https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2024-03-08/why-not-enforce-news-media-bargaining-code-meta-facebook/103554982
Facebook profited from the decline of Australia's news organisations, but enforcing the News Media Bargaining Code will make a bad situation worse without solving the problem of who will pay for the news.
i don't think we should act like journalism was in a great place before.
FB capitalized on a weakened industry, but it was the industry itself that was responsible for that state.
they really fucked themselves by not transitioning to the new market, instead insisting that it was the customers that were wrong. all these years later, i've yet to see a news outlet that would be worth the subscription fee. they're mostly recycling content from other, free sites anyway.
once the older crowd passes, traditional news outlets are done for. the ones that remain will be the ones that were providing the content all along.
True journalism seems to be on its way out. Why pay journalists to research and investigate when you can pump out tons of ai generated garbage for nearly free.
This article was written by an Australian ABC journalist - they are primarily government funded and the News Media Bargaining Code doesn't apply to them.
(their non-government funding mostly comes from creating content which they sell, for example Bluey).
Whenever I read or see the media complaining about social media I think of this https://theoatmeal.com/comics/reaching_people
Community groups suffer for the same reasons.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
It was a hot-and-cold affair that defined over a decade of online publishing and the work experience of a generation of reporters, and has ultimately left the industry a shadow of its former self.
Although it may be tempting for lots of reasons, the Australian government should avoid putting the boot into Meta by enforcing the News Media Bargaining Code as it's threatened to do.
Digital-only media outfits such as BuzzFeed and Vice rode a wave of growth, generating huge numbers of clicks that translated into ad revenue.
"Facebook encouraged news providers onto the platform in the ways it promoted content," Dan Angus, a professor of digital communications at QUT, said.
Instead of breaking up that monopoly, or closing tax loopholes, the Code effectively takes money from a profitable industry (big tech) and distributes it to an unprofitable one (news).
The News Media Bargaining Code is trying to restore a model for financing journalism that has gone the way of the fax machine, the fountain pen, and the pocket address book.
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