We have seen residential housing lose what little steam it had built up. Jobs numbers, due Friday, are likely to show moderation in the pace of new job creation. The debt ceiling continues to loom. Gas and food prices are straining corporate earnings and household budgets. Social media marches forward despite a rising chorus of bubble suspicion. The precariousness of jobs and budgets pushes Americans to seek deals on-line, socialize on line and use fewer resources. Sony and Nintendo are struggling and Zynga's on-line social games are generating real revenues. Twitter and Facebook are helping change patterns of public information and engagement. In this disrupted period social networks seem to be well aligned to emerging constraints and realities.
Across this short week we will get a flood of macroeconomic data and news. We will see productivity, Case Shiller Housing numbers, Chicago PMI, ISM reports, Consumer Confidence, payrolls and unemployment. It will be a whirlwind few days. It appears likely that the balance of this week's numbers will signal a slowing of growth. The continued impact of the Tsunami, an underwhelming developed world recovery, Euro Zone issues, US Budge issues, housing market trouble and rising commodity prices will be visible in many of the numbers to come. It is fair to say we are living in a disrupted economic environment.
From Tunisia and Egypt to your home town, new technologies are emerging with impact. Facebook and Twitter relay news- and waves of meaningless chatter- to millions in real time. Revenues in the social media space are driven by advertising and deal seeking. Thus, social media is neither magical, nor immune to economic dislocation. However, we continue to see flocks heading into virtual space to save time and money. We are using GroupOn, Living Social and other group discount services, to afford meals, services, indulgences. We are on E-Harmony finding matches without long drives and costly restaurant meals and drinks. Resumes are posted and scanned in LinkedIn as we look for work.
Facebook, YouTube and Twitter offer free communication and entertainment as cable and cell phone bills weigh heavily on taxed budgets. Social media offers an inexpensive way to travel the world first class and save on purchase of increasingly expensive transportation and hard resources. No matter one's limited budget, we can deal shop, connect and foster image, in the social network, at little cost. Disruptive technologies are fighting for market shares and revenues in a rough economic context. So far, they are fighting very successfully. As we have seen before, disruptive technologies can sometimes thrive in disrupted economies.
Netflix, Hulu and YouTube offer TV and movies for low or no cost. This saves on cable bills, on demand rentals and trips out and about in an expensive world of hard assets. Smart phones and tablet PC's offer to replace home internet, TV, landline phones and traditional cellular voice minutes and text messages. Wi-Fi and 3G/4G service with cloud computing portend fewer and cheaper devices and services delivering more through social media. Clearly Microsoft glimpsed this in the Skype purchase. The angst of the developed world middle class and the tentative rise of the developing world middle class are disruptive to established businesses. New technologies are well suited to collect both groups as heavy users.
As we wait for Friday's job numbers. We see disruptive technologies outperforming in the present disrupted economy.
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
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