Peter Bale - Tik Tok owns media; trust in news; Politico scoop of the year
I have yet to find my own places on TikTok that speak to what I am interested in but its scope and impact are unmistakable for Facebook, YouTube, and here in this Vox piece, mainstream media. It appears we are about to go through the same saga as with the old platforms -- putting our news on their sites for free, enjoying the traffic and the supposed modernity, and then wondering how we lost not gained our audience. Good luck trying to get money out of Bytedance.
I admire what Ben and Justin are doing here and Gina has the global perspective to try to make it work. It seems to me that with their style imposition they are in the Axios frame of mind where a tight style, adhered to and understood by writers, can make things simple and highly impactful. No writing too long for the sake of it or failing to identify the points that matter. I am not sure this is original enough but good luck to them. It reminds me of Quartz but maybe that is no bad thing.
This was a truly sensational get by Politico and we all live with the consequences whether in the United States or abroad. One day we may find out who leaked it but whomever did, they did us a service. It was a wake up call to the insidious shift in a court and a political system that is geared now to erode hard-won rights, not preserve them. This can happen anywhere, especially the UK I'd say right now. Rights we took for granted -- from free speech and protection of sources to human rights like abortion or same-sex marriage are under threat and journalism -- as an essentially progressive or lower-case "l" liberal function should realise that.
Expect more excitable reporters in raincoats and on sea fronts yelling at you about spectacular weather that will literally blow them away, while ignoring the science and the evidence of causality increasingly there.
I hosted this session for INMA with a very clever chap who has really analysed why so many newsroom projects go awry. There are lessons in this for all of us and my three keys include: deciding what each party thinks marks innovation, how they intend to actually work together and who has the say, and what success and failure look like so they can analyse both.
This has a link in it to the original and excellent Reuters Institute report but what I was trying to do in this item was to explain how those key findings map to the work I am trying to do at INMA.