gm creators!
Today is day 8️⃣ of 30 of my writing challenge.
Yesterday, I covered the current happenings with crypto regulation and [lack of] policy in America. Check out the post here if you're as confused as I am.
Today's post is honestly a rant more than anything. I haven't been too happy with the way mainstream media is constantly attacking the crypto ecosystem. There definitely needs to be a push on citizen journalism and for more folks that have skin in the game to serve as the source of truth.
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Juicing the bad news
So earlier this afternoon I saw this article and was pretty mad.
The headline is a dumb article by Vox that is using the recent Binance and Coinbase lawsuits as a means to further push down the crypto narrative. The sad part is, there are so many hard working, honest individuals working to make the space better and continuously build products that can be useful to millions of people. But mainstream media chooses to pick the few things that make the web3 ecosystem look like a casino and juice those stories out to the point where even folks in crypto start to get worried.
I'll preface that there are most definitely bad actors in the space but which industry doesn't have its villains? Wall street has had Madoff, BP tried to cover up the true damage of its oil spill, etc. It's clear that there are dishonest people in every vertical but the key differentiator on how brutal the media attack is depends on the space itself.
I spend at least a few hours a day talking to builders in the space or interacting with them on Farcaster, Discord, etc. And it's clear there are so many cool applications being built. However, none of those get featured. It's obvious that price swings, new all time highs/lows, and political influence all swing the media's narratives. Currently, as crypto goes through one of the most brutal winters (Luna, FTX, lawsuits), the media continues to only make it worse.
If any of you have jobs or trying to build in the space, have you gotten a text from a family member or friend asking why the heck you're still in crypto? Random side story but I was doing a walking tour on my trip in Portugal and there was a couple (they were probably in their 60s-70s) I was talking to as we waited in line. They asked me what I do and I told them I was in the crypto space and their immediate reaction was "ohhh my son said crypto doesn't work anymore after that Sam guy". Nothing crazy but it just sucks that's how market & media psychology works! In 2020/2021, I had people texting me that I hadn't talked to in months asking for advice on investments.
Understanding Traditional Media
I realized today that I don't actually know anything about how media works. All I really understand is that everything is dependent on click-rates and other related metrics. The last two days have been interesting for me as I see Tucker Carlson get hundred of millions of views on his new Twitter news series after being fired from Fox a month ago.
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I really want to understand more about how news channels work, what the fact checking looks like, what political influence there is, what the history of the news business model is, and everything else related.
What have been historical incidents of mainstream media that were just flat out wrong and pushed a loaded narrative? Everyone is always talking about how "Zuck did x or Jack did y" and how it's important we use better ~decentralized~ platforms than Twitter and Facebook. But I'm more curious to see what takes over the biggest psyop of them all - media outlets like CNN and FOX.
It'll be interesting to learn more about citizen journalism as well and what that looks like. Many people are now starting to shift their news sources to independent writers and podcasters that don't have the same ulterior motives. What does the scaled out version of that look like? How can web3 platforms help to make sure certain people or content aren't deplatformed? Also, what kind of role does AI play with all of this?
One thing I'm not sure about is where I'm going to start this research. I'm basically trying to learn everything about media, tech, and the intersection of both. I'm sure there's a smart way to do this as well but that's a problem for tomorrow morning with my cup of ☕. I think this research will be really important for me. Headlines literally cause fear, panic, anxiety, stress, etc. Just in the last 6 months, I've seen a shift in perspective from my parents on what I'm doing because of nasty news articles. And rightfully so. It's like a diet. Mainstream media force feeds you a ton of sugary crap like donuts and most people in the world aren't getting their veggies in.
Anyways, that's all for today - thanks for listening to my rant. If you want to learn more about how I approach my tech-media research, make sure to subscribe!