Maria BustillosAug 31, 2023

If you're wondering why there are so few news stories about the rise of #Mastodon, it's because nobody is getting paid to game the media about it.

There's no publicists, no cozy ad deals, no suits, no coercion: Nobody is getting rich off of Mastodon

... that's also why it's so enlightening and fun to participate here

Show threadWilliam GunnAug 31, 2023
@maria This sentiment seems popular but wrong. We all know journalists love(d) Twitter. It was one place they could go to find stories that they knew would drive article views, because the tweets about it were already capturing attention. When writing about those events, Twitter inevitably became part of the story. They may eventually have to break up with it and if they come here, you'll see the same thing happen here. This isn't necessarily a good thing. I regret how tabloid the news became.
Show threadMaria Bustillos

@williamgunn

I'm a journalist! We didn't/don't all use Twitter the same way, or for the same purposes, then or now. Research, finding colleagues abroad, gauging the temperature of breaking news... many many reasons

Now I have it as a forwarding address, and to tell people to come here, and occassionally to boost stories... but I only really engage here, and to a lesser extent on bluesky

These distinctions matter a lot, because journalism can focus public attention in both good ways and bad.

Aug 31, 2023 at 7:16pmWeb