Professional communicators facing major tech/media challenges

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 Journalists and other communication professionals face unique challenges with advances in technology.

  • Media corporations such as Vice Media and Murdoch owned NewsCorp blames Big Tech companies for taking the majority of digital advertising revenues. 
  • Between 2011-2018 Facebook and Google's combined revenue was more than $171.2 billion.

                                                                   Photo credit: Denis Charlet/ AFP/Getty Images

According to nexttv.com, tech giants such as Facebook and Google together are controlling almost 80% of digital advertising revenue that is locally-focused (Eggerton, 2020). This is a significant shift from just a decade or two ago when journalists and local media agencies handled local ads and tech companies still used traditional media for advertising.  One major problem journalists have with these big tech companies has to do with how they siphon local news to their platforms by aggregating the local news and placing it on their platforms. Some may argue that this is not that big of a problem since it allows you to have more access to local news. However, what happens to the local news if there are no local journalists to report it because they were laid off or the local media company had to shut its' doors?

Unfortunately, this is not just a local problem as big media agencies are feeling the burn too. This past summer Vice Media had to lay off approximately 155 employees, partly due to the coronavirus but also because big tech companies continue to take the majority of digital advertising revenues (Bursztynsky, 2020). Nancy Duboc, the CEO of Vice Media feels that Big Tech companies, mainly Facebook and Google are hurting newspapers by publishing or allowing users to share portions or news stories without paying its fair share in ad revenues.  

This is not something that can or will change overnight and without the help of Congress or some other government entity, journalists will continue to face layoffs and an uncertain future. 







References

Bursztynsky, J. (2020, May 15). Vice Media CEO slams Big Tech as "great threat to journalism" in layoffs memo. Retrieved from CNBC.com: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/15/vice-media-ceo-slams-big-tech-as-great-threat-to-journalism.html

Eggerton, J. (2020, October 26). Minority Report: Big Tech Threatens Local News. Retrieved from Nexttv.com: https://www.nexttv.com/news/minority-report-big-tech-threatens-local-news

savejournalism.com. (2020, April 3). The Journalism Industry Threatened by the Tech Giants, Pushed to the Brink of Collapse by Coronavirus . Retrieved from savejournalism.org: https://savejournalism.org/2020/04/03/the-journalism-industry-threatened-by-the-tech-giants-pushed-to-the-brink-of-collapse-by-coronavirus/

 




 



 

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