What are peoples thoughts or understanding on this subject? When Murdoch is involved alarm bells ring and especially when it appears that the government is going in extremely hard on the issue. Obviously Murdoch has had some pretty big losses with streaming services that have put a big dent in his pay tv service but what is experienced here would also be experienced in the US and UK. Print media has taken a hit but softened with digital subscriptions. It seems there are bigger implications here beyond Murdoch losing his pull on the Australian audience but what is a fair deal and if Google decides to pull the pin in Australia are our resources weakened?
Ok, ignoring the Murdoch thing, as I don’t think it is constructive on this subject. They are just search engines. If google go, somebody else will fill the void it is not a monopolised area. If we think about it, we are considering charging search engines to have the ability to point to articles in news organisations with ability to bring it to the forefront. It is a bit like charging your neighbour for telling you about what two doors down did. I think we need to consider exactly the benefit of these search engines and the cost if we get this wrong. Already we have Morrison telling the world only the government should be heard, while his members are touting conspiracy theories on social media. Get this wrong (which I think they have) and we risk the censorship of the media by the government to be more of a propaganda machine than news organisations.
I am not sure either side is on the right yet. Australia will break google's ability to provide Australian website links, but Google's alternative to pay publishers to be part of Google News Showcase is equally problematic to me.
Love the response from the government about face books actions. https://www.smh.com.au/politics/fed...book-s-news-restrictions-20210218-p573oo.html He has to be joking doesn't he??? FB news reputation is a little above the sewer works, that is it is in the toilet already.
