electoral super-powers.

Last edited by: trail: Oct 31, 17 16:48

Re: Social media as news [Duffy] [ In reply to ]

Oct 31, 17 16:47

Post #13 of 21 (1952 views)

There’s a reason it’s all called a ‘news story’. It’s moved from more news and less story to more story and less news. Networks build a narrative and drive the story using ‘news’. What they won’t report (network by network, media by media) is really more telling than what they do report.

The Michael Brown narrative was carefully built into a story and even after the absolute facts were presented, the story lived on and on.

Our kids will suffer from the complete lack of any real journalism which has given way to clicks, ads, and ratings.

Or perhaps we are all just a sucker for stories and really don’t care much about real news.

Re: Social media as news [trail] [ In reply to ]

Oct 31, 17 16:55

Post #14 of 21 (1945 views)

trail wrote:

Duffy wrote:

That lie being that the pipeline was never actually being built on reservation land.

I'm sure it's happened, but I've never read an article on the subject that claimed it was on tribal land. I've always read it was largely an issue with possible water contamination due to crossing a tribal water source as well as following Federal law requiring in include the tribe as a stakeholder in the permitting process.

So you're using social media (this forum) to generate fake news. :)

All the posts that I saw on my Facebook feed (I was on fb back then) were always along the lines of “these guy don’t want a pipeline built on ‘their land’ (or ‘native land’ or ‘sacred land’, etc.). If it wasn’t outright claiming the pipe was being built on the reservation it was certainly implied.

Also, whenever I’d post in the fb comments that the pipeline wasn’t actually on reservation land I’d get flamed and called a liar and a shill for the petroleum industry.

I even argued with some posters on this forum about the fact that the pipe never went through native lands.

Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

Re: Social media as news [trail] [ In reply to ]

Oct 31, 17 16:59

Post #15 of 21 (1940 views)

Quote:

Edit: "You" referring to the butthurt white boys who claim extra-special-victim status granted them electoral super-powers.

Well, I’m white.

I’m not a boy, I’m not butthurt, I’m not a victim, and only cast 6 ballots per election (which is more than most people but doesn’t rise to electoral super-power status).

But I am white.

;)

Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

Re: Social media as news [JerseyBigfoot] [ In reply to ]

Oct 31, 17 17:38

Post #16 of 21 (1927 views)

JerseyBigfoot wrote:

Trump has violated Twitter’s usage agreements but doesn’t face a ban as that account is deemed “newsworthy” despite frequently being proven as pushing falsehoods.

JerseyBigfoot wrote:

Trump’s presidency is refreshingly honest

Confused much? Color me shocked that you are asking how we fight this.

Re: Social media as news [TimeIsUp] [ In reply to ]

Oct 31, 17 21:10

Post #17 of 21 (1895 views)

Pushing falsehoods and pushing a ‘Murica First policy aren’t mutually exclusive. Perhaps quoting the entirety of my second statement would avoid looking like you’re cherry picking to create a false relationship.

I think most educated folk will get that.

Last edited by: JerseyBigfoot: Oct 31, 17 21:13

Post deleted by windschatten [ In reply to ]

Oct 31, 17 21:32

Post #18 of 21 (1883 views)

Last edited by: windschatten: Oct 31, 17 21:38

Re: Social media as news [windschatten] [ In reply to ]

Oct 31, 17 21:48

Post #19 of 21 (1875 views)

Quote:

Easy enough nowadays if you care.... most don't care. Requires too much effort with unpleasant outcome.

The irony of living in a World where we have so much information at our fingertips, but so little motivation to use it.

Re: Social media as news [JerseyBigfoot] [ In reply to ]

Oct 31, 17 23:20

Post #20 of 21 (1859 views)

JerseyBigfoot wrote:

what’s the future?

"The Orville" touched on it in this week's episode. Pretty sure they are prophets.

Re: Social media as news [JerseyBigfoot] [ In reply to ]

Nov 1, 17 4:59

Post #21 of 21 (1830 views)

I've read it enough to stand by my statement.

Do agree with you though. It is only going to get more difficult for the ordinary citizen to know what's real and what's not. Partly because the algorithms are getting better and partly because people just don't give a shit to know the truth.

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