Evolving Media & News Sources

[PopeBeanieModerator]

It’s become a popular source of news, as journalists and other newsmakers–especially politicians–use it as a forum, one-way at least, with tweets often amplified by other readers, and even becoming news in themselves.

[PopeBeanieModerator]

Circa 2022 APR 27

Elon’s buying twitter. Small sample of tweets from conservatives.

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Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene
@RepMTG

Stop the Democrat’s war on women & children.

Keep biological males out of girls/women’s private spaces & sports.

Ban all pediatric gender clinics, puberty blockers, & gender reassignment surgeries on minors.

End sexual immoral teaching in education.

Put prayer back in school.

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Matt Gaetz
@mattgaetz

It really is something how conservative accounts are getting massive follower increases today….

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House Republicans
@HouseGOP

We’ve gained OVER 50K followers in less than 24 hours.

NEVER believe Big Tech when they say there’s no such thing as shadow bans.

Why do they always silence conservative voices?

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Rep. Jim Jordan
@Jim_Jordan

Fauci will probably ask the CDC to block Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter due to #COVID concerns.

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Brent Scher
@BrentScher

Twitter’s top lawyer Vijaya Gadde cried during meeting about Musk takeover……
politico.com/news/2022/04/2…

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Ben Shapiro
@benshapiro

Here’s what Musk should do:
– Truth and reconciliation commission revealing past manipulation;
– Algorithmic transparency;
– Fire a LOT of people.
The last is the most crucial — if you leave in place the woke progressives who control implementation, leadership matters little.

[—Participant]

News or provocation? We live in the era of infinite anger.

[PopeBeanieModerator]

Autumn wrote:

News or provocation? We live in the era of infinite anger.

Yes, both; sometimes twisted and often conflated. I was on Twitter within weeks of it starting up, handle “acme” for years until I left and neglected it for years and lost the handle to a commercial org. Only recently have I realized/admitted the importance of Twitter as a respectable venue for bonafide journalists. I could/should have stuck with them happily by just narrowing down who I followed.

I’m also thinking that Twitter’s life is probably extended now with the buyout, since its ad model wasn’t life-sustaining, and it looks like consumer fees will drive content, at least in part. And Elon may find ways to promote certain tweeters over others, but I can’t guess how or how soon. The outcome may become “free speech”, purely for profit, but  nobody really knows how it will go, likely not even Elon (imo).

[PopeBeanieModerator]

I’ve removed MSNBC from my YouTube feed, but not from Twitter. This tweet is nice and short, and is worth discussing. Wouldn’t it be ironic if Elon could contribute to the Single Party Takeover?

“You could secretly ban one party’s candidate…secretly turn down the reach of their stuff and turn up the reach of something else and the rest of us might not even find out about it until AFTER the election.”

pic.twitter.com/yPMbtSN2wx
— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) April 26, 2022

[—Participant]

PopeBeanie wrote:

I’m also thinking that Twitter’s life is probably extended now with the buyout, since its ad model wasn’t life-sustaining, and it looks like consumer fees will drive content, at least in part. And Elon may find ways to promote certain tweeters over others, but I can’t guess how or how soon. The outcome may become “free speech”, purely for profit, but nobody really knows how it will go, likely not even Elon (imo).

I am curious about what the user base will look like in a year. Twitter is a product. A large chunk of its value seems to be as a de facto marketing platform. What were once called ‘influencers*’ are people marketing a version of themselves or a persona as a brand image. Various brands including celebrities themselves have used it as a marketing tool. Or in some cases, notable personalities used it as a personal platform and withdrew because they were ultimately damaging their brand.

And Twitter itself is a brand. I don’t know how true it is. There is a perception of hostility toward conservatives on the platform. With the change of ownership, that perception is changing, and despite no actual policy changes as of yet, there are reports of an influx of conservatives returning. I feel like a lot of that is perceptual.

It’s already positioned in a for profit way, so if the monetization schemes change under new ownership, I wouldn’t be too surprised. Musk says it isn’t about the money, but it’s not like it’s that easy for him to summon up $44 billion. If anyone could afford that as a loss, it’s him. But I don’t think you get to have that much money with that mindset. What he does, ultimately, will likely be more heavily influenced by business realities than high-minded ideals. Then again, who the fuck really knows? Maybe when you’re that wealthy, this is the only way to cure your boredom.

*might still be called influencers. I just haven’t followed. I remember that term was falling out of favour at one point, but sometimes these things persist.

[—Participant]

PopeBeanie wrote:

I’ve removed MSNBC from my YouTube feed, but not from Twitter. This tweet is nice and short, and is worth discussing. Wouldn’t it be ironic if Elon could contribute to the Single Party Takeover?

Even without that, one of the benefits of social media was the extent to which it empowered more grassroots movements to get a voice in. While that doesn’t translate to many candidates being elected, it did translate to movement on issues as politicians shifted to pander or, if we’re being less cynical, respond.

When it comes to Facebook/ Meta, they absolutely do not give a fuck about your preferences for content. They push whatever they want, and whether that’s due to incompetence or it’s intentional, the power for users to find what they want is diminishing. I think long ago people learned that when it comes to social media, censorship in many cases is less effective than noise. And so we shifted yet again from a state where anyone could get their voice out there to having more money or better populist tactics will lead to greater voice.

If under Musk Twitter really was able to address bots, and the content algorithms were opened up such that you could exercise greater control over what was pushed to you, that might actually make some dent in the issue for the better. But at the same time, his ideals could just be leading to more noise.

The idea of nefarious scheming to push an agenda… well, that much is nothing new and not unique to this situation. If Musk is more of a threat than anyone else, I suppose it comes down to two things: the extent to which he could act unilaterally, and the content of his character (or at the very least, the nature of his motives). I know very little about the latter. Not enough to be predictive wrt Twitter.

[PopeBeanieModerator]

Fox News has sent a cease-and-desist letter to Tucker Carlson as he ramps up a competing series on Twitter that drew a combined 169 million views for its first two episodes, Axios has learned.

1 minute read, about Fox “exclusiveness” contract with Tucker
https://www.axios.com/2023/06/12/fox-letter-tucker-carlson-twitter

[UnseenParticipant]

I predict that Tucker will get out of or get around his noncompete clause. Maybe he’ll give up the money they’d continue paying him, but he’s very rich as it is. Maybe he’ll get a court to decide the clause is unreasonable.

BUT, we haven’t heard the last of TC and we won’t have to wait long to see how this is resolved.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by  Unseen.

[PopeBeanieModerator]

Unseen wrote:

BUT, we haven’t heard the last of TC and we won’t have to wait long to see how this is resolved.

He could expat to Hungary. (Crossing my fingers.)

[UnseenParticipant]

PopeBeanie wrote:

He could expat to Hungary. (Crossing my fingers.)

I know what you’re talking about, but on the other hand he is one of the few (maybe the only) stridently antiwar voices on the mainstream media.

I, too, am antiwar. I think being in NATO is a mistake. The Europeans don’t need us to counter Russia. Two of them are even nuclear powers. Ukraine is not our war.

Think of all the nice things Americans would have if we’d stay out of our 750 foreign military bases and stopped supporting an industry whose business is building WMDs.

Tax dollars could go toward helping people get off their tents on the sidewalks. We could have universal health care. We could take care of our aging roads and bridges. We could have an affordable education system that doesn’t throw people into debt.

There will always be people we disagree with, so we might try to see what’s good about them as well as what we don’t like.

[Author]

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