On tech journalism and TikTok

What are the roles and responsibilities of technology reporters? And of technology companies and regulators??

On last week’s Possible, tech journalist Kara Swisher joined Aria Finger and me for a lively conversation about this and the future of media, AI, and accountability more generally.

Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts: https://link.chtbl.com/c43SMhHB

This week, Aria asked me a few questions about the topics we discussed with Kara. I talk about why, when it comes to media coverage of Silicon Valley and in general, criticism can be a good thing. We also get into social media regulation, youth mental health, and the TikTok ban (recorded before President Biden signed the TikTok Ban Bill into law).

A preview from our conversation:?

ARIA: Where are the lines between sharing personal opinion, being highly critical of those with power, [and] thinking positively about the future?

REID: Well, it's a great question. And, you know, one of the reasons why I've been a fan of Kara's for many years is I do think that it's important to always have people speaking truth to power. And obviously, you know, major technology founders, companies, et cetera, have a lot of power these days. And so I think it's important to have people criticizing them. Including, as has happened over the years, criticizing me. Which is, I think, a very good thing. … Now, that being said, I also share a frequent frustration within the tech industry that when all you have is criticism, it actually does a lot of harm. … It says, “just bad, just bad,” as opposed to, “well, good and bad, and let's steer towards more the good and less of the bad.” And that doesn't mean it needs to be puffed up or something, but … people say, "well, what has Google ever given me for its use of my data?" and the answer is, "well, free search." … And similarly, it's like, “well, I'm recording the evils of big tech on my iPhone as I'm doing it.” And you're like, “well, okay, you know, the iPhone is actually, in fact, a pretty instrumental thing navigating a whole bunch of places in the world.” … Just like, for example, there's a role for holding technology leaders accountable to saying, “look, what are the things you're doing well, and what are the things you're doing wrong?" I think it's also holding, you know, tech journalists accountable for “what are the things you're doing right, and what are the things you're doing wrong?” And part of the thing I think that happens too often wrong within tech journalists—or maybe journalists generally, but certainly tech journalists—is it's all about the wrong, and not about the balance of it.?

To get the rest of the conversation:

Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts: https://link.chtbl.com/c43SMhHB

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKywRcF0Vr4??

Transcript: https://www.possible.fm/podcasts/riffs002/???

And here’s where to subscribe to the show: https://link.chtbl.com/possiblepod??

Finally, if you’re interested in hearing more from Kara and me, here’s a conversation we had last spring, right around the time GPT-4 came out, on her podcast On:?

https://link.chtbl.com/wI6-yZXB