McLuhan is laughing in his grave. This is what he meant by that cliché and cryptic 'The media is the message.' The content of the media doesn't matter, the way the media warps our brain into thinking about it (and the larger world) is what matters.
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Whether we're some uneducated, frustrated loner reading InfoWars on an old PC, or some highly-educated, upwardly mobile (in a world where that's now rare) professional reading the NYT on an iPad, we're all just anxious, exhausted chimps banging on like and share buttons all day.
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Final beef: 2. The professional engineers of the spectacle, the journalists, seem the most taken with their creation. Typically, good dealers don't use. But the spectacle is so blinding, so uncoupled from any reality anymore, you can comfortably live inside it, and we do.
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Replying to @antoniogm
Let’s get away from the handwaves and introduce
@kevinroose’s recent work as evidence, which I assume you are referencing. Here’s the article that seems most relevant:https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/07/business/facebook-midterms-misinformation.html …2 replies 0 retweets 1 like -
The dynamics you're describing — reporter logic twisted by a thirst for traffic — are not new and it’s not even clear they’re getting worse (things were wankier when Buzzfeed and its clones were gaming the algo). I wax extensively about this stuff in my book published 4 years ago
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Replying to @jasonkincaid @kevinroose
We're talking about different sets of people though. Sure, BuzzFeed was a clickbait operation years go (although interestingly they've raised themselves out of the muck and become respectable journalism). You don't think this a contagion that's spread upwards?
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Replying to @antoniogm @kevinroose
I agree it's contagious (see link below; a pdf of the relevant chapter in my book). But reporters who are susceptible to its effects generally hit an upper bound in their career. You learn what it looks and feels like; the NYT does okay filtering for it.https://www.dropbox.com/s/qhqjgjaeg53dqii/The%20Burned-Out%20Blogger%27s%20Guide%20to%20PR%20%E2%80%94%20The%20Newsroom.pdf?dl=0 …
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Replying to @jasonkincaid @kevinroose
The outlets that have insulated themselves, and can still field extensive reporter armies along with fact-checking editors (like the one that occasionally employs me), do so because they have (for now) the deep pockets to underwrite it all.
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Such a glowing take on the therapeutic effects of the newsroom. Wonder if it still serves as a check to the spectacle. Incidentally, my first job (at age 17) was in the newsroom of the Sun-Sentinel in Ft. Lauderdale. Quite the experience for a clueless kid.
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Yes, and no. After two stints there, and one at the Miami Herald (all in high school) I was residually excited enough to pick a college based on the j-school, but deep down, the experience made me realize it wasn't for me. And now here I am squabbling with journos on Twitter.
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