1,000 subscribers: corporate ads, political manipulation or independent journalism
This simple framework helps you to understand what is really going on.
What an explosive few days for Spain, politically! Sánchez has now tied up the top job until 2027 unless the coalition falls apart or unless the right somehow manages to stage a motion of no confidence, which they don’t have the votes for. But where does that leave Spanish politics as a whole?
The right is now angered and in disarray, with Vox and the alt-right taking to the streets and the PP adopting its more conservative strategy. The amnesty bill part of the deal is still to come and there will now almost certainly be a day when Puigdemont comes home to enormous media fanfare. And what will the new government do with its second chance at progressive policies?
Tucker Carlson’s little trip to Madrid this week is not the journalism we need. This is even worse than what happened during the Catalan crisis in 2017 when serious foreign media parachuted reporters in and left us with a sensation that they didn’t really know what they were talking about. In 2023, we get global ideological influencers.
Carlson turned up to go to the protest outside PSOE HQ with Vox leader Abascal, took some selfies with Vox MEPs and social media satellites and sat down for a mechanical interview with Abascal to talk about Abascal’s view on Spain with ideological questions on Abascal’s favourite topics. No constrast, no outside information, no other views, no ciritique, no analysis, not even any other reporting on what the party was doing.
We know we can do much better than that, and independently.
It all fits in with the previous thoughts on what we want from reporters in Israel-Gaza at the minute, where we mostly don’t speak Arabic or Hebrew and don’t understand the finer points of complex regional tribal politics there, or with what we were saying about the regional journalist here in Murcia who, while working for Onda Cero, was a politely critical voice against regional government and power but suddenly got sacked after more than 30 years.
There are still only three basic options for funding journalism, each focused on value for who is really paying: corporate ads, obscure political influence funding or readers who choose to subscribe.
In the first case, media companies are selling your valuable attention to advertisers so that you buy their products and feel emotions for their brands. This is how we end up with ever more sensationalist, emotional and repetitive click bait.
In the second, political parties and their obscure financial backers want to control frames, narratives, stories, labels and opinions so that the next time you argue with your family or friends or go to vote, you do so in their favour, to push their agenda and to give them power, according to their view of the world.
The third case is the only option in which a journalist is working directly with his readers and where the only aim is more and better journalism so that everybody understands things better.
The first two seek to manipulate you. The third only seeks understanding. An imperfect human understanding, as each journalist will do it better or worse over time, and favour some stories and labels over others, and that will interact with your own worldview and background, but he is not seeking office or votes or to sell you a product or brand. Just journalism and analysis.
Once you understand this simple framework, you understand what Tucker Carlson and Vox, or the professional Israeli propaganda machine, or regional political power somewhere, are really doing and why, all while they present themselves superficially as democratic and pro-freedom-of-the-press.
We still have a chance with option three. It’s still possible. The Internet and thinks like Twitter and Substack make it possible.
1,000 subscribers is a real number that is doable for readers and that buys real reporting and analytical independence for a journalist to do serious work and dispatches from events for you. In our case, that’s a number that gets me roving around Spain for you too, with photos and videos and interviews to better illustrate this bit of a global changing reality.
Every reader counts, it all adds up, and we get something that has never really existed before in media history: readers direct to journalists, with no manipulative intermedaries. No ads, no political influence.
Subscribe now: https://thespainreport.substack.com/subscribe
Or zaps for Nostr people.
matthewbennett / Matthew Bennett
npub107…e5mxs
2023-11-18 12:39:00
Author Public Key
npub1075jp98z9ylsjlrulmefx0kn0gt8qckz2nz5p2n7cfhgqxwwcunqqe5mxsPublished at
2023-11-18 12:39:00Event JSON
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"content": "1,000 subscribers: corporate ads, political manipulation or independent journalism\n\nThis simple framework helps you to understand what is really going on.\n\nWhat an explosive few days for Spain, politically! Sánchez has now tied up the top job until 2027 unless the coalition falls apart or unless the right somehow manages to stage a motion of no confidence, which they don’t have the votes for. But where does that leave Spanish politics as a whole?\n\nThe right is now angered and in disarray, with Vox and the alt-right taking to the streets and the PP adopting its more conservative strategy. The amnesty bill part of the deal is still to come and there will now almost certainly be a day when Puigdemont comes home to enormous media fanfare. And what will the new government do with its second chance at progressive policies?\n\nTucker Carlson’s little trip to Madrid this week is not the journalism we need. This is even worse than what happened during the Catalan crisis in 2017 when serious foreign media parachuted reporters in and left us with a sensation that they didn’t really know what they were talking about. In 2023, we get global ideological influencers.\n\nCarlson turned up to go to the protest outside PSOE HQ with Vox leader Abascal, took some selfies with Vox MEPs and social media satellites and sat down for a mechanical interview with Abascal to talk about Abascal’s view on Spain with ideological questions on Abascal’s favourite topics. No constrast, no outside information, no other views, no ciritique, no analysis, not even any other reporting on what the party was doing.\n\nWe know we can do much better than that, and independently.\n\nIt all fits in with the previous thoughts on what we want from reporters in Israel-Gaza at the minute, where we mostly don’t speak Arabic or Hebrew and don’t understand the finer points of complex regional tribal politics there, or with what we were saying about the regional journalist here in Murcia who, while working for Onda Cero, was a politely critical voice against regional government and power but suddenly got sacked after more than 30 years.\n\nThere are still only three basic options for funding journalism, each focused on value for who is really paying: corporate ads, obscure political influence funding or readers who choose to subscribe.\n\nIn the first case, media companies are selling your valuable attention to advertisers so that you buy their products and feel emotions for their brands. This is how we end up with ever more sensationalist, emotional and repetitive click bait.\n\nIn the second, political parties and their obscure financial backers want to control frames, narratives, stories, labels and opinions so that the next time you argue with your family or friends or go to vote, you do so in their favour, to push their agenda and to give them power, according to their view of the world.\n\nThe third case is the only option in which a journalist is working directly with his readers and where the only aim is more and better journalism so that everybody understands things better.\n\nThe first two seek to manipulate you. The third only seeks understanding. An imperfect human understanding, as each journalist will do it better or worse over time, and favour some stories and labels over others, and that will interact with your own worldview and background, but he is not seeking office or votes or to sell you a product or brand. Just journalism and analysis.\n\nOnce you understand this simple framework, you understand what Tucker Carlson and Vox, or the professional Israeli propaganda machine, or regional political power somewhere, are really doing and why, all while they present themselves superficially as democratic and pro-freedom-of-the-press.\n\nWe still have a chance with option three. It’s still possible. The Internet and thinks like Twitter and Substack make it possible.\n\n1,000 subscribers is a real number that is doable for readers and that buys real reporting and analytical independence for a journalist to do serious work and dispatches from events for you. In our case, that’s a number that gets me roving around Spain for you too, with photos and videos and interviews to better illustrate this bit of a global changing reality.\n\nEvery reader counts, it all adds up, and we get something that has never really existed before in media history: readers direct to journalists, with no manipulative intermedaries. No ads, no political influence. \n\nSubscribe now: https://thespainreport.substack.com/subscribe\n\nOr zaps for Nostr people.",
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