Needed Now: Funding for New Media Outlets
Progressives and liberals (and civil society) need funders to step up or they will continue to lose elections
Above: Illustration of how political influencers on the right and left stack up (so many white men!), by Wired’s Makena Kelly. · Sree’s newsletter is produced with Zach Peterson (@zachprague). Digimentors Tech Tip from Robert S. Anthony (@newyorkbob). Our sponsorship kit.
Am experimenting with three new social networks that are trying to provide alternatives to the horror show that is Twitter/X these days. Connect with me on each; will share what I’ve been learning in a future newsletter. Am also learning how to TikTok.
BlueSky: sreenet.bsky.social
Spread: joinspread.com/u/sree-sreenivasan
OneAct: oneact.social/u/sree (my neighbor and friend Bhavik Shah is its founder and would love to hear your thoughts: bhavik@oneact.social)
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U.S. CONSERVATIVES HAVE PULLED OFF makeovers takeovers of two pillars of American society. The first is the judiciary. Democratic judges (elected or appointed) used to dominate the federal and state courts. But a series of patient, intentional, strategic and well-funded efforts by right-wing think tanks and politicians worked over decades to change that. We see it in the Supreme Court where 6-3 is already here and 7-2 is a possibility in the next four years. And we see it in state supreme courts and elsewhere.
The second is the news, media and information ecosystem. The idea of a “liberal media establishment” being the way Americans get their news has been thoroughly discredited over the last decade. When Fox News was born in 1996, it was an outsider looking in. Now it’s dominant, along with a host of other right-wing media outlets and the rise of conservative influencers, podcasts and YouTubers.
As the handwringing over Donald Trump’s return to the presidency continues (my take is here), I wanted to write this time about the things that led to the things that led to the 2024 election results.
As Michael Tomasky explains in his must-read look at the real reason Trump won:
This is the year in which it became obvious that the right-wing media has more power than the mainstream media. It’s not just that it’s bigger. It’s that it speaks with one voice, and that voice says Democrats and liberals are treasonous elitists who hate you, and Republicans and conservatives love God and country and are your last line of defense against your son coming home from school your daughter.
We’re at a point now where the rot in our information space is systemic, and I don’t think pointing to Kamala Harris not going on Joe Rogan’s podcast as a reason she lost explains much. But, the question, “Where is the Joe Rogan of the left?,” is an interesting one.
The thing this question completely misses is the grift of it all, and people crowing about not having a sprawling left-wing media ecosystem should probably take a minute and fully analyze what they are asking for.
Taylor Lorenz, who is now a fellow Substacker with her User Mag newsletter, gets to the heart of the issue in “Why Democrats won't build their own Joe Rogan”:
The conservative media landscape in the United States is exceptionally well-funded, meticulously constructed, and highly coordinated. Wealthy donors, PACs, and corporations with a vested interest in preserving or expanding conservative policies strategically invest in right-wing media channels and up and coming content creators.
As Lorenz correctly notes, much of this has been built by money from “conservative billionaires or organizations on the right who have long recognized the content creator industry as a valuable means of shaping public opinion and policy.”
So many people—myself included—have derided this right-wing echo chamber as a black hole where facts, morality, and ethics go to die. While true, that same ecosystem is a big reason that Trump is returning to the White House.
Again, from User Mag:
Organizations like Turning Point USA, PragerU, and The Daily Wire and others receive millions from backers who view them as advertising for a broader conservative agenda. These media entities act as content creator incubators and spend extensively on outreach, production quality, and audience growth. The resources and near unlimited funds they receive allow conservative content creators to grow rapidly and spread their message widely.
Democrats and liberals can complain about how terrible Ben Shapiro and Charlie Kirk are, but it is impossible—and irresponsible—to disregard them as irrelevant. A new survey by Pew Research confirms as much. The topline findings:
37% of adults under 30 say the regularly get their news from influencers on social media
63% of news influencers are men
77% of news influencers have no affiliation or background with a news organization
One thing that stood out was the echo chamber effect of social media—it is very real:
This strikes me as a key lesson for everyone, from journalists to influencers to politicians. Echo chambers are real and are only becoming more pronounced. The more important lesson, especially for the political left in America, is that people abandoning traditional news outlets for influencers on social see those influencers as credible and useful when trying to understand current events.
“I like the thing I use all the time” may sound somewhat obvious, but it’s especially pronounced here, and especially with the people who are getting their news from influencers. Democrats lost ground to Republicans across almost every demographic this November, and, for me, it’s clear that the messaging infrastructure the left employed simply did not work.
