In other
words, we'll be left with officially generated and sanctioned fake news and "approved"
dissent.
We've
all heard that the problem with the web is fake news, i.e.
unsubstantiated or erroneous content that's designed to mislead or sow
confusion.
The
problem isn't just fake news--it's the homogenization of the web,
that is, the elimination or marginalization of independent voices of skepticism
and dissent.
There
are four drivers of this homogenization:
1. The suppression of dissent under the guise of ridding
the web of propaganda and fake news--in other words, dissent is
labeled fake news as a cover for silencing critics
and skeptics.
2. The sharp decline of advertising revenues flowing to web
publishers, both major outlets and small independent publishers like Of Two Minds.
3. The majority of advert revenues now flow into the coffers of
the quasi-monopolies Facebook and Google.
4. Publishers are increasingly dependent on these
quasi-monopolies for readers and visibility: any publisher who runs afoul of
Facebook and Google and is sent to Digital Siberia effectively vanishes.
The
reason why publishers' advert incomes are plummeting are four-fold:
1. Most of the advert revenues in the digital market are being
skimmed by Facebook and Google, as the chart below illustrates.
2. Ad blockers have become ubiquitous.
3. Few people click on the display ads that are the standard in
desktop web publishing; in other words, these ads simply don't work very well,
and much of the revenue being generated is click-fraud, i.e. bots not real people
clicking on adverts because they're interested in the product/service. As a
result, advertisers are pulling away from these type of ads as they search for
advert models that aren't so vulnerable to click-fraud.
4. The web is increasingly shifting to mobile, which has fewer
advert spots due to the small size of the display. In addition, major
third-party advert services such as Google Adsense place restrictions on the
number and size of ads being displayed on publishers' sites.
The
systemic erosion of advert revenues for everyone other than FB and Google is
evident everywhere: for example, BuzzFeed Set to Miss Revenue Target,
Signaling Turbulence in Media Prospects for a 2018 initial
public offering by the high-profile publisher now appear remote.
Digital
publisher BuzzFeed is on track to miss its revenue target this year by a
significant amount, the latest sign that troubles in the online-ad business are
making it tough for new-media upstarts to live up to lofty expectations.
As
a result of these two dynamics--the censorship of dissenting views under the
excuse of limiting fake news, and the erosion of advert income--independent
publishers are losing ground. While those posting on
Facebook and other social media sites have little expectation of monetizing
their content, many web publishers made enough income off adverts or affiliated
income (from YouTube channels, for example) to justify the enormous time and
effort they expended keeping their channel/site going.
As
advert income has dwindled, there are only two other revenue models available
to publishers: a subscription service or Patreon, i.e. the direct financial
support of users/readers/viewers. Major publishers are
struggling to build a subscription base large enough to fund their operations,
a task made more difficult by the expectation that all content is free or
should be free.
Patreon has been a boon for thousands of independent writers,
journalists, cartoonists, filmmakers and other creators of content. The Patreon
model (as I understand it, and yes I have a Patreon campaign) is not based on
content that's behind a paywall available to subscribers only, but on providing
incentives in the form of content or other rewards to those who choose to
contribute.
The
Patreon model only works if enough users/readers/viewers step up to support
content creators they value. I think the success of
Patreon suggests that many people are willing to support the content creators
they value. But like all voluntary revenue models, there's the free-rider
issue: people who may have the income to pay a bit for content choose
not to, and in essence free-ride on those few who do contribute/pay for
content.
Some people have advanced the model of micropayments as
the solution to the problem of compensating content creators fairly. While this
model has some obvious benefits--pennies charged for access to content might
add up to a living for content creators if their audience was large enough--it
would still be a voluntary system, and thus it would have the same free-rider issue
as every other voluntary payment-for-content idea.
Posting "free" content on social media ends up driving
advert revenues to the social media and search monopolies, leaving nothing for
the content creators. There is only so much serious content that can be created
for free.
If what we're left with is "free" content (i.e. the
creator gets no income for creating and posting content), Facebook, Google and
click-bait link farms of sensationalist headlines, we'll end up with a
thoroughly homogenized web of "approved content" underwritten by
lobbyists, the entertainment industry and elitist foundations/think tanks, and
little in the way of real dissent or diversity of independent analysis.
In
other words, we'll be left with officially generated and sanctioned
fake news and "approved" dissent: unemployment
is at record lows, inflation is near zero, the "recovery" is alive
and well, Russia is the enemy and any suggestion to the contrary is propaganda
that must be eradicated as fake news, etc.
Simply
put, the web is becoming Orwellian. There's plenty of
approved "diversity of opinion," but dissent is being sidelined to
the fringes as a risk to the perfection of managed content.
If you found value in this content, please join me in seeking solutions by becoming a $1/month patron of my work via patreon.com.
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