The scourge of Facebook

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buksida
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Re: The scourge of Facebook

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How Facebook swallowed journalism and is eating the world
Something really dramatic is happening to our media landscape, the public sphere, and our journalism industry, almost without us noticing and certainly without the level of public examination and debate it deserves. Our news ecosystem has changed more dramatically in the past five years than perhaps at any time in the past five hundred. We are seeing huge leaps in technical capability—virtual reality, live video, artificially intelligent news bots, instant messaging, and chat apps. We are seeing massive changes in control, and finance, putting the future of our publishing ecosystem into the hands of a few, who now control the destiny of many.

Social media hasn’t just swallowed journalism, it has swallowed everything. It has swallowed political campaigns, banking systems, personal histories, the leisure industry, retail, even government and security. The phone in our pocket is our portal to the world. I think in many ways this heralds enormously exciting opportunities for education, information, and connection, but it brings with it a host of contingent existential risks.

Journalism is a small subsidiary activity of the main business of social platforms, but one of central interest to citizens.

The internet and the social Web enable journalists to do powerful work, while at the same time helping to make the business of publishing journalism an uneconomic venture.

Two significant things have already happened that we have not paid enough attention to:

First, news publishers have lost control over distribution.

Social media and platform companies took over what publishers couldn’t have built even if they wanted to. Now the news is filtered through algorithms and platforms which are opaque and unpredictable. The news business is embracing this trend, and digital native entrants like BuzzFeed, Vox, and Fusion have built their presence on the premise that they are working within this system, not against it.

Second, the inevitable outcome of this is the increase in power of social media companies.

The largest of the platform and social media companies, Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and even second order companies such as Twitter, Snapchat and emerging messaging app companies, have become extremely powerful in terms of controlling who publishes what to whom, and how that publication is monetized.

Full story: http://www.cjr.org/analysis/facebook_and_media.php
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Re: The scourge of Facebook

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I think the old adage still applies: don't believe everything you read.

There are incredibly lazy, gullible and dumb people who do believe what they read, most from selected sources that appeal to their particular world view. Social media hasn't destroyed journalism and in many ways has made unbiased, factual reporting more relevant than ever.

The new kids on the block mentioned above (buzzfeed, upworthy etc.) rely on the most dire form of click-bait nonsense aimed at morons with the attention span of a gnat and the critical capabilities of one of said gnat's balls. They deserve each other. You know the sort of nonsense I'm talking about: "His Schoolchildren Thought He Was Unwell But You Wont Believe What Happened Next" (they can't punctuate either). If this sort of crap floats your boat then the demise of journalism is not something you need worry about.

I know very talented and dedicated journalists whose knowledge of language and skills of crafting stories is remarkable. They aren't worried about facebook and happily use twitter to steer readers to their content. This, for me, is the key point: facebook may be the largest media company in the world but it creates no content. Joe Schmo who is blogging on about some inane subject with no structure or any real point is no match for trained professionals. Journalists who learn to use the size and scale of social media to their benefit will prevail; it's simply an additional channel.
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Re: The scourge of Facebook

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"There are incredibly lazy, gullible and dumb people who do believe what they read..."

You have just described 70-80% of the world population. The human race has become a self-obsessed, narcissistic, money loving, sinfully uneducated version of its former self.

The sooner the human race is wiped out - the better for planet Earth.

How dare we take it upon ourselves to destroy a whole planet! Social media is a big part of this. Everyone wants more, needs more and gets more without a single flicker of the eyelid as to the consequences of such aspirations.

The fact the Mark Twatterburg is now one of the richest people on the planet just epitomises the drastic collapse of the human mindset.

Take a look at Cheltenham... every asshole and his cling-on trying to do something outrageous to get there face on the World Wide Web.

It's pathetic...

Things like Facebook encourage this.
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Re: The scourge of Facebook

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The sooner the human race is wiped out the better for planet earth? Is there a full moon again>?
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Re: The scourge of Facebook

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Just payday, methinks...
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Re: The scourge of Facebook

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I'm a bit behind here as I've so far managed to avoid using Facebook, how much journalism is actually on it? From what I've seen of my partner using it, I'd got the impression it was all just selfies and pictures of peoples dinner.
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Re: The scourge of Facebook

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Looking at what my American friends post, it's pretty active in promoting or destroying presidential candidates. My British acquaintances are busy with anti-Muslim 'Keep Britain British' campaigns. Foody pics appear to be more Thai based.

