"... is that this type of social media is no longer a reliable means to reset narratives. Twitter, which was once the epicenter of the political elite and media conversation, is now a wasteland called X, and its many platform competitors lack a central political focus.... TikTok’s algorithm is excellent at assessing a user’s behavior and feeding them targeted content.... Will TikTok show an avid user who rarely interacts with political content a Biden TikTok?.... Is a TikTok that gets more than 8 million views—as Biden’s Super Bowl video did—considered successful if it’s also widely mocked?... The Biden campaign seems to [have]... what amounts to the Moneyball strategy.... 'We’re going to look for home runs but we’ve got to collect singles and doubles.'... There are vanishingly few people who can bend our current, fragmented internet to their will; the rest of us have to hustle, throwing posts at the wall to see what sticks. Joe Biden, it turns out, is just another creator."
Writes Charlie Warzel in
"The Moneyball Theory of Presidential Social Media/Not even the president can bend the internet to his will" (The Atlantic).
Here's the "widely mocked" Biden Super Bowl TikTok:
Posts
55 comments:
This article makes me wonder why aren’t newsfeeds just chronological? Why should an algorithm dictate what’s important to you? Isn’t it easier to go through your feed and click any story that interests you as it comes? Why leave that responsibility to choose what you want to see up to a machine?
What about "normal" people who give a rat's ass about TikTok? What are we to do?
Althouse, did your algorithm recommend this TikTok? Although I'm not sure if you watch politics there. I mostly avoid it on my YouTube feed. I've never been suggested anything from Biden (or Trump) there.
Don't know about TikTok, but X is hardly a wasteland. Of course, by prog standards anything they don't control is a waste.
The real problem for Brandon is that TikTok is illegal on govt devices. Even if not specifically illegal for Brandon in this case, it is still a bad look. He banned it and now is using it?
S.1143 — 117th Congress (2021-2022)
No TikTok on Government Devices Act
This bill requires the social media video application TikTok to be removed from the information technology of federal agencies.
Specifically, the bill requires the Office of Management and Budget to develop standards for executive agencies that require TikTok and any successor application from the developer to be removed from agency information technology (e.g., devices). Such standards must include exceptions for law enforcement activities, national security interests, and security researchers.
https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/1143
There is also an executive order banning TikTok
https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/M-23-13-No-TikTok-on-Government-Devices-Implementation-Guidance_final.pdf
Let's go Brandon!
John Henry
Hypocrite banned Tik Tok on government computers?? WHY is he using it then?? Is he above the law??
a wasteland called X
Whatever. Next article please.
"The problem with the internet is that there are no gatekeepers" - Hillary Clinton back during the Lewinsky scandal.
It's kind of funny that the only way to get any real hints of what is going on is on X. The crap the media feeds you is just stuff that they need you to believe in order for them to get their way. Real motivations are never discussed.
Twitter, which was once the epicenter of the political elite and media conversation, is now a wasteland called X, and its many platform competitors lack a central political focus...
Hahahahahahahahahaha.
"We don't control it now, so it sucks."
"epicenter of the political elite and media conversation, is now a wasteland called X"
The WEF media hag was quoted just a few weeks ago that "we no longer control the news".
One woman's wasteland is someone else's wonderland. Get bent globalists. We'll take titschlok too, probably sooner than you think.
social media is no longer a reliable means to reset narratives. Twitter, which was once the epicenter of the political elite and media conversation, is now a wasteland called X,
There's so much to unpack in this statement. Starting with- "the political elite". The political elite Who appoints them? And- who gave them - and social media - the job or power to reset narrative?
Partially thanks to the opening of twitter- we now have free rein to question that all powerful narrative without censorship. Or more correctly, it seems, with a lighter hand... It's possible to publish - partially thanks to "X" - a simple truthful statement like "Masks have never been proven to prevent viral spread!" without being banned. For over a year putting that on Twitter or Facebook would get you banned. How about Hunter's laptop? Saying it belonged to Hunter, which it did, which 51 intelligence officials who signed a letter committing it didn't were "resetting the narrative" turned out to be themselves pushing a massive disinformation campaign, fully supported by the media and the social media establishment. I got a two week ban on Facebook for openly calling the lying liars liars.
I could go on and on, but I'm sure everyone who comments here has their own favorite example of narrative resetting where the social media officially approved lies to reset the narrative to favor their own favorites. And where Truth with a capital T was labelled dangerous misinformation and banned because it would upset the precious narrative.
"Twitter, which was once the epicenter of the political elite and media conversation, is now a wasteland called X, and its many platform competitors lack a central political focus...."
