Phil 2.18.16

7:00 – 6:00 VTX

I think that this is more an issue of information economics. The incentives in social publication is honor, glory and followers. Maybe some money from ad revenue sharing (Though this is changing?). Traditional news media offers a more direct model where the product (news) is sold to readers and/or advertisers so that the news-making product can be made.

Connectivism states that there is now an emphasis on leaning how to find information as opposed to knowing the information (since information obsolescence happens more rapidly, the value of the information is lower than the knowledge of how to find current knowledge).

Since traditional news media tends to aggregate information to produce stories because it makes learning entertaining and worth the price paid (cash or time watching commercials). However, if the friction to finding free alternatives of the initial information for the story is low, then the value of the story becomes lower, since now all you’re paying for is a pleasing presentation.

Blogs and other free sources make this more difficult for the consumer, since what appears credible may not be, but may be confused with an actual information source nonetheless. Or, looking at confirmation bias, a free pleasing story may have higher value for a consumer than a (non-free) well researched story that disputes the reader’s beliefs.

There is also an emotional cost for checking rumors that you agree with. Going to Snopes to find out that the politician that you hate didn’t actually do that stupid thing you just saw in your feed.  So the traditional few-channel media is being subsumed by networks that we construct to support our biases?

  • Banged away at the white paper. Done! Off to Key West for a long weekend!