Collected Data
"All of us in our own virtual neighborhoods of our own making, liking opinions that tell us we’re right instead of engaging with viewpoints that make us question our assumptions."
Facebook has magnified all of these trends: not only is content content, regardless of source, but it also tries to give us more of what we (literally) like, or click on, or comment on (in this case I am talking about the News Feed, not the Trending News section). If you like publications and stories that are more liberal in nature, you’ll get more liberal stories and publications in your feed; it’s the same thing with conservative stories and publications, or sports, or music, or whatever topics “drives engagement”, to use the parlance.
The result is that if you are a conservative, say, you are living in a cornucopia of conservative thought unimaginable to those students launching a new college newspaper against the odds in 1969. There are no obstacles to publishing, and Facebook actually tries its darnedest to bring you more of what you like in the name of engagement.
THE REAL PROBLEM WITH FACEBOOK AND THE NEWS
Watch: "Jaron Lanier: You Are Not a Gadget"
Jaron Lanier;
"FUNDING EDUCATION OR CULTURE THROUGH ADVERTISING IS LIKE TRYING TO GET NUTRITION BY CONNECTING A TUBE FROM YOUR BUTT TO YOUR MOUTH"
via Network Awesome
"The CCFC claims Google is engaged in "harmful, unethical, and irresponsible practices" that target the youngest children."
The YouTube Kids App is supposed to be a safe zone for children under age 12, but the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC) and Center for Digital Democracy (CDD) found both product placement in videos and inappropriate ads.
"Far from being a safe place for kids to explore, YouTube Kids is awash with food and beverage marketing that you won't find on other media platforms for young children," said CCFC's Josh Golin in a news release.
YouTube Kids app under fire for marketing junk food to children
"the current model, contemptuous of the reader and disrespecting of the art will not long last."
"If you believe that you’re somehow morally entitled to an ever-increasing industry pie, reality is going to be a merciless teacher."
"Everyone is getting paid except the people whose work moves product. It just feels wrong."
This sort of marketing just feels gross to me. I understand that people love brands and love sharing photos to show off their latest looks. Where it starts to feel weird is when companies capitalize on that without compensating the people who are helping sell their wares.
Family Photos Brought to You By These Sponsors
"All of that tracking and data collection is done without your knowledge, and — critically — without your consent."
"The vast majority of web advertising may never actually be seen by end users"
From an end user perspective, moving from a free service to a paid one would actually be a good thing because it would make the relationship between the user and companies like Google more explicit. It is hard to argue that it is acceptable to secretly track users and capture their personal details when the user is paying for a service. Whether this model is going to be as financially lucrative for Google as selling ads is yet to be seen.
Will ad blocking deal the final death blow to already failing online advertising?
"The mobile ecosystem is no longer immune to ravages of the extension"
For publishers, ad blockers are the elephant in the room: Everybody sees them, no one talks about it. The common understanding is that the first to speak up will be dead as it will acknowledge that the volume of ads actually delivered can in fact be 30% to 50% smaller than claimed — and invoiced. Publishers fear retaliation from media buying agencies — even though the ad community is quick to forget that it dug its own grave by flooding the web with intolerable amounts of promotional formats.
Ad Blocks’ Doomsday Scenarios
CBC News;
"We're not against advertising," says Ben Williams, communications and operations director for Eyeo, which operates Adblock Plus. "We think that advertising can be better."
AdBlock Plus mobile browser could devastate publishers
Since I stopped watching broadcast/cable tv and installed an ad blocker, I am always horrified when I actually see an advertisement. Sure, ads can be better, but I also think the products being sold can be better. Stop trying to sell me shit and I’ll stop blocking ads.
Actually, who am I kidding. I won’t stop blocking ads.
Read: "Advertising Philosopher: An Interview with Faris Yakob"
Content is the new solution célèbre in advertising, and most of the time we can’t agree as to what it means. Personally, I feel brand content, as we are using the term, is something created by / for a brand that people choose to consume – as opposed to advertising which we essentially pay people to consume, indirectly.
(…) you get linguistic confusion, where you can watch a “television” show online, or what to call shows made by Netflix, which has nothing to do with television, although you can certainly watch it on the screen formerly known as that.
Advertising Philosopher: An Interview with Faris Yakob Part One, Part Two, Part Three
"As a consumer, you should have the right to know who is trying to persuade you,"
According to the consumer groups' letter, the videos mingle commercial and entertainment content in ways that wouldn't be allowed on television. Search for My Little Pony, for example, and the first several options are lengthy advertisements for My Little Pony Play-Doh and toy kitchen sets, including one Play-Doh segment stretching 19 minutes.
YouTube Kids app stuffed with deceptive advertising, say consumer advocates
Next, Google will try to sell kids illegal drugs.
"Make no mistake: mass media exists because it permits mass marketers to do their job."
For fifty years, TV and TV-thinking was the shortcut. Make average stuff for average people (by definition = mass) and promote to every stranger within reach. It worked.
But mass is fading, fading faster than our desire to be mass marketers is fading. The shortcut doesn't work every time now, and the expectation that success is the same as popularity is still with us.
Mass production and mass media
"The company that has made a fortune on searches doesn’t want to be searched."
And as a society, we’re allowing Google to lower the bar on acceptable business standards. The company argues that holding them to a standard of decency is somehow a threat to “Internet freedom.” Look, I’ve been sued about lyrics in my music. I’m all for freedom of speech. Selling drugs to kids is NOT freedom of speech. Showing citizens how to skirt doctors to get pharmaceuticals is not a right guaranteed in the Constitution. It isn’t some unfortunate consequence of progress that these videos slip past Google. They know what’s there and they know people are watching – and the ads are being seen.
Searching for answers from Google about Google
“The thing about advertising is that the end user isn’t part of that contract; the contract is between the publisher and the advertiser."
however publishers do it, there’s a ticking time bomb beneath it all. At some point, all the 15-year-olds blocking adverts now are going to grow up, Blanchfield points out. “Where’s that going to leave us in five years time?”
Blocking web ads is 'as bad as Napster', says data firm
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