I've never had a Twitter / X account, but.... I don't see X as being very different to Twitter, except that they have expanded the message length and broadened its capabilities. Who would describe these improvements as a cause to becoming a 'Wasteland'? Or has it become a wasteland for other reasons, having to do with change of ownership?
Could the 'unspoken' part be that the power of 'central political focus' on the old, pre-Elon Twitter was wrapped up in the magic of kicking people off, left and right (but almost always conservative 'Right') in order to control the message? Yes. One can only have a 'central political focus' when all the other political foci are eliminated by careful curating. The central question is, why? Why is there no such thing to Progressives as having a 'better message' - Why is there only the hunger for the power to control the 'only message'?
Remember, comrades: Democracy is only for Democrats......
How to say you're all in for political censorship without saying you're all in for political censorship.
Wanna bet the ad was CGI.
X is setting usage records and is rapidly building out the foundation and regulatory approvals for phone and payment capabilities.
Meanwhile, over at Laureen Powell Jobs little plaything called the Atlantic, they lost millions over several years and barely cleared a couple million in profits last year and just had to fire entire teams of technologists.
Twitter, which was once the epicenter of the political elite and media conversation, is now a wasteland called X
I guess now that the owner is committed to free speech, and twitter isn't censored by the government it's a "wasteland".
From the stats I have seen, twitter viewership for is increasing, while on line usage for NYTs, WAPO and MSM outlets is decreasing.
I would consider the median outlets going bankrupt or laying off employees as a "wasteland".
Simple question and answer, many one-word answers, less than 30 seconds, and they still had to make multiple cuts and edits. We have a sitting president who cannot speak clearly for 30 seconds...
"... a wasteland called X...."
Goebbels resurgent.
Carlson gets 180 million hits for an interview with Putin in the "wasteland." Meanwhile, the Presidentish, head of the Democrat Party, I hate those nasty tongues on memoves to the CCP platform.
If lefties have ceded X to the opposition, it's because fake news can't hold its own with reality.
It wasn’t that long ago they denied censorship. Now that they don’t have control they make no apologies for it and are openly frustrated they can’t do it…
Reason number…live lost track of the number of reasons its time to put them all out to pasture…
Progressives are natural totalitarians, aren't they?
Their assumption is that freedom of information and freedom of speech are dangerous and must be controlled and manipulated by - them.
If it cannot be controlled by the left - it must discarded or destroyed.
"This article makes me wonder why aren’t newsfeeds just chronological? Why should an algorithm dictate what’s important to you? Isn’t it easier to go through your feed and click any story that interests you as it comes? Why leave that responsibility to choose what you want to see up to a machine?"
On TikTok (as on Twitter), you have the option to look at a feed of the accounts you've chosen to follow, but if you chose "For You," you get the results of the algorithm. It's popular to pick "For You," because you want to be surprised by new things. For example, yesterday, I was scrolling through TikTok, in "For You" mode, and I encountered this young blind woman singing "Don't Cry for Me Argentina."
And pretty much everyone I follow on TikTok is someone I encountered while scrolling through "For You." And I'm training the algorithm by skipping things I don't like. It works extremely well, which is why TikTok is so popular.
"Althouse, did your algorithm recommend this TikTok?"
I'm not sure actually.
"Although I'm not sure if you watch politics there."
I watch anything that interests me. I get people who imitate Trump/Biden. I get a guy who asks people on the street who they're going to vote for and then follows up by asking them why and if they say Trump is awful, as they often do, he'll stump them by asking why again. Pretty lightweight stuff.
I really like how people on the left just dismiss X now...........they don't control it anymore, so it's a "wasteland". And yet they're all (mostly) still on it.
LOL
Hey, I LOVE X now. What's wrong with X?
I'M OFFENDED!
"And I'm training the algorithm by skipping things I don't like. It works extremely well..."
The algorithm trains you. Not the other way around.
I got this fantastic flamenco dancer and an old man singing "Creep."
"a wasteland called X"
That's why I chose to blog this article. I thought that was interesting and funny.
I do find X to be kind of a mess these days. I wouldn't call it a wasteland, but the aesthetics have declined. The flow and the fun are diminished. I prefer more freedom of speech, but I don't think Musk sees everything and he's not aware of what's outside of his idiosyncratic frame of mind.
The Greatest Generation used to call them "Strangers with Candy."
Does TikTok have anything comparable to X Community Notes?
Community notes is an attempt to self police misinformation and disinformation.
From what I’ve seen it seems to work very well.
but I don't think Musk sees everything
I agree with that. He's a busy guy and not that well informed on many topics. Who is? But I appreciate that he dumps his opinions without filtering, I don't get the sense I'm being manipulated. I find X more entertaining these days, but also more cluttered. It doesn't bother me, sometimes you just try stuff, see what happens, and adjust. I've done the same with software releases. The big question is, can Musk make X profitable? It wasn't before he took over.
