How the fuck does “competition drive better journalism” and not, you know, a race for clicks by any means necessary leading to hyper sensationalized and extreme content (like what we actually see happen today when journalism is mostly competitive)?
When I was a kid with 4 TV stations, journalism was competitive. The competition was to be as unbiased as possible and gain the audience’s trust. Trust was the #1 cited issue as to which nightly news anchor one watched. Imagine that.
Easy: Populism. You just argue that truth is a democracy and therefore the thing most people believe is the truth because most people believe it. And voilà: Suddenly, confirming the biases of your audience passes for good journalism.
How the fuck does “competition drive better journalism” and not, you know, a race for clicks by any means necessary leading to hyper sensationalized and extreme content (like what we actually see happen today when journalism is mostly competitive)?
When I was a kid with 4 TV stations, journalism was competitive. The competition was to be as unbiased as possible and gain the audience’s trust. Trust was the #1 cited issue as to which nightly news anchor one watched. Imagine that.
Easy: Populism. You just argue that truth is a democracy and therefore the thing most people believe is the truth because most people believe it. And voilà: Suddenly, confirming the biases of your audience passes for good journalism.