An observation on how #Mastodon is growing 👀
Over the past month, multiple journalists from top outlets have contacted me related to content I’ve shared.
While this was not uncommon on #Twitter when I was active there, it’s relatively new for me in the #fediverse. I suspect this suggests professional news outlets are becoming more comfortable here & posts have increasing impact. Good.
@Sheril I can't see this as a good thing. A good chunk of the toxicity on Twitter comes directly from journalists. Not only that, a majority used Twitter as a broadcast medium, then spent their time complaining that their followers are angry trolls.
The fewer journalists on the Fediverse, the better. Last time they tried to join, they spent 2 months complaining about features missing that were used to harass others... then went back to the Nazis on Twitter
@juergen_hubert @Sheril it'd be nice if it worked that way. There's been repeated instances of journalists bringing their toxicity here. I still have journa.host blocked, as do many people.
Blaming "the algorithm" for people's behaviour is the vogue right now, we just need to be conscious of the dangers of blaming everything on "the algorithm"
@sortius @Sheril Oh, people will do what they want.
But the algorithm gives a greater voice to toxicity. And if we want to build up non-toxic journalism - something that I think is desperately needed - then what is a better place than the #Fediverse ?
@juergen_hubert again, it doesn't work like that. Journalism has become a toxic industry. The people in it are toxic. I say this as someone who worked for the 2nd biggest news organisation in Australia.
Twitter just gave them a place to be toxic in public
@sortius @juergen_hubert @Sheril it's not vogue. Nobody is blaming the algorithm for bad human behaviour, but for spreading that behaviour to generate engagement.
I see almost no awful behaviour here, because the people I follow don't repost it.
On Twitter, I get posts from people arguing and being awful pushed on my timeline.
@aristeon89 @juergen_hubert @Sheril really? You see "almost no awful behaviour here"?
I see it every time journalists arrive on the platform. There was the refusal for journa.host, the journalists instance, to remove trans-hate. There was the time journalists started harassing admins and devs to add features no one wanted. Oh, and there's the unending "Mastodon won't work without advertising" from the very same journalists
@Sheril Mastodon will quickly replace Xwitter as a source of breaking and heavily researched news.
Why? Because there is a need for it, and noone else is providing it.
This is actually how the old Twitter first got noticed.
Great in fact!
Good to see this trend. I think members of the #Mastodon community would be well served by encouraging the best members of the fact and truth based #journalism world to join a more thoughtful #SocialMedia community rather than the degrading #Twitter / #X mess
See a recent piece below on the subject 👇
https://www.nuttyinnyc.com/13-why-journalists-should-leave-twitter/
@Sheril As I understand it, PBS left Twitter after being labeled state-media. I didn't know there would be people from PBS on Mastodon!
Where can I find other PBS news feeds on mastodon?
@Sheril @ShaunTheAuthor Welcome aboard and have fun. I tend to view Mastodon as a coffee shop where a lot of little convos are going on and you can just join in or do some people watching. Sometimes I check out other instances with the Federated section and just stop the feed and go down a bit and see what's going on and comment.
I like that it's not just some America-centric thing and you get a lot of perspectives from around the world (and it makes me wanna learn German since I signed up under a German-run instance--hee hee). Because it's not full or our screaming American politics and echo-chambers, it's a lot less stressful to just navigate and say stuff. Sometimes I find off the wall stuff to comment on and people are surprised I replied.
You won't always be engaged with, but there's also not that stupid pressure to constantly engage, either, which is fair. Even though it's online, my own introvert battery can't handle constant scrolling and posting... and yet this morning I'm making a liar out of myself by making some rather lengthy responses (hee hee). In short, have fun.
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