The decision by Facebook to remove all news content from its site in Australia will seem to many as a bold, even rash, move. On the face of it, the escalation of a simmering dispute with the government in Canberra, which has been attempting to extract payment for the country’s proud news media industry in exchange for the supply of content for the social media behemoth’s users, is sudden and crude.
It is hard to disagree with Scott Morrison, the pugilistic Australian prime minister, that Mark Zuckerberg’s company was “arrogant” in taking the decision to “unfriend Australia”. But what should he have expected? Wrestle with the American technology giants at your peril. The EU and Google have been bogged down in legal wrangles for years. One of the great lines of the newspaper era, used by and attributed to many, but most memorably HL Mencken, seems apt: “Never pick a quarrel with a man who buys ink by the barrel.” Well, today you should never pick a quarrel with a multinational with hundreds of millions of dollars in loose change and valuable access to the identities and internet behaviour patterns of much of the planet’s population. Or if you do, be prepared for pushback.
A particularly barbed response came from Jason Kint, chief executive of a trade body, Digital Content Next, who tweeted: “World’s greatest amplifier of disinfo and toxic sludge to your newsfeed is going to block the most trusted news brands in the world from reaching Australians. Why? Because its business model can’t handle anything other than surveillance capitalism. I hope its employees are proud.”
While he has a point, and was echoed by many others, such comments reflect an industry that is on thin ice when it takes shots like this against digital content distributors. I am obviously not courting popularity by saying this, but the control of their product that out-of-their-depth managements of news organisations ceded to technology companies over the last two decades was nothing less than negligence and a betrayal of their proprietors and the journalists they employed in what would soon become ever-depleted numbers.
The industry’s discombobulation is deserved. Those managers did not even flinch or pause to consider with any seriousness the consequences as they sought the warm embrace of an instantly accessible, global digital presence. They spent increasing sums on technology without understanding that they were signing over all of their intellectual property to people who saw it purely as a raw commodity, not as something that was the output of highly skilled professionals whose discourse was, at least to some extent, a public service.
The control that news organisations ceded to technology companies over the last two decades was nothing less than negligence
Egged on by the technology companies and enchanted by their glamour, their newness, their exotic West Coast geekiness, the blue-blooded media giants shot themselves in the foot only to complain about their hospital bill. I know this because I was present and probably as guilty as the rest who played a small part in that transitional era in news media – and I still don’t pretend to know the ideal solution.
I won't say the battle was lost back then, as there are some successful models still taking shape, where readers are happy to pay a modest subscription charge for quality journalism that cannot be hijacked by third parties such as Facebook. Just as the axe was falling in Australia, there was another glimmer of hope: Newscorp – the Wall Street Journal among its titles – signed a three-year licensing deal with Google. Both sides will benefit. It is a civilised arrangement on the face of it. It is another model that Facebook would do well to consider.
Trust in the media is at a low point, and the value placed on the old-fashioned skills of reporting and writing well, and entertaining readers, has diminished in the eyes of the public. People now invest in a television, in a phone and in a laptop, but take some convincing to then pay for the news when there is so much out there for free. But – as with almost everything in life – someone has to pay for it.
Joe Jenkins is an assistant editor-in-chief at The National
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The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.
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Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
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- 600-seat auditorium
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- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
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- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
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The Sinopharm vaccine was created using techniques that have been around for decades.
“This is an inactivated vaccine. Simply what it means is that the virus is taken, cultured and inactivated," said Dr Nawal Al Kaabi, chair of the UAE's National Covid-19 Clinical Management Committee.
"What is left is a skeleton of the virus so it looks like a virus, but it is not live."
This is then injected into the body.
"The body will recognise it and form antibodies but because it is inactive, we will need more than one dose. The body will not develop immunity with one dose," she said.
"You have to be exposed more than one time to what we call the antigen."
The vaccine should offer protection for at least months, but no one knows how long beyond that.
Dr Al Kaabi said early vaccine volunteers in China were given shots last spring and still have antibodies today.
“Since it is inactivated, it will not last forever," she said.
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Two months before the first round on April 10, the appetite of voters for the election is low.
Mathieu Gallard, account manager with Ipsos, which conducted the most recent poll, said current forecasts suggested only two-thirds were "very likely" to vote in the first round, compared with a 78 per cent turnout in the 2017 presidential elections.
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THE BIO
Bio Box
Role Model: Sheikh Zayed, God bless his soul
Favorite book: Zayed Biography of the leader
Favorite quote: To be or not to be, that is the question, from William Shakespeare's Hamlet
Favorite food: seafood
Favorite place to travel: Lebanon
Favorite movie: Braveheart
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Which honey takes your fancy?
Al Ghaf Honey
The Al Ghaf tree is a local desert tree which bears the harsh summers with drought and high temperatures. From the rich flowers, bees that pollinate this tree can produce delicious red colour honey in June and July each year
Sidr Honey
The Sidr tree is an evergreen tree with long and strong forked branches. The blossom from this tree is called Yabyab, which provides rich food for bees to produce honey in October and November. This honey is the most expensive, but tastiest
Samar Honey
The Samar tree trunk, leaves and blossom contains Barm which is the secret of healing. You can enjoy the best types of honey from this tree every year in May and June. It is an historical witness to the life of the Emirati nation which represents the harsh desert and mountain environments
