Ep. 9 — How Technology and the Digital Media Revolution are Transforming the Global Media Landscape / Marcus Brauchli, Journalist, Co-founder, North Base Media.
May 26, 2021•42 min•Ep 9•Transcript available on Metacast Episode description
Technology is shaking up the news media — as content creators of every ilk and genre have taken advantage of the digital revolution, commoditizing content and forever blurring the lines between e-commerce and content, news and entertainment, information and disinformation.
One media executive who saw the digital revolution coming long before others did, is journalist, media investor and advisor, Marcus Brauchli. He is co-founder of North Base Media, an investment firm specializing in media and technology in global growth markets. Before co-founding North Base Media, Brauchli was executive editor of The Washington Post, shepherding the newspaper’s digital revolution, and helping the Post win seven Pulitzer prizes. Before joining the Post, Brauchli was managing editor of the Wall Street Journal.
Brauchli believes that the gravest threat to journalism, society and democracy, is the rise of misinformation and disinformation, which he describes as the “accidental by-product” of the technology revolution. Brauchli believes the “moral advocation” on the part of big companies in Silicon Valley to fight online disinformation is partly fueled by their “misguided, naive and ill thought out philosophies of libertarianism that don't actually reflect what's good for the society.” But Brauchli says there are growing pressures from all fronts now to start holding these companies accountable and that this likely will happen country by country. Brauchli adds that in the U.S, there are tools to regulate Facebook and Google as economic monopolies. However, the First Amendment precludes the path to disciplining these companies as “information monopolies," raising questions about how our society can pressure these companies to do the right thing.
Read the Transcript
Download the PDF
Chitra Ragavan:
Technology has transformed the global media landscape, especially, the news media, as content creators of every ilk and genre have taken advantage of the digital revolution, commoditizing content, and forever blurring the lines between e-commerce and content, news and entertainment, information and disinformation.
Chitra Ragavan:
Hello everyone. I'm Chitra Ragavan, and this is Techtopia. One media executive who saw the digital revolution coming long before others did, is journalist, media investor, and advisor Marcus Brauchli. He's here to talk with us today about the future of digital media and news. Brauchli is co-founder of North Base Media, an investment firm specializing in media and technology in global growth markets. He has served as an advisor to media groups, including Graham Holdings, Univision, and HT Media.
Chitra Ragavan:
Before co-founding North Base Media, Brauchli was executive editor of the Washington Post, overseeing the Post's print and digital news operations, shepherding the newspapers digital revolution, and helping the Post win seven Pulitzer prizes. Before joining the Post, Brauchli was managing editor of the Wall Street Journal. His more than two decade tenure at the journal included 15 years as a foreign correspondent, mainly in Asia, and eight years as a senior editor in New York. Marcus, welcome to Techtopia.
Marcus Brauchli:
Thank you so much, Chitra. Great to be here.
Chitra Ragavan:
We were both reporters at major news outlets when the digital revolution began and the end of what you aptly described the other day, when we were chatting, as the end of the Voice of God period, when journalists were highly trained, experienced, reputable, for the most part, respected quite a bit, and the main content creators in media and news media. And then you saw the digital tsunami hit and it changed all of our lives. And you were on the forefront of bringing the Washington Post into the digital age. It must've been a huge challenge to pull it off. What was it like?
Marcus Brauchli:
Well, the truth is, the transformation that began with digital technologies,
