RSS Feed
June 16th, 2015 
David Schulberg 
The leader of Sweden’s Pirate Party has launched a news service to compete with “old media.” Stories will consist of just three sentences, and will be published as sharable images that appeal to the “net generation.” Staff writers will be paid in bitcoin.
“Today, I’m
launching a news service in an entirely new format, designed to
outcompete oldmedia (sic),” Pirate Party leader Rick
Falkvinge wrote on his website.
He goes on to recall the day that he decided to
“outcompete” old media.
“It was on April 8, 2014, that the European Court of Justice
declared mass surveillance in the form of data retention
unconstitutional, impermissible, null, and void. Oldmedia (sic)
didn’t mention the ruling at all,” he wrote, stating that
old media no longer reports on relevant topics.
READ MORE: Iceland Pirate Party popularity
doubles over 2 months, rivals to ruling parties combined
According to the Pirate Party
leader, old media is “complaining” that the net generation – those born
between 1982 and 1991 – isn’t buying their “printouts of yesterday’s
internet.”
Old media has also accused the internet generation of being
disinterested in civil society, Falkvinge says.
But that simply isn’t the case, the Pirate Party leader argues.
In fact, he says there has “never been a generation more
interested in the society we live in.”
Instead, Falkvinge insists the problem is with old media –
because it isn’t addressing the problems of the generation.
“This effectively makes [old media] obsolete,” he wrote
on his site.
But Falkvinge believes he can challenge old media’s concept by
launching Falconwing News (FWN), a service focused on civil
issues relevant to the internet generation. To do this, he’s
looking to hire 682 people immediately, who will work as writers
and “country managers.” There will be 21 writers for
each of the 28 countries in the EU, plus Switzerland, Iceland,
and Norway, and one country manager for each.
Falkvinge starts net-generation news service, hiring 682 people
pic.twitter.com/MGA9iffAV6
— Falconwing News (@FalconwingNews) June
15, 2015
The job of the writer
appears to be anything but difficult – they’ll be expected to
write a three-sentence story once a week. Country managers will
edit those stories for “further edge.”
Falkvinge wrote that those working for the news service will
“be paid well, using bitcoin.” That money will come from
advertisers, though the ads will simply be a watermark on the
image, according to the Military Technologies website.
The Pirate Party leader believes the project is extremely
important, as old media institutions have become “mouthpieces
for regimes plagued by corruption and nepotism.”
“They happily accept a poisoned newswell and declare it to be
truth – from campaigns against Iraq to recent campaigns against
Snowden. That’s not just dishonest, that’s sickening and
destructive,” he wrote.
READ MORE: Pirate Party set to become 2nd-biggest
in Iceland – poll
He
also accuses old media of transitioning from news to
entertainment by their own accord.
“Old news services voluntarily surrendered their roles as
watchdogs of the government, firing investigative reporters and
shedding investigative capability in a multi-decade process under
the label ‘cost-cutting,’ thereby reducing the value they
provided from ‘reporting’ to ‘entertainment’ – while still
presenting as reporting, for the sake of their own dignity,”
Falconwing News’ Wikipedia page states.
Stressing the benefits of his news service, Falkvinge said it
will bypass a large number of restrictions and limitations, since
it is based on sharable images. The site will also be immune to
ad blocking software, and the stories will not need
“clickbait” headlines.
“There won’t be anything to click on. We’re going to be
providing quality reporting and have no incentive whatsoever to
post clickbait, because we’re not posting links in the first
place,” Falkvinge wrote.
According to Falkvinge’s website, Falconwing News is launching in
Europe, with the intention to go global.
Source Article from http://rt.com/news/267592-pirate-party-falkvinge-news/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS
Sweden’s Pirate Party leader launches news service to counter ‘obsolete’ old media
http://rt.com/news/267592-pirate-party-falkvinge-news/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS
http://rt.com/rss/news/
RT – News
RT : News
http://rt.com/static/img/RT_logo_250x250.png
Views: 0
Posted in 