The deplorable Rogan-Musk world is part of the new information ecosystem laid bare for all to see. We can accept it, use it, join it and build micro-movements within it. Or, we can continue to cede ground until there is no ground to cede.
Brian Stelter, newly back at CNN, has some concrete ideas here, including:
Start small.
Meet people where they are.
Build trust through news coverage outside of politics.
Note the big differences between talking and reporting, but recognize that both have value.
Listen to young people and learn from their media habits.
I am working on some new ideas and looking for collaborators and partners. Let’s chat: sree.sreenivasan1@gmail.com
— Sree | Twitter | Bluesky | IG | LinkedIn | FB | YouTube / Threads | Spread | TikTok
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Digital media, news and politics are constant themes for me, and it will continue to be in the coming months. Here’s some past reading:
Social Media and News no Longer Mix - October 2023
Jomboy Media and the Power of Positivity - March 2023
Social Media and News No Longer Mix - Oct 16, 2023
The End of Politicking in Politics - September 2023
The End of the NYT Sports Desk - July 2023
Fox News Lies to Its Viewers - March 2023
Partisan News and the Power to Change Minds - April 2022
The ‘Liberal Media’ Myth - October 2022
The "Old Boys Club" Style of Media Leadership Needs to Go - Jan. 2021
The Rise of Independent Publishers - September 2020
I’ve Had It with the Term ‘The Media’ - April 2020
DIGIMENTORS TECH TIP | Professional Photogs on AI: “Use It, Don’t Abuse It”
By Robert S. Anthony
Each week, veteran tech journalist Bob Anthony shares a tech tip you don’t want to miss. Follow him @newyorkbob on Twitter and check out his 1.1 million followers on Pinterest!
Is your camera smarter than you are? We certainly hope not, but with a little assistance from artificial intelligence, even egregious errors, like getting your finger in front of the camera lens, can be corrected and make you look like legendary photographer Ansel Adams.
AI-enhanced features are deeply embedded into many of today’s photo apps and some are on by default, thus almost taking the user, er, out of the picture. However, when it comes to the routine use of AI in photography, the message from professional photographers is consistent: It’s a tool, not a replacement for your creativity.
“We did not build our tools to replace someone’s job,” said Terry White, principal worldwide design and photography evangelist at Adobe, maker of Lightroom and Photoshop, two key photo-editing products widely used by professional photographers. White showed off some of his favorite Lightroom and Photoshop features during Adobe’s recent Photography Create Now event in New York.
White said that while Adobe continues to improve its generative AI features, which can create and insert completely new elements into a photo, like a reflective rain puddle or birds in the sky, such features are meant to enhance a photographer’s creativity, not replace it.
In a YouTube video, White showed how Photoshop was able to remove numerous power and telephone lines from a photo of the famous “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign and patch the sign and the sky so the areas where the lines were removed weren’t noticeable.
In another example, when he tried to remove distractions in the background from a photo of himself, Photoshop’s AI not only recognized the people to the side of him, but detected people far in the distance he had not noticed and gave the option of which people to actually remove. White noted that Adobe’s generative AI is trained on content it owns, not on customer content.
One exhibitor at Adobe Photography Create, 100cameras, a program which uses photography to encourage young students to express themselves, was a good example of how human creativity can win out over AI. The organization showed off copies of “A Worldwide Lens: Perspectives from Youth,” its 2020 book which showcases the talents of young photographers from around the world, many of whom created stunning images with outdated cameras or AI-free smartphones.
100cameras offers young students a curriculum which “utilizes photography as a dynamic tool for self-expression,” but also promotes “active listening to the thoughts, feelings, and life experiences of their peers through constructive discussions and group activities.”
Trashhand, a photographer who said he spends 90 percent his photo-editing time in Lightroom, urged photographers at the Adobe event to be honest with their photography and editing and not to artificially inject moods into scenes that aren’t there.
“Don’t catch feelings,” said Trashhand, who doesn’t publicize his real name. “Catch photos.”
Additional Adobe Photography Create events are scheduled for Salt Lake City Dec. 3 and New Orleans on Dec. 5.
Did we miss anything? Make a mistake? Do you have an idea for anything we’re up to? Let’s collaborate! sree@sree.net and please connect w/ me:
— Sree | Twitter | Bluesky | IG | LinkedIn | FB | YouTube / Threads | Spread | TikTok
Great read, thank you!