Modern Media is Advertising Supported Media, is this payment or support method the root of many evils? Is advertising supported media the head of the evil serpent known for misinformation, lies and deceit?
Introduction: Misinformation, lies, deceit and censorship
The word of the day, month and year is currently misinformation and the campaign against it.
This campaign is popular amongst both conservatives and liberals, right and left and centrist.
But the devil is in the details one person’s misinformation removal is another person’s censorship.
So those given the job or task to remove misinformation are frequently charges with both censorship or laziness by the people who disagree with information they think is the truth being removed or information they think is not truthful not being removed.
It does appear to be a thankless job, and seemingly it’s impossible to please everyone.
But perhaps we could take another approach.
The Root of all evil
In the Christian Judeo Bible, it is said that money is the root of all evil. Many detectives, and law enforcement persons often say follow the money and it will lead you to the criminal.
Perhaps it’s time to not just look at what is being said, but who is paying for it, and how does that effect what is being said.
Perhaps the way we pay for media is allows advertisers the ability to censor the media, and also provides an incentive for misinformation.
I suggest we look not solely at what is said, but who or what controls it. I submit the following thought to you for your careful consideration:
Media supported by Advertising is dependent on the advertisers and they can censor speech by removing sponsorship of the media outlets.
This fact, idea, concept, name it what you will, is successfully used to apply pressure on advertisers by consumers, and the advertisers apply pressure on the media outlets and the offensive speech or offensive persons are cancelled a new term in popular culture, meaning you lose your job and ability to make further offensive speech.
Everyone likes this until someone they like gets cancelled and then we think it is unfair.
The person’s supporters cry censorship, the person’s detractors call it the Will of the people.
I think they are both right.
Removing Advertiser Sponsorship fixes this
- I submit to you a novel concept, let the viewers support media through direct payment to the media outlets for content they like, just like here on Hive, but expanded to the greater society.
- Advertisers will lose their power
- The masses will gain some power
- Advertisers will have to turn to other venues for reaching the consumer for sure, such as a venue created just for advertising and completely uncoupled from social media and popular culture.
The second part of this concept is the way we pay for media is provides an incentive for misinformation.
Pay for Clicks is Bad
- Bold Statement, only supported by my experience being paid for Clicks and watching the numbers of others paid for clicks
- In my opinion Pay for Clicks encourages sensationalism, lies and misinformation
- For example YouTubers are famous for Click Bait titles, yes the phenomenon I am describing even has it’s own name: Click Baiting. It means a title which may not or frequently isn’t true, but it entices you to Click on the Video or Article and watch it it or read it, to see if it is true.
-Ironically, most the author usually apologizes by saying the title isn’t true, but then explains why you should watch the video anyway. LOL - this Pay for Click is basically a monetary incentive for disinformation. It incentivizes things as ridiculous as this: ElvisPressly is an Alien and he still lives on the Moon; we have proof. You click and it apologizes saying some people thought he was such a good dancer and singer, that he must be from another world. That’s not the same thing clearly as being an alien and still being alive, but it got you to click on the title.
- Truth be told, social media is supposed to be entertainment. And as such it doesn’t have to be truthful, it just has to be entertaining.
- The problem arises when it becomes our only source of information, as in we don’t watch real journalists on real news shows.
- Then real journalists have to compete for views with people not bound by the same rules for truthfulness and they start to produce more Click bait titles just to survive.
- The next thing you know a famous newspaper like the New York Times is being investigated for producing substandard articles, which are not properly researched and verified.
- This doesn’t even begin to look at the Political Click bait titles, misinformation, etc… that gets more pay for Clicks the more outrageous it is…
…soon the story titled The dark side of the moon is covered in blue aliens goes viral and becomes trending on Twitter and Facebook.
the maker of the outrageous story is well rewarded for lies and the public doesn’t know what to believe because if everybody is tweeting or forwarding tweets or Facebook posts about Blue Aliens…it must be true right??
Summary:
We need a better way to support Public Media, mainly direct pay from consumers to media and content producers. Plus return entertainment to the entertainment arena, return news coverage to the journalists, and reduce both misinformation and censorship by attacking the root cause; the way we support media with advertising and the way we support Click bait with Pay for Clicks.
The End…for now.
