Last week, under pressure from the Australian government, two tech giants Google and Facebook agreed to give money to the Australian media. Figures such as 100 million Australian dollars were spoken about though no official confirmation was available.
Much of this money will go to two or three big media houses, such as the Rupert Murdoch controlled News Corp and Nine, which owns several television stations. This will further strengthen them, says Christopher Warren of Crikey.com.au, an independent website in this podcast interview with Sidharth Bhatia.
Warren, who has written critically about the deal and about the media in general, says the money will only encourage more stories around the ‘Outrage Economy’ which has changed journalism. “Facebook rewards that kind of news,” he says. “Fox News (part of the Murdoch empire) Spreads Fake News.”
Moreover, smaller news groups and independent websites may find themselves deprioritised on these large tech platforms.
He says the Australian government paid more heed to the big news companies because “politically media companies has more power than tech companies” with the government.
However, Warren says that this money will in fact accelerate the decline of print and the domination of digital.