Bibliographic record
Abstract
EN. This paper shows the disproportionate influence Facebook exercises over Indian journalism and how it induces conformity and isomorphism in the journalistic field by nudging journalists to incessantly produce more of the same “shareable” content. It focuses on the efforts of 7 alternative news startups in South India to diversify news coverage, as gleaned through 11 in-depth interviews. These startups have a clear reformative agenda, criticizing and hoping to distinguish themselves from the mainstream media’s elite-controlled, partisan, sensationalist reporting that ignores issues affecting the marginalized. Key to these startups’ claims to be alternative is the dedicated, ground reporting of issues faced by the LGBTQ+ community, Dalits and Adivasis. As digital-only publications, they depend on Facebook to circulate their content, interact with the audience and earn revenue. Using the theoretical framework of platformization (Nieborg & Poell, 2018), this paper demonstrates how this dependence keeps startups locked in a perpetual loop of precarity, trying to placate the algorithm with shareable content to stay visible, hoping to eventually get enough subscribers to make it on their own. The constant churning of shareable content detracts organizational resources and leaves their content undistinguishable from the mainstream, postponing the realization of independence to a later date. *** FR. Cet article montre l'influence disproportionnée que Facebook exerce sur le journalisme indien et comment il conduit au conformisme et à l'isomorphisme dans le domaine journalistique en incitant les journalistes à produire sans cesse davantage de contenu "partageable". L'étude se concentre sur les efforts déployés par sept jeunes entreprises d'information alternatives du sud de l'Inde pour diversifier la couverture de l'actualité, recueillis au cours de 11 entretiens approfondis. Ces startups ont un agenda réformateur clair, critiquant et espérant se distinguer des médias traditionnels, contrôlés par l’élite, dont la couverture de l'actualité sensationnaliste et partisane ignore les problèmes affectant les personnes marginalisées. La clé de la nature alternative revendiquée par ces startups se caractérise par les reportages sur le terrain dédiés aux problèmes rencontrés par la communauté LGBTQ+, les Dalits et les Adivasis. En tant que publications exclusivement numériques, elles dépendent de Facebook pour diffuser leurs contenus, interagir avec le public et gagner de l'argent. En s'appuyant sur le cadre théorique de la plateformisation (Nieborg & Poell, 2018), cet article montre comment cette dépendance maintient les startups dans une boucle perpétuelle de précarité, en essayant d'apaiser l'algorithme avec du contenu partageable pour rester visible, dans l'espoir d'obtenir finalement suffisamment d'abonnés pour réussir à s'en sortir seuls. Le brassage constant de contenus partageables détourne les ressources de l'organisation et fait en sorte que leurs contenus ne se distinguent pas de ceux des médias mainstream, ce qui reporte la réalisation de leur indépendance à une date ultérieure. *** PT. Este artigo mostra como o Facebook exerce uma influência desproporcional sobre o jornalismo indiano, além de levar à conformidade e ao isomorfismo no campo jornalístico, incentivando os jornalistas a produzirem incessantemente o mesmo conteúdo "compartilhável". Com dados coletados por meio de 11 entrevistas em profundidade, o estudo foca nos esforços de sete startups de notícias alternativas no sul da Índia para diversificar sua cobertura jornalística. Essas startups têm uma agenda noticiosa claramente reformista, criticando e tentando se diferenciar das coberturas sensacionalistas e partidárias da mídia mainstream controlada pela elite, que ignora as questões enfrentadas por pessoas marginalizadas. Notícias dedicadas aos desafios das comunidades LGBTQ+ e dos Dalits e Adivasis são elementos-chave para que essas startups reivindiquem para si o papel de mídia alternativa. Por serem publicações exclusivamente digitais, elas dependem do Facebook para divulgar seu conteúdo, interagir com a audiência e obter receita financeira. Com base no quadro teórico da “plataformização” (Nieborg & Poell, 2018), demonstra-se que tal dependência mantém as startups em um ciclo perpétuo de precariedade, pautado pela busca de conteúdo compartilhável para usarem o algoritmo a seu favor e permanecerem visíveis, na esperança de atingir um número de assinantes o suficiente para se tornarem independentes. A utilização constante de notícias “compartilháveis” desvia os recursos organizacionais e faz com que seu conteúdo seja indistinguível daquele da mídia mainstream, adiando a conquista de sua independência. ***
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame distilled prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. Learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and 10,348 direct Gemma labels. Candidate is the union of thresholded teacher heads; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels or direct frontier model labels.
Codex and Gemma teacher scores by category
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.002 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.004 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one teacher head, not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".