Videoage International October 2020

10 World October 2020 V I D E O A G E like the BBC, NBC, Al Jazeera, The Guardian , Univision, the Financial Times, The Atlantic, The Texas Tribune, Gannett, Washington Monthly, Le Monde , and the Center for Investigative Reporting. Meanwhile, Sharyl Attkisson (pictured at left), a former journalist for CBS, has often denounced what is known as “astroturfing”, a strategy in which those in mainstream media carefully craft a nar- rative rather than reporting objective facts, thereby shaping everything we see online or hear in the news. Another definition of “astroturfing” is the attempt to create an im- pression of large grassroots support for a polity, individual, or product, where such support doesn’t exist. Fake news groups and multiple online identities are used to mislead the public into believing that the position of the astroturfer is the commonly held view. In March of last year, during a talk at the University of Nevada, Attkisson defined as- troturf as “a paid-for reality.” In the same talk she also said that Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia, is popular among astroturfers. Letters A reader in Los Angeles sent VideoAge the following note and asked to remain anonymous: “I wanted to point out a new emerging form of windowing. Netflix produces for Netflix. AT&T executives have said that all of their WB product will air exclusively on HBO. If the AT&T product is for basic cable, then that content will be on WB’s Turner channels. Disney/Fox product will air on Disney and Hulu. Theatrical windows are getting shorter and shorter, and will be eliminated entirely in most cases. The studios’ take from movie theaters is approximately 45 percent. The take from digital is 80 percent. Traditional win- dowing is out. Each studio will window within itself. That is why Rupert Murdoch sold Fox. Fox did not have enough windows to risk millions on a theatrical film. Disney bought Fox for its library so it could window throughout Disney- owned entities.” D uring an interview on U.S. cable TV network CNBC at the end of July, Bill Gates confirmed something that was already widely known, that misinformation has a tendency to spread faster than the truth on social media services. “When you let people communicate, you have to deal with the fact that certain incorrect things that are very titillating can spread very rapidly compared to the truth. “Facts travel slowly on socialmedia comparedwith ‘negative’ misinformation,” said the 64-year-old co-founder and former CEO of Microsoft. Gates has been criticized for driving the narrative in mainstream news. The August edition of Columbia Journalism Review , published by the New York City-based Columbia University, examined nearly 20,000 charitable grants the Gates Foundation had made through the end of June, and found more than $250 million going toward journalism. Recipients included news operations Gates: Fake News Travels Faster Than Truth. Attkisson: Astroturf is a Paid-For Reality (Continued from Page 8) (Continued on Page 12)