In the past three decades, the battle between big tech and big journalism has reshaped how we consume the news. Jason Whittaker delves into how tech giants outmanoeuvred traditional media companies, siphoning off advertising revenue and audience attention. As journalism struggled to adapt, social media platforms evolved from utopian public spaces into breeding grounds for misinformation and fake news, eroding public trust. The influence of billionaires further complicated the digital ecosystem, swaying public opinion and exercising direct political power that previous media moguls could only dream of. More recently, AI has begun to revolutionize content creation, distribution and consumption. Whittaker provides an incisive examination of the frequently combative relations of these two industries and the uncertain future of the news in the digital age.
A sharp history of journalism’s digital unravelling in the age of algorithms.
