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Travis Jordan @grugstan.bsky.social · 4m

Unfortunately I don't think we have any sympathetically centrist billionaires willing to throw money at media operations in Australia. Ours don't even throw money at thinktanks or arts programmes anymore.

Travis Jordan @grugstan.bsky.social · 5m

Imagine how much more time you'll have to stare at the wall.

Travis Jordan @grugstan.bsky.social · 5m

Exactly! If it wasn't for having a bunch of them on Insta or LinkedIn, it'd be like they were totally out of the industry. Especially since a bunch are now backroom editors, producers or niche beat reporters so I don't even see their byline much.

Travis Jordan @grugstan.bsky.social · 9m

It forces me to think better! Who wants to think worse?!

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Travis Jordan @grugstan.bsky.social · 10m

I just don't think people who see criticism of our media ecosystem and just point to The Sunday Shot or whatever as a counterpoint understand the orders of magnitude of difference in standards and reach between something like that and an actual newspaper or TV station.

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Travis Jordan @grugstan.bsky.social · 10m

That's not to say they don't have a place. I certainly (used to moreso than now) subscribe to a lot of them around the same time we're talking about.

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Travis Jordan @grugstan.bsky.social · 12m

They also don't reach that many people and don't have the necessary prestige to grab decision-makers' attention if they aren't terminally On Line. At least real outlets turn up in media monitoring or freak out a media adviser when they see NINE NEWSPAPERS in the email footer.

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Travis Jordan @grugstan.bsky.social · 14m

And yet she isn't Poasting?! What's even the point!?

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Travis Jordan @grugstan.bsky.social · 21m

No. That whole youth/new/digital media ecosystem is long gone. There'll be no more of that anymoreso than they'll be another Junket conference.

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Travis Jordan @grugstan.bsky.social · 24m

And I'm sad it's gone and nothing's ever going to replace it.

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Travis Jordan @grugstan.bsky.social · 25m

Anyway I met a lot of people I consider close colleagues and good friends on Twitter in those days. I had a space to share ideas and have people build on them and constructively critique them and inspire me to do more with them.

It was democratising in all the ways we talk about the public square.

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Travis Jordan @grugstan.bsky.social · 27m

I always had time for the whole Buzzfeed Auspol crew and it's shit that the entire news industry just kinda decided they were all disposable.

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Travis Jordan @grugstan.bsky.social · 32m

God remember when the Graun used to actually publish opeds.

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Travis Jordan @grugstan.bsky.social · 33m

Oh I had seen something about them moving to the US a few years ago. I'd lost track of them after they stopped being a legal reporter for SMH.

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Travis Jordan @grugstan.bsky.social · 38m

And noone say some glorified blog or podcast. Those aren't the same things as a real media outlet no matter how hard we pretend.

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Travis Jordan @grugstan.bsky.social · 40m

It's one of the few things I'm genuinely nostalgic for. Can you imagine anywhere taking a risk on Oz Faruqi or Lane Sainty these days?

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Travis Jordan @grugstan.bsky.social · 45m

It was gossipy and ramshackle but at least you occasionally got to read new ideas and see new faces.

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Travis Jordan @grugstan.bsky.social · 45m

And it's been gone a long time.

It had its faults, but there was a time between say 2014 and 2019 when Twitter personalities would get picked up by Buzzfeed, Junkee or some other new media outfit with a Press Gallery presence and might off the back of that end up on The Drum or even the paper.

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Travis Jordan @grugstan.bsky.social · 47m

While Twitter might still drive policy in the US, it doesn't in Australia. But neither's Bluesky or LinkedIn.

We've lost a social platform that drives discourse, brings new thinkers to public prominance and connects policymakers and journalists with people with ideas outside our stale institutions.

Jonn Elledge @jonnelledge.bsky.social · 1d

The platform formerly known as Twitter may be horrible, but it is still shaping policy. So were we all wrong to leave?

Was the left wrong to leave X for BlueSky?

The platform formerly known as Twitter may be horrible, but it's still shaping policy

www.newstatesman.com

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Reposted by Travis Jordan

David Zipper @davidzipper.bsky.social · 8h

This is good news.

A few vehicles with Intelligent Speed Assist can have an outsized impact on safety bc they’ll also prevent vehicles behind them from speeding.

www.nyc.gov/site/dcas/ne...

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Travis Jordan @grugstan.bsky.social · 21h

This is why we haven’t solved time yet

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