“It’s like building a weapon, and you’re aiming it every day,” he said. “Sometimes you hit; most of the time you miss. But the bigger the weapon, the more likely you are to hit.” The Biden campaign seems to agree, offering up what amounts to the Moneyball strategy for presidential social media. “In 2014’s internet you could afford to swing big and hit home runs—big one-off campaigns for more centralized audiences,” Flaherty told me. “That’s changed now. We’re going to look for home runs but we’ve got to collect singles and doubles. It’s about being in more places and narrowcasting and getting them to add up to broadcast.”
This is somewhat tangential, but it's clear neither Charlie Warzel nor the Biden campaign has any idea what Moneyball (for want of a more descriptive and accurate term) is or was. The comparison is so lame they should be embarassed.
I've been reading Bill James since 1983. They might want to start with his publications.
Its wastelandiness notwithstanding, X is still massively popular, & all the newsmakers generally are still there. It is by far the most cited social media platform in news articles. It ranked #5 of the most-visited sites worldwide for Dec. 2023.
The Chinese government will make sure all U.S. Tik Tok users get Biden Campaign material whether they want it or not.
"Twitter, which was once the epicenter of the political elite and media conversation, is now a wasteland called X"
The world's sourest grapes, apparently.
“The Biden campaign seems to [have]... what amounts to the Moneyball strategy.... 'We’re going to look for home runs but we’ve got to collect singles and doubles.'”
The quoted part shows the author to be remarkably ignorant regarding what ‘Moneyball’ is actually about. Maybe the elipses are covering over some wisdom, but I doubt it.
I find a lot of good content on Twitter. And yet Liberals on the East Coast call it a Wasteland.
yeah- that’s not the Moneyball strategy, either
Twitter, which was once the epicenter of the political elite and media conversation, is now a wasteland called X,
JFC, these dinosaurs just can't accept their control over the narrative has come to an end.
I’m guessing Althouse doesn’t get as many chicks in yoga pants and tight shirts in TikTok as some of the rest of us. The 21st century isn’t all bad.
" . . . atque, ubi solitudinem faciunt, X appellant."
MadisonMan: "I find a lot of good content on Twitter. And yet Liberals on the East Coast call it a Wasteland."
All the Dumb Lefty liars that swore they were leaving the X "wasteland" are...wait for it...still there.
As you knew they would be.
I only see TikTok and X materials when Q-Anon (sp?) sends them to me by way of Althouse.
Didn’t Biden banned tick-tock from government mobile phones?
Hitting singles and doubles is Smallball, not Moneyball.
The insight of Moneyball (for offense) is that On-Base Percentage and Slugging is way more important than Batting Average and strikeouts aren’t a big deal. They are just another out and are much better than grounding into a double play.
But what’s a Walk in Political Propaganda? An Ad that sets up a Bigger Ad?
If you're a communist totalitarian, then X is indeed a wasteland.
It's difficult to brainwash smarter, more successful, free-thinking individuals.
X/Twitter is a "wasteland"? It is busier than ever, if Musk is to be believed, and certainly offers a much broader range of opinions and sources of information than it ever did when it was under the thumb of our self-appointed Stasi censors.
It's so much better than it used to be, so much more interesting and useful, that I am even thinking of creating a new account some five or six years after I deleted my old one in disgust.
'The Chinese government will make sure all U.S. Tik Tok users get Biden Campaign material whether they want it or not."
This could be a huge boost for Trump.
If you click on the "View Profile" button in the TT video posted, you can get an idea of what the Biden campaign is selling and how low the viewership is except for this one video.
And you don't have to sign up for TT to do that.
A search or steering engine?
Free the Uyghurs! slaves.
Stand with Tibet occupied by Chinese through immigration reform.
Go green, not Green blight with narrow bands of energy producion.
No capital for labor arbitrage.
The official White House policy is that TikTok is dangerous to America. That ended when the Let's Prop Up Joe Biden team needed to reach their key voting block of 16 year olds from other countries.
Oso Negro said...
“I’m guessing Althouse doesn’t get as many chicks in yoga pants and tight shirts in TikTok as some of the rest of us.”
#21stcenturyproblems
"And I'm training the algorithm..."
The concern is that it's the algorithm doing the training. You are largely resistant perhaps, but many, many people aren't.
"It works extremely well."
Yes, and that's what elevates the problem. That and the entity with ultimate control over this sub rosa process.
Kay,
I'll give you a second opinion quite different from Althouse's: TT works the way it does because you're not the customer, you're the product.
Lefties are so desperate to assert X is dead. Meanwhile, it's just tumbleweeds and crickets on Mastadon, Threads, etc..
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