You must log in or register to comment.
The fall of newspapers led us down the path of click bait, low quality, ad driven “news”. Very few newspapers survived the transition to digital because suddenly nobody wanted to pay for access to something they could get online for free. Those that did survive mostly exist in a much smaller form with low funding and reduced quality.
Personally, I’m excited to see it becoming more common for people to subscribe to news services again. I just wish there was more diversity and competition available like there was in the past but I’m hopeful we’ll get there as more people seem to be opening back up to paying for high quality publications.
High quality journalism can’t exist without paid subscribers but there are still ways to access it for those who can’t afford it, visiting a local library for example.
I know “state-funded media” is an ominous word to Americans, but most European countries have their own government broadcaster and news organization, entirely funded through taxes.
Those generally offer high-quality non-biased journalism (of course it’s always based on how authoritarian the government is). The British BBC, the Swedish SVT, the German DW etc. are all publicly owned broadcasting companies.BBC is publicly funded but they collect the money themselves trough the TV license, they are not funded by the government trough taxes and they make a shit ton of money from commercial operations, like selling shows and formats to foreign networks. That’s probably the best way to keep an independent state network with minimal government meddling. Though we’ve seen that individuals with power at the network can bias the news reporting. Like BBC definitely favors the political right.
Everyone hates ads but no one wants to pay for it lol
Some sites (Fandom Wikis) are unbearable with ads. Sure, you could pay to remove them, but only because it’s so infuriating to navigate the content when it has multiple ads—some that follow you—INSIDE the content of the articles.
Autoplaying videos, side banners, and scrolling ads are the worst and actively make me want to avoid the sites unless adblock is on.
Firefox has an autoplay block setting, and I’ve never had it fail me.
That’s why I use an inverted ad-block list. I see ads unless they get intrusive or unreasonable, and then I enable blocking on the site.
Journalism should be accessible to everyone. Not many people can afford 30 different subscriptions for every individual news outlet because they’re all pay to read. Remember newspapers? Anyone could buy one on the cheap, now these fuckers have moved to a subscription service that’s even more expensive than the average newspaper used to be.
Well there are 3 alternatives.
Ads, which everyone on here would endorse blocking, so that’s out.
All journalism becomes volunteer work, running off of optional donations, which seems unlikely :D
Or all journalism becomes publicly funded via-taxes. This is probably the optimal option but I think most people would agree that ALL journalism being government funded has a ton of risks.
If I have to pay for it:
- it cannot be sensationalized. It cannot even veer mildly from the found facts.
- it cannot be filled with agenda bias
- it cannot hold any false, non peer reviewed information
- they have to pay their sources. And They have to pay their sources well. Especially the ones who are expected to uphold to peer reviews (science journalists, I’m looking at you)
If there is a free one with ads:
- ads cannot fabricate their facts either.
Wanna regulate? Well. Then. Let’s regulate.
No, not everybody hates ads. Everybody hates today’s ads, because they’re literally as intrusive and annoying as the designers can make them. I didn’t have a problem with ads 15 years ago, but because I have to pay for my bandwidth, and because ads like to literally block what I’m reading with a giant, 100MB, unskippable video, I use an ad blocker.
Advertising shot itself in the foot, and it isn’t our fault for being pushed so far that we’re fed up with it.
I do pay for my local paper, cable, spotify, disney+, Netflix…
Only so much blood in this here stone.
With so many shows getting canceled, or even un-confirmed and then obliterated from existence all for tax write offs, I’m kinda soured on Streaming these days.
Hopefully the WGA and SAG strikes are successful and result in streaming improving again, back to how it felt during the mid 2010s.
It’s not a paywall, just a login wall. The account is free. Still funny however.
Just curious — how would you like this to work? If you want high quality journalism, you need to pay journalists.
You can pay them through ads, but 1) this is annoying, and 2) people just install ad blockers.
You can have state-sponsored media, which can work reasonably well…or can end up a propaganda machine.
Or…you can pay.
Journalism is not a crazy lucrative career for most. Financially, most of the folks writing for NYT would be better off in PR — and I don’t think that’s a good thing for society.
It’s not talked about enough how “traditional news” is culpable for the rise of “fake news” by locking vital information and reporting behind exactly these kinds of pay walls, thus causing people to seek alternative free means instead. This is how fake news sites thrive; pushed into the forefront by traditional media who refuse to adapt their business models to the modern landscape.
You can’t have actually free and truthful news as long as people need money to survive
I never said free, I said they needed to adapt their business model. I also never said the reason didn’t make sense, but the ramifications remain the same even if there is good reason for the practice. Whether by design or not, they still share culpability.
How do you feel about government subsidies being used to bolster a free press? From past examples like oil, they don’t become a shell company of the governments whims and I feel journalism is just as important to an educated populace in comparison to oil for our commerce.
I am for it
Pro tip: Adblock + JavaScript disabled (Ublock Origin can do both) will block most paywalls
Bypass Paywalls Clean will do the job for you.
How long before this goes the way of 12ft.io
What’s wrong with 12ft?
I think it got bought out
Disabled on lots of sites now
That was the dream… Now it’s…
Holy shit, someone get this man a charging cable.
Now it makes sense. The dream of universal access to knowledge was actually the iphone’s - and it was because the phone was dying, and seeing death visions, like life flashing before it’s eyes.
The secret ingredient… is crime:
Also, I didn’t see a paywall / login wall even when visiting directly
Just download Firefox, install UBlock Origin, and disable JavaScript.
“democracy dies in darkness…”
Is my favorite ironic walled garden gate keeping paywall byline… I think the Washington post uses it.
It wouldn’t be so dark if the paywall wasn’t blocking the light…
Charge your phone
Yes officer, I’d like to charge this phone with battery.
