“Tim Cook blasphemed Monday night in San Francisco, at least from the perspective of his Silicon Valley brethren,” Aaron Pressman and Adam Lashinsky write for Fortune. “‘We felt that the top stories should be selected by humans,’ Cook said, discussing a new, curated section of Apple News devoted to the U.S. midterm elections in November. His reasoning: ‘To make sure that you’re not picking content simply to enrage people.'”
MacDailyNews Take: Humans aren’t capable of picking content simply to enrage people? That’s the proper and painfully obvious followup question that a “real news” organization should pose. Alas. Nada. (Of course, Cook was being interviewed at Fortune event, so one wouldn’t expect any hardballs to be thrown, however refreshing they might be.)
“The last thing Silicon Valley’s news aggregators want is human selection, you see. Google and Facebook thrive by algorithm. Popularity counts most, even if the beauty contest is gamed by state-sponsored trolls and other criminals. And more is always better than better because there’s money to be made here,” Pressman and Lashinsky write. “Again, Cook took issue with his neighboring Goliaths. ‘I’m not being critical of people who do something different,’ Cook allowed, a sure sign he was about to be critical of two companies that profit mightily from re-purposing the news that others write while collecting data from readers, ‘but Apple has always stood for curation. We’ve always believed in quality, not quantity.'”
“Never perfect, Apple nevertheless has the high ground on this issue. Cook said Apple News will employ its own writers to supplement what it gets from other sources,” Pressman and Lashinsky write. “He also said the company will turn to topics other than the midterm elections.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Again, do not solely trust Apple News. Do not trust any single gatekeeper.
The best way to consume so-called “news” is to cast a wide net.
As always, readers of “news” need to consider the sources and interpret what they are being told accordingly. The more disparate sources you can find, the better. And we don’t mean different newspaper, network, website brands that are all owned by the same conglomerate. Determining the actual ownership of your “news” sources is an investment that requires a bit of time, but it is very enlightening. — MacDailyNews Take, June 17, 2015
SEE ALSO:
Apple News launches 2018 Midterm Elections section – June 25, 2018
Editorial bias: Apple News’s human editors prefer a few major newsrooms, study shows – June 6, 2018
New York magazine editor Lauren Kern named first Editor-in-Chief of Apple News – May 25, 2017
Who’s going to ‘curate’ Apple News? – August 13, 2015
The Apple News app is doomed – July 30, 2015
The future’s not looking too bright for Apple News – July 30, 2015
Apple hiring team of journalists for News app; a ‘jaw-dropping’ development says publisher – June 15, 2015
Apple News is fast, responsive, enjoyable, and it might become your only news app – July 15, 2015
Apple News shows that Apple wants to bolster and profit from ads, not eliminate them – July 10, 2015
Apple News to have human curation – and that raises issues – June 15, 2015