THE "Social Control Media" phenomenon has partly doomed journalism. It's not as though journalism on the Web wasn't already doomed before "Social Control Media" (some time around 2007). The Web has, in general, shaken old business models. No longer could newspapers be distributing to millions of paying subscribers (to a physical paper) a major 'bombshell' story which took months to prepare (with budgets of thousands of dollars just for that one story).

"Regarding GNU/Linux, there are still some decent news sites out there."Fast forward to 2020. Now we have so-called 'stories' which are just a tweet or a series of tweets. They call that journalism. They say it matters. Fact-checking optional, provocation (like click-baiting) preferable.

Regarding GNU/Linux, there are still some decent news sites out there. Phoronix, for example, does a pretty decent job covering kernel-related affairs and technical changes (a subject not many journalists are equipped to cover because they lack technical background). Unlike the noise about Torvalds...

"Phoronix, for example, does a pretty decent job covering kernel-related affairs and technical changes (a subject not many journalists are equipped to cover because they lack technical background)."We've just explained that by means of bribery and blackmail the European Patent Office (EPO) severely damaged what was left of honest journalism about patents in Europe. António Campinos and Benoît Battistelli are like cult figures -- autocratic Mafioso types who think it's acceptable to fill an entire institution with their own 'buddies' while bullying independent judges (we're told that Campinos is still pressuring judges to allow software patents in Europe).

"The riots are already being leveraged to discourage basic speech, even in code, and many innocent people are being banned in the name of 'manners'."Society will cease to function in a democratic fashion if it cannot be properly informed and if it's constantly misinformed. In a lot of ways the misinformation in "Social Control Media" has been beneficial to those in power; they collectively dismiss all their critics -- even factual and legitimate criticism -- by labeling it all "conspiracy theory" (which "Social Control Media" is extremely good at spreading fast). Then comes censorship of critics, in the name of protecting us from being manipulated by foreign powers or whatever...

2020 has been a pivotal year so far, not just because of wildfires, the possibility of nuclear wars erupting and then COVID-19. The riots are already being leveraged to discourage basic speech, even in code, and many innocent people are being banned in the name of 'manners'.

Watch out and watch what you say. You too could be the next person to be muzzled or canceled. As for journalism, what is that anyway? Sites which cover patents -- ones I've been following for years -- nowadays just sink in a "tweet" -- calling that alone a "blog post". I cannot even link to it. It's like linking to a single tweet.

Maybe there will never be a rebound for journalism; maybe it'll be replaced by something totally different. "Social Control Media" is not it. ⬆