Paul Jenkins, non-executive chair of Caxton and CTP Publishers and Printers – owners of The Citizen – observed last week that it was “gratifying” to see most tech platforms now seeking solutions to help bridge the gap between their super profits and the general impoverishment of news media.
Why is this important for you, as our reader?
It means that in an era of artificial intelligence and algorithm-manipulated information, the concept of proper journalism has been given the opportunity to survive.
Why is that survival important?
Democracy and the rights of individual citizens depend on their being informed.
We, in the much-maligned news media, are the “guardians at the gate”, keeping watch on nefarious elements who seek to use twisted information to steal people’s freedom or to coerce them into acting against their own best interests.
Google and YouTube last week agreed to pay South African news media just under R700 million to correct those news market imbalances identified in the Media and Digital Platforms Market Inquiry.
ALSO READ: Google to pay R688 million to SA’s media houses as Competition Commission report is released
That number alone will not make publishers sustainable but it will give us some space to build and adapt for future sustainability.
Those imbalances are because, for years, there were no restrictions on tech platforms scraping content from news outlets and using that, royalty-free, to sell advertising and, in the process, make super-profits.
You might say: Why should we care? If you can’t survive in a competitive world, then you should go to the wall.
That standpoint, however, ignores the reality that the news playing field is anything but level, because of the immense power of these global networks.
Make no mistake, that power is not always used in benevolent ways – as has been shown in recent investigations in the UK indicating that Elon Musk’s X platform utilises an algorithm which distorts its news feeds.
We might not be perfect, but we are one of democracy’s lights which must be kept burning.
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