I hope each and every one of you had a nice weekend. I spent my time making all sorts of tasty foods, hanging out with family, and also hiding little colored eggs for children. I know all of the writers here at That Park Place really appreciated the opportunity to get some rest — I know I did! We even had some great news as our web administrator found out he’s going to be a grandfather soon. How cool is that?!
After all the negativity that we’ve had to report on in the last few weeks, it’s nice to remember why it’s worth it and why it matters. Entertainment is something that points us towards a better place. Right? Otherwise why would you want to be entertained rather than just continue on with the mundanity of your normal daily activities? Even if you have an extremely meaningful life with varied tasks that constantly have you thinking about all sorts of things. Even in that situation, you’re still probably thinking about an opportunity for you and your loved ones to gather together and entertain yourselves with something new, something novel. Maybe you want to go camping and cook ears of corn over a fire with a new type of seasoning. Maybe it’s a theme park that you’re looking forward to exploring, or even just a new attraction at a theme park you’ve visited in the past. It could be a new movie you want to see in the theaters or an old favorite you’re going to enjoy at home once more.
Whatever it is that you’re looking to entertain yourself with, surely you’re wanting it to rise to a level that is above just average. Certainly you want it to be of a quality that is greater than bad.
That’s why all of this matters. It matters because even if you have the most meaningful life in the world, you’re looking forward to something. You’re looking up for something. You’re looking to do something different. And usually that’s what we’re covering: everything that should be fun, right?
So this very important thing is also something that will be dramatically affected by the ongoings with Twitter and Elon Musk. Sure, we’ll be covering a wide variety of topics over the coming week, but my opening return from a wonderful break is to discuss just how big of a deal Elon Musk’s attempt to take over Twitter is… specifically when it comes to entertainment.
Yes, I’m aware that it goes far beyond entertainment. The gatekeepers for societal intelligentsia suddenly want to stop the guy who figured out how to solve rockets, electric cars, online payments, and much more, from figuring out social media. Zuckerburg can control Facebook, but Musk owning Twitter would be tantamount to the destruction of democracy (whatever that means). Take a look at this argument from Business Insider, a supposedly financial reporting outlet:
Because content on social media platforms can influence public opinion and lead to changed behaviors, she said, the people in control of the sites hold a tremendous amount of power.
Putting that power in the hands of a single person, she said, would be “incompatible with democracy.”
What is hilarious about all of this is that Musk wants to buy Twitter supposedly because he worries that freedom of speech is being damaged by Twitter. Well, what is freedom of speech if not the fundamental cornerstone of democratic society? If you can’t say what you want to say and be heard, then how can you have a society that requires such to function? Clearly the real fear here is that Musk would permit people to speak their minds without all the various filters preventing voices from being heard. Wouldn’t it be interesting to know all the algorithms that control the information we’re supposed to discover via social media?
In terms of specific changes, Musk said Twitter should open-source its algorithms and minimize the interventions it takes in policing content. “Any changes to people’s tweets — if they’re emphasized or de-emphasized — that action should be made apparent,” he said. “So anyone can see that that action has been taken so there’s no sort of behind-the-scenes manipulation, either algorithmically or manually.” — Yahoo! News
Therein lies the potential benefit to society, specifically in regards to entertainment, should Elon Musk take control of Twitter. It also shows the potential danger to those who currently control the narrative.
What need is there for Rotten Tomatoes critics if you can go on Twitter and discover real opinions as they come in without hidden algorithms pushing a narrative? What does Disney do if certain hashtags and trends are transparent so that one is not placed more visibly than any other? While this is tremendously beneficial for consumers wanting to make impactful decisions for where they will spend money and what entertainment companies are up to, it potentially leads companies back to the wild west internet they despised. The WWW was supposed to democratize information… and for a while it really did. But that went too far in the minds of those who hold major power.
