The 'Brand Safety' and 'Suitability' industries have financially crushed the news business by keeping ads away from articles that its 'sentiment analysis' algorithms think will make people sad or upset.

Advertisers Don’t Want Sites Like Jezebel to Exist::The ‘Brand Safety’ and ‘Suitability’ industries have financially crushed the news business by keeping ads away from articles that its ‘sentiment analysis’ algorithms think will make people sad or upset.

  • treadful@lemmy.zipEnglish
    71·
    1 year ago

    Generally agree. Though I’m not inclined to apply labels like “edgy” as if that’s accurate (or a negative thing). Covering tough topics is important. So are opinion pieces about it. That said…

    “It’s lamentable but not surprising that Jezebel shut down because they covered provocative topics, topics that the electorate needed to be informed about and topics that people care about and that attract interest,” he added. “But advertisers are abdicating their responsibility to support news out of an unfounded fear that they might harm themselves.”

    Suggesting it’s the responsibility of the advertisers to prop up news is wild. These two things should have been divorced years ago. I don’t know what the proper model is for sustainability of independent journalism, but the advertising model has always been one with acute influence problems.