These pieces you are writing about the fires are excellent! We need more analysis of what has happened during this giant misinformation debacle. I have a feeling it’s going to go on and on too. During the cleanup and during the rebuild. The bad actors will continue to blame without fact.
I, too, discovered the Watch Duty app, and that even Fox 11 (because I never figured out how to axe Fox from my service) had normal, caring reporters both in the studio and on the scene 24/7 these past few days, sometimes when ABC 7 did not.
The local journalists have been incredible. Thank you for highlighting their work, it's been so critical to knowing what's going on. Found out about the Watch Duty app, which I downloaded on Tuesday and recommended to my non-SoCal siblings. Really helped them understand the severity.
The history of journalism makes it clear that journalism's current problems trace entirely to how it is funded. *Good journalism has economic value*. In the example of this Substack, knowledge of where the fires are saves lives and potentially property, both of which savings have (in addition to moral considerations) economic value.
The economic value of journalism is why, despite a clear conservative ideological lean of ownership, the financial press tends to be more accurate than the rest of media: investors hate losing money and are willing to pay for accurate information. What the people buying the fallen press are paying for is *entertainment*--confirmation of their desires and titillation of their fears.
The problem has always been how to monetize good journalism. Making social media pay for what they profit from is practical, just, and important for our Republic.
How do you feel about the NYT coverage? I think their Updates format with a summary at the top is working really well for this type of event, and they seem to have a lot of boots on the ground.
They’ve got a truly gigantic staff to draw from at this point (many of them LAT alums!) and the format is well suited to doing incremental updates and bringing new site visitors up to speed quickly. Though that format only really works if you have a ton of people on hand, which makes it hard to reproduce.
These pieces you are writing about the fires are excellent! We need more analysis of what has happened during this giant misinformation debacle. I have a feeling it’s going to go on and on too. During the cleanup and during the rebuild. The bad actors will continue to blame without fact.
Thank you! I agree.
I, too, discovered the Watch Duty app, and that even Fox 11 (because I never figured out how to axe Fox from my service) had normal, caring reporters both in the studio and on the scene 24/7 these past few days, sometimes when ABC 7 did not.
The local journalists have been incredible. Thank you for highlighting their work, it's been so critical to knowing what's going on. Found out about the Watch Duty app, which I downloaded on Tuesday and recommended to my non-SoCal siblings. Really helped them understand the severity.
Thank you, and Media Guild of the West for this.
The history of journalism makes it clear that journalism's current problems trace entirely to how it is funded. *Good journalism has economic value*. In the example of this Substack, knowledge of where the fires are saves lives and potentially property, both of which savings have (in addition to moral considerations) economic value.
The economic value of journalism is why, despite a clear conservative ideological lean of ownership, the financial press tends to be more accurate than the rest of media: investors hate losing money and are willing to pay for accurate information. What the people buying the fallen press are paying for is *entertainment*--confirmation of their desires and titillation of their fears.
The problem has always been how to monetize good journalism. Making social media pay for what they profit from is practical, just, and important for our Republic.
This is fantastic and so very important for people to understand. Thanks for your hard work.
How do you feel about the NYT coverage? I think their Updates format with a summary at the top is working really well for this type of event, and they seem to have a lot of boots on the ground.
They’ve got a truly gigantic staff to draw from at this point (many of them LAT alums!) and the format is well suited to doing incremental updates and bringing new site visitors up to speed quickly. Though that format only really works if you have a ton of people on hand, which makes it hard to reproduce.