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FYI

Media Beat: September 13, 2021

Media Beat: September 13, 2021

By David Farrell

Rowan Atkinson: Free speech and the new intolerance


The forerunner of the Defend Free Speech campaign was called “Reform Section 5”. This is a speech by Rowan Atkinson at the launch event in Parliament in 2012. His thoughts are as relevant today as they were almost a decade ago.

New PPM ratings

Covid continues to impact radio across Canada, although things seem to be improving. Let’s look for some good news in the latest PPM radio ratings released today. The new PPM release from Numeris completes the thirteen-week period covering May 31 to August 29, 2021. Once again, all listening for this period occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, sometimes yielding unusual results.

Let’s look at the five PPM markets. – David Bray, Bray & Partners

Social media giants continue to harm democracy and it’s evident during this election

Facebook’s Canadian minion, Kevin Chan, recently claimed, without verification, that Facebook will reduce the prevalence of political content in Canadians’ newsfeeds to enhance “election integrity” (Republicans use the same term to impugn the legitimacy of elections). I have my doubts. The last time Facebook promised to secure an election, the result was a mob assault on the U.S. Capitol, largely organized on Facebook.

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Multiple whistleblowers within Facebook call Chan’s statements into question. When engineers found a way to reduce the prevalence of posts deemed “bad for the world,” Facebook’s policy team, of which Chan is Global Director, “vetoed” their implementation. When a data scientist identified widespread abuse of the platform in multiple elections worldwide and asked for help to combat it, Facebook told her that “human resources are limited.” – Daniel Bernhard, Toronto Star

Amazon will bring TikTok to Fire TV in U.S. and Canada

Amazon is officially in the TV set business.

After years of selling Fire TV devices that plug into third-party HDTVs and teaming with TV makers for Fire TV-based products, the ecommerce giant is rolling out the first-ever Amazon-built TVs: the Amazon Fire TV Omni Series (US$410 and up), which provides hands-free Alexa voice navigation, and the value-priced 4-Series smart TV line ($370 and up). They’re set to ship in October.

In addition, Amazon is baking in new features to the overall Fire TV platform, including bringing TikTok content to the platform in the U.S. and Canada; letting users access Netflix’s shuffle-mode feature via Alexa; and being able to ask Alexa for movie or TV show recommendations. – Todd Spangler, Variety

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More Facebook outrages

A comprehensive study by NYU and the Université Grenoble Alpes in France has found that "Misinformation on Facebook got six times more clicks than factual news during the 2020 election," according toThe Washington Post.

The researchers found that between August 2020 and January 2021, posts from publishers known to traffic in misinformation got six times as many likes, shares, and interactions as posts from reliable organizations.  According to the WaPo, this study "is likely to bolster critics' long-standing arguments that the company's algorithms fuel the spread of misinformation..." Damn right it will.

A Facebook spokesquid said, "This report looks mostly at how people engage with content, which should not be confused with how many people actually see it on Facebook..." – Bob Hoffman, The Ad Contrarian

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Kesha
Brendan Walter

Kesha

Chart Beat

Kesha Brings 'Holiday Road' to The Billboard Canadian Hot 100

The newly independent pop singer's cover of Lindsay Buckingham's 1983 song from National Lampoon's Vacation was first released as a Spotify exclusive for the holidays. Michael Bublé's Christmas, meanwhile, remains at No. 1 on the Canadian Albums chart.

Kesha has brought an under-appreciated holiday gem back to the charts. Her version of "Holiday Road" debuts on this week's Billboard Canadian Hot 100 (dated Dec. 28, 2024) at No. 83.

"Holiday Road" was originally released in 1983 by Fleetwood Mac legend Lindsey Buckingham and serves as the propulsive opening theme to the Chevy Chase-starting classic comedy road trip film National Lampoon's Vacation.

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