The Network is the Media

People vs Algorithms

The assassination attempt on Donald Trump was a stress test for the Information Space, and a reminder of just how much the media has changed. You had mainstream news outlets jockeying with individuals holding forth with a collection of expertise, conspiracies, jokes, memes and partisan potshots. Some of it was informative, some of it was hilarious, some of it was infuriating, and much of it was… entertaining? We unpack yet another crazy plot twist and look forward to what it means as the media business girds for what looks very likely to be a return to power of Donald Trump and an ascendent political movement that’s to a large degree successfully vanquished the packaged news media.

• Troy Young's People vs Algorithms newsletter
• Brian Morrissey's The Rebooting newsletter
• Alex Schleifer's Universal Entities
• Follow Alex, Brian and Troy on Twitter

Skip to topic:

• 00:00 Introduction
• 02:50 Personal Media Consumption Experiences
• 04:13 The Evolution of Media and Information
• 08:08 Trump's Influence on Media and Politics
• 15:13 The Future of Media in a Polarized World
• 26:23 Trump's Media Mastery and Political Impact
• 38:34 Tech's Political Landscape
• 42:44 Big Tech vs. Small Tech
• 44:26 The Role of Media in Politics
• 49:55 The Rise of YouTube as a Podcast Platform
• 53:58 The Evolution of Digital Advertising
• 01:03:51 Good Product