Fifty years ago there were more than fifty major media companies. Twenty years ago there were more than ten. Today the power of entertainment is largely held in the control of six huge media corporations which are simultaneously influenced by a Chinese Communist Party that entices them using a billion-plus marketplace always just at fingers’ reach. The power of Twitter as an aggregator of news stories and international happenings is currently well-controlled by those six giant companies, along with some international forces. Is it any wonder that a prince of Saudia Arabia has similar interest in preventing Twitter going to Elon Musk as Netflix or Disney might have? The true ability to spread free speech around the world is a huge threat to those in the most power. Just think about how quickly the Reimagine Tomorrow information could spread around Twitter and then to the secondary and tertiary sites if such topics weren’t down-ranked by a hidden AI. And that would mean the world would instantly move more towards a meritocracy, especially inside entertainment, rather than the identity group tribalism we’re currently seeing.
One of the things the entertainment gatekeepers fear the most, however, is that a fully transparent and fair Twitter would severely bypass the Google News system they currently have in place. If that’s the case, anybody who has a track record of truthfulness can become a journalist in the blink of an eye. Perhaps that’s a topic I should discuss in the future. As someone who had more than seven million readers in less than one year via Google News, I have a bit of insight into the way the system works.
From my standpoint, I just hope that Mr. Musk is as good at out-smarting Twitter board members as he is with landing rockets from space. Because frankly, seeing people arguing against free speech is a pretty easy way of figuring out who the bad guys are. Just a thought…
… and if he is unable to pull off a fundamental change in the way we disseminate internet news, this might be the last good chance for a very long time. If the richest guy can’t do it, the gatekeepers will hurry to tighten their defenses from anything like this ever again.
For all the latest on the entertainment industry, keep checking out That Park Place! If you have an opinion on this topic, I’d love to see it! Share it down below in the comments section!
This is pretty much Dead on.
By the way, if you want to know why the Independent Media went from 86 to 6 corporate media, look no further than the telecommunications act Bill Clinton passed in the 90s.
That act effectively granted news media an exception from being subjected to all the government’s antitrust and anti-monopoly policies – which then allowed larger corporations to buy out the smaller news media until they can consolidate it to a number where it could be easily controlled.
They knew what they were doing and that’s what kicked off the madness.
Exactly. I’ve argued this point, somewhat recently, suggesting something needs to be done with our current monopolies, and the response was “these aren’t monopolies… you still have choices.” Lol
The educational and political systems have failed the people of this country in such a tragic and devastating way.
Twitter ended when they kicked out a President. People on all sides recognized something was toxic. People’s trust in social media ended when a President could no longer socialize.
While media companies still believe they can tell people what to think, I believe the Box Office, cable cutting, and Covid showed us otherwise.
I’m having a tough time believing anything Elon Musk has to say. I agree with him 100% on this, but does he actually mean it?
I honestly think he’s a puppet for the elite. The good, rich guy people think is a friend and doing honorable things. Controlled opposition, like Fox News is, now (ie – attack Democrat positions, but don’t talk about George Soros or election fraud). Remember that most of his funding comes from government. Tesla has largely been a failing company, backed by the government. SpaceX has been used to deliver a world-wide satellite internet service. Musk is developing Neuralink, which basically makes the implanting of chips in humans, creating cyborgs, a thing…
Feels like a globalist Dr. Evil, more than a corrupt government fighting Bruce Wayne, or world saving Tony Stark.
I hope his motives are noble and his own, but I guess we’ll see.
Nothing is ever without risk, and in this regard the future will unfold itself to us without much of our input.
Isn’t that the truth.
Decentralization is the key. Twitter shouldn’t be the center of the universe. Instead, the posts in one social media post should be shared in multiple social media platforms. Elon wants to save Twitter, but Twitter actually should be demoted. Elon is better off creating a new platform that can’t be censored with fake fact checking. Every social media platform must also pass through an app store that can be removed for “inciting violence” like Parlor that was removed from Apple App Store. So where are we now? Nothing basically. Don’t use your real name anywhere. You can still be cancelled and lose your jobs. That’s the vicious free speech environment of today.
Algorithms and data have been manipulated for quite some time now. Look up ‘Fairness’ in data and you’ll see Google and Microsoft have put the thumb on the data to ‘help’ protected groups they feel needed ‘better data’.
When they didn’t like the results, they just change how the results are calculated.