THE VIRUS IS SPREADING RAPIDLY-EVEN THIS LATEST MAP IS NOW OUTDATED
Back in 2003 the main information was coming from professional journalists of Hong Kong and the WHO World Health Organization, who sent their experts in infectious diseases like Dr Carlo Urbani, -as ther epicenter of the SARS outbreak- relayed by other fellow professionals BBC, FOX, CNN, CNBC… fairly trustworthy channels and sources of Information. Unfortunately 2020 is a different ‘news’ landscape for mainly 4 reasons:
#1 TV channels speed being 1st for Headline News, -we sell ads-
#2 China vision of ‘transparency’ hard and soft censorship
#3 An army of Editors
#4 Main stream TV channels FOMO, Fear Of Missing Out
TV CHANNELS, we need Headline News: sensational and dead bodies… sell ads.
It is well known that the Internet, on-demand news, or just Facebook feeds are catching more eyeballs, more attention therefore more ads.
It also famously attracts more fake news, which in the circumstances of a viral epidemic can be risky (for business or health), costly or deadly. Quick and reliable information is the key to good or life saving decisions.
TV Channels, with its teams of their world network of journalists and professionally trained ‘fake news hunters’, become the goto source for information, ahead of WHO or Government sources.
They go to the extent of paying seasonal editors -namely you and me- for their sensational pictures and videos withy exclusivity.
China vision of ‘transparency’ hard and soft censorship
As you may know, due to the sheer size of its population the communist ruling party has a top priority: 1-One stable regime, which translates in control and order from the central party committee, regardless of any external opinion.
What every individual/company/organization reading this ‘blogchain’ should know is that Western social media and IM platforms like Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Messenger, Whatsapp and so on … are banned in China. Using VPN is illegal. Those are replaced by soft censored
- WeChat: All-in-on Social Media in China
- Sina Weibo: Twitter of China
- Tencent QQ: Popular Instant Messaging App
- Toudou Youku: Youtube of China
- Baidu Tieba: A Search Engine Forum
- Baidu Tieba: A Search Engine Forum
In the case of National security issues, when it comes to OFFICIAL INFORMATION RELEASE the Western World Media come 5th at best:
1- PolitBuro central committee screening
2- Provincial political leaders
3- TV and Social media and the Chinese People
4- Foreign government
5- Foreign press
An army of Digital Editors: 90% Bull—T… but IMMEDIATE ‘News’.
It is said that the decline of the mainstream information, namely TV and newspaper, is largely due to you and me as Editors when we post/publish what we see or think on Facebook, LinkedIn or Medium… We become instant publishers of content of what’s happening in the field, right next door.
Unfortunately, we all like to think we are journalists but we are not: a large portion are into sensational, fakes, selfie, misleading, money making, chasing likes… whatever it takes. We publish a lot of crap, for money or fame; we like the idea of what we post on the CoronaVirus becomes ‘Viral’ on the net.
When the crap occupies 90% of the Information space, the winner becomes mainstream… one of the key principles of crowdsourcing concept. If everybody says a swan is black, then swans are black.
TV Channels fight for the Headline news, viewership = $$$ advertising
As you know mainstream newspapers and TV channels need to attract viewers from the mobile/computer screens as a matter of life or death.
Half of all global advertising dollars will be spent online by 2020, matching the worldwide combined “offline” ad spend, such as TV, print ads and billboard posters, according to forecasts.
Media agency Magna forecasts that digital media will take 44 percent, or $237 billion, of all ad money spent globally in 2018, with that figure reaching 50 percent, or $291 billion, by 2020.
In less than 20-years, the 2,0 business: Google, Youtube, Facebook, Amazon and the likes took a whopping 50% out of the 1.0 businesses TV and print; almost -$150Bn lost to the new kids in town.
The ‘FOMO’ syndrome takes place: Fear Of Missing Out and stays on the top of the charts for Headlines exclusivity. The pressure to remain the first and to stay in the race for Headline News, the traditional journalists have to tap into the thousands of Digital News Feeds produced by the Army of Digital Editors, speed becomes the enemy of professional screening and facts checking. They trade Sensational Headlines at the risk of Mass publishing Fakes, thus tarnishing the professional reputation of journalists and the news print/TV industry, accelerating their deline.
But this is another story…
