[Year end reflections on the ever-changing world of
communications]
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MEDIA BITS AND BYTES – DECEMBER 27, 2022  
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December 27, 2022
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_ Year end reflections on the ever-changing world of communications _


Credit, Shutterstock

 

* The Crypto-Populist Pyramid Scheme
* Media Trends at the Year’s End
* A New Addition to the Labor Press
* Facial Recognition in Private Hands
* Tentacles of Liberty Media
* Schumer Saves the Day for Big Tech
* Another Early Obit for the Internet
* News Payola From Energy Corporations
* Google Tests State-Issued Digital IDs
* The Internet’s Most Dangerous, 2022

THE CRYPTO-POPULIST PYRAMID SCHEME
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By John Feffer
Foreign Policy in Focus

It should be obvious to pretty much everyone at this point that
anything crypto is an old-fashioned grift, a scam, a Ponzi scheme.
Those who got in on the ground floor of crypto-currencies and NFTs and
the like—and then left when the going was good—have made out like
bandits. The rest of us are left holding the bill.

MEDIA TRENDS AT THE YEAR’S END
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By Sara Fischer
Axios

Google and Meta, known together in the ad industry as the
“duopoly,” are expected to bring in less than half of all U.S.
digital advertising this year for the first time since 2014. The
duo's ad dominance has for years made both companies the target of
antitrust investigations and lawsuits. While they still tower over
digital rivals, their momentum is starting to slow as competition
moves in.

A NEW ADDITION TO THE LABOR PRESS
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By Katy Pruden
The Indypendent

_The Associate_ is the official newspaper of the independent,
worker-led Amazon Labor Union (ALU) at the JFK8 warehouse in Staten
Island, the only U.S. Amazon warehouse where workers have won union
representation. Funded by the union but edited autonomously, _The
Associate_ is printed by a unionized print shop in Queens. 

FACIAL RECOGNITION IN PRIVATE HANDS
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By Brett Wilkins
Common Dreams

Digital rights advocates called for a ban on private use of biometric
surveillance technology after a mom taking her daughter to see a
Christmas show in New York City was kicked out of the theater after
its facial recognition system identified her as an employee of a law
firm involved in legal proceedings against the venue’s operator.

THE TENTACLES OF LIBERTY MEDIA
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By Forest Hunt
FAIR

Liberty Media owns satellite radio SiriusXM, internet
radio Pandora and podcast platform and network Stitcher, which
it claims amount to the “largest ad-supported audio entertainment
streaming service in the US,” with over 100 million listeners. In
2021, it rolled the advertising wings for all three of those companies
into SXM Media, now one of the largest ad sellers in podcasting. 

SCHUMER SAVES THE DAY FOR BIG TECH
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By Jake Johnson
Common Dreams

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer promised an early-summer vote on
bipartisan antitrust legislation that, while relatively modest, would
take concrete steps to curb the vast power of Big Tech.
Now supporters of the bills say the Democratic leader is caving to
corporate behemoths that have been lobbying aggressively against the
antitrust measures.

ANOTHER EARLY OBIT FOR THE INTERNET
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Tech Xplore

Geert Lovink, Professor at the Amsterdam University of Applied Science
(AUAS) sketches a future in which the internet (partially) disappears
and we are forced to give up our tech addiction. Lovink sees this
point of no return because now even ‘ordinary’ users increasingly
have to pay a price for our far-reaching dependence on the internet
and addiction to social media and apps. 

NEWS PAYOLA COURTESY OF ENERGY CORPS
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By David Folkenflik
NPR

Yellowhammer News and Alabama Political Reporter are among six news
outlets across Alabama and Florida with financial connections to the
consulting firm Matrix LLC, a joint investigation by Floodlight and
NPR finds. The firm, based in Montgomery, Alabama, has boasted clients
including Alabama Power and another major U.S. utility, Florida Power
& Light.

GOOGLE TESTS STATE-ISSUED DIGITAL IDS
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By Shelly Palmer
shellypalmer.com

In a state-issued paper ID world, a state’s DMV might accidentally
delete my driver’s license or change some important information or
even suspend my license, but I’d still have a paper record of my
license to use. In a state-issued digital ID world, any mistake could
limit my ability to function in society. 

THE INTERNET_’_S MOST DANGEROUS, 2022
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Wired

A major cryptocurrency exchange imploded and declared bankruptcy,
vaporizing billions of dollars from that digital economy. The
once-biggest dark-web drug market—after being demolished by law
enforcement—clawed back to the top of the online underworld. Each
of these 2022 episodes of global chaos is a rerun of earlier events,
but now the threat they posed is vastly multiplied in scale.

* Bitcoin
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* media
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* labor press
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* Amazon Workers United
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* facial recognition
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* Liberty Media
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* Sen Charles Schumer
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* American Innovation and Choice Online Act
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* Internet
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* Geert Lovink
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* news outlets
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* energy companies
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* Matrix LLC
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* Google
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* digital IDs
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