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Re: The scourge of Facebook

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STEVE G wrote:I'm a bit behind here as I've so far managed to avoid using Facebook, how much journalism is actually on it? From what I've seen of my partner using it, I'd got the impression it was all just selfies and pictures of peoples dinner.
You can tailor it to see what you want to see, not completely but for the most part. If you "like" a lot of sports sites for example, those sports will pop up constantly on your news feed and page feed sections. I've got it managed pretty well with the dozen or so categories, geographical locations, news sites I want to follow, and that is about 80% of what I get. Of course you'll get the feed from whatever friends you have as well. Frankly, the fewer friends you have the more useful it becomes in terms of what you want to see. Strange :shock: limiting "social" in social media. :laugh: Pete :cheers:
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Re: The scourge of Facebook

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prcscct wrote:
STEVE G wrote:I'm a bit behind here as I've so far managed to avoid using Facebook, how much journalism is actually on it? From what I've seen of my partner using it, I'd got the impression it was all just selfies and pictures of peoples dinner.
You can tailor it to see what you want to see, not completely but for the most part. If you "like" a lot of sports sites for example, those sports will pop up constantly on your news feed and page feed sections. I've got it managed pretty well with the dozen or so categories, geographical locations, news sites I want to follow, and that is about 80% of what I get. Of course you'll get the feed from whatever friends you have as well. Frankly, the fewer friends you have the more useful it becomes in terms of what you want to see. Strange :shock: limiting "social" in social media. :laugh: Pete :cheers:
EDIT: The messenger function is probably the most widely used communication tool in the world. It's fast and since so many people are constantly on FB, they see and reply to your messages almost immediately. Faster than email or other methods that they may not look at for hours.
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Re: The scourge of Facebook

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prcscct wrote:
prcscct wrote:
STEVE G wrote:I'm a bit behind here as I've so far managed to avoid using Facebook, how much journalism is actually on it? From what I've seen of my partner using it, I'd got the impression it was all just selfies and pictures of peoples dinner.
You can tailor it to see what you want to see, not completely but for the most part. If you "like" a lot of sports sites for example, those sports will pop up constantly on your news feed and page feed sections. I've got it managed pretty well with the dozen or so categories, geographical locations, news sites I want to follow, and that is about 80% of what I get. Of course you'll get the feed from whatever friends you have as well. Frankly, the fewer friends you have the more useful it becomes in terms of what you want to see. Strange :shock: limiting "social" in social media. :laugh: Pete :cheers:
EDIT: The messenger function is probably the most widely used communication tool in the world. It's fast and since so many people are constantly on FB, they see and reply to your messages almost immediately. Faster than email or other methods that they may not look at for hours.
I don't have a smart phone so I wouldn't look at Facebook any more often than checking email or whatever.
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Re: The scourge of Facebook

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^ Without a smart phone I'm not even sure if FB works or renders anything?
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Re: The scourge of Facebook

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Hello,

I decided to open a new, 2nd account. As my old account was 'public', I have been able to access my old account as a 'stranger' and copy my photo albums.
As my 'social life' is limited to FB, quitting FB was out of the question.
Have not had any problems since.

Kind regards,

MB aka 'Mike the Fritz'
A GRATEFUL GUEST OF THE KINGDOM OF THAILAND & HER PEOPLE
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buksida
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Re: The scourge of Facebook

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Don't rely on Facebook for your news
Facebook says users should not rely on the social media site for all their news, and it is banishing clickbait headlines from its News Feed, because it turns people away.

One of the company's vice-presidents said Facebook was "definitely not a media company" and just wanted its News Feed product to inform and entertain with "authentic" stories.

"We don't think that Facebook should be a replacement for all of the other types of ways that people find out about interesting things and important things that are going on in the world," vice-president of product management John Hegeman told an eastern-hemisphere media briefing on Thursday morning.

"We do want Facebook's News Feed to do the best job it can of understanding what is important to people and servicing that. But we don't want that to stop people from consuming news or content in all of the other ways that they currently and continue to do."

Facebook launched the News Feed in 2006 so users could quickly see what friends were doing, rather than visiting each friend's page. But these days many people also rely on articles appearing in their News Feed for all their information, rather than visiting news sites.

Source: http://www.smh.com.au/business/media-an ... rbkw5.html

Indeed, though most Farcebook addicts will probably disagree.
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Re: The scourge of Facebook

Post by T.I.G.R. »

My wife, friends and family use Line every day (sometimes it seems like All day). The free phone call service is great. The other night I spoke with someone in California for over an hour for no charge, and last month two of my old employees called me on the video call service to have a long visit. I think you have to pay for the video call though.
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Re: The scourge of Facebook

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My wife uses the video calling all the time both within Thailand, and to the UK - no charge.
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