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So attended a media industry seminar last night which contained some interesting observations about the media "culture war" which are relevant to the covid situ. >>>
1st - lots of traditional media, partic in US, are under real threat of not surviving the pandemic. Lots of closures in past 8 months. Going to be less professional reporting by the end of the pandemic. More control shifts to a small number of US tech platforms >
In response to the covid advertising recession 'elite' brands with wealthy readerships are successfully pivoting to readers for cash - FT, New York Times (Guardian?). But loss leading outlets (Talk Radio) or those without a subscriber base can't do this >
In response many titles are using culture war as part of a hyper shift (my words) to highly emotive culture topics to drive news. This is "happening at the uneasy border between tech and media."
Culture war is unusual in generating 'political' stories that lead circulation. It used to be that royal or celebrity stories drove the reach of the media. But is it now culture war?
There will be many media brands who are secretly praying that #Trump wins the election today. If he goes, they lose millions of clicks at a stroke. I get the sense this isn't just your Breitbarts and Fox, it will hit news outlets in the UK too.
Another interesting fact from the lockdown is that, whilst it initially prompted people to re-engage with mainstream news, that soon faded, with apparently "lower educated" people relying more on the non-paywalled or internet based media for their news.
Point to make about these outlets, partic the political ones, is that they don't make money. 1st- they get audience via micro targeting (see the stuff Grimes is doing or Jim Davidson's new YouTube channel). I'm certain Farage's latest grift will be the same.
Some of these outfits are funded by straightforward political interests. Who gave Grimes the £100k or whatever he's using for his "Defund the BBC" project? Hight net wealth donors.
This pure grift approach to media is going to get worse, not better. And for them "culture war" stories have the kind of salience that used to be performed by royal or David Beckham.
We are also going to see an increasing divide in news consumption, between those who want to pay for a subscription and "lower education" consumers who get everything from the grifters.
