#mass news media

[politijohn]

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[alwayswiselight]

So true.

[felassan]

This post is a collection assorted DA:TV info/news snippets. it's under a cut due to there being some spoilers in places.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard is reportedly currently $20 off on Xbox or PlayStation on disc, at QVC through November 30th (on purchases of over $40). [source and details]

This article also describes another way to use a discount for the game [source and details]

Metacritic gave a statement to Eurogamer about DA:TV review-bombing -

"In a statement to Eurogamer acknowledging the backlash to Dragon Age: The Veilguard on its site, a spokesperson for Metacritic parent company Fandom said its site was a "place of belonging for all fans". "We take online trust and safety very seriously across all our sites including Metacritic," the spokesperson said. "Metacritic has a moderation system in place to track violations of our terms of use. Our team reviews each and every report of abuse (including but not limited to racist, sexist, homophobic, insults to other users, etc) and if violations occur, the reviews are removed."" [source]

DA:TV contains a reference to Elden Ring [source and details]

Apparently players have discovered in DA:TV an infinite money exploit [source and details]

The BioWare Gear store looks to have restocked the BGS-exclusive variant of the DA:TV art book [link]

Solas & Varric's inaudible conversation from the prologue was decoded by ThedasWolves [source, via] -

Varric: "So how is this time gonna work out for the better? Can you tell me that?" Solas: "I understand your hesitance, but what I do now must be done. Despite it being past your comprehension." Varric: "I'm not saying you're evil, but if you truly believed what you were doing you'd be able to give me a straight answer." Solas: "You would rather cast aspersions than admit that this is mine to solve!" Varric: "C'mon Chuckles, who are you trying to convince here? Me, or yourself?"

DA:TV is reportedly EA's most successful singleplayer game on Steam, overtaking Star Wars Jedi Survivor and Mass Effect Legendary Edition in terms of all-time peak of concurrent players and at one point knocking Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 off the top as current top seller on the platform [source].

Larian's Swen Vincke downloaded DA:TV [source]

Coverage notes that DA:TV is a smooth-performing release in terms of the technical side of things [source]

DA:TV contains a heartfelt memorial tribute in honor of late BioWare developer Bruno Hayne: [link]

[pyxehastoomanyinterests]

thinking of the damsel route where the princess turns into an anime girl. thinking about how the mere act of questioning her autonomy made her lose it. because viewing her as brainless made her so. because our perceptions shape who she is, and by not believing her simple want we are not believing her existence as an original person. thinking about how she's a person until we decide she's not being "person enough"

[ohello0]

Every new piece of information I see coming out of Al-Shifa and the surrounding area is more devastating than the last.

Kidnappings, torture, point blank executions, new reports from those on the ground of the IOF raping and killing women, I have no words.

Western media will undoubtedly be silent about this most recent atrocity as they’ve been silent on, ignored, or sugarcoated everything else the last six months.

[disease]

a relatively concise explanation for any of those confused about decentralized social platforms. [ie: Mastodon, diaspora*, Friendica, Pixelfed, PeerTube, Lemmy, Bluesky, etc.]

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by Stacey Mattews

The Biden White House has also said they want “answers”:

“We want answers,” National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters. “We want to see this thoroughly and transparently investigated.” A spokesperson for the US State Department also said Washington was continuing to press Israel for more information.

As with most things claimed by a Hamas-run organization, the problem here is that the mass grave was actually dug in January 2024 – but not by the IDF:

Analyses by Sky News and independent analysts of satellite imagery and footage published online found that claims spread by Hamas and Arabic media that the IDF had dug mass graves at the Nasser hospital in Gaza were false as the graves were made before the IDF entered the complex. Hamas, Al-Jazeera, and several news agencies claimed in recent days that the IDF had dug mass graves in order to “hide” the bodies of Palestinians after entering the Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis.

Here’s more from the Times of Israel:

The IDF, in its response, said that during its operation in the area of Nasser Hospital in recent months, troops examined corpses that had been buried by Palestinians on the medical center’s grounds, “as part of an effort to locate hostages.” The military said it operated in a “targeted manner,” only where it had intelligence that Israeli hostages may have been buried.

GeoConfirmed also has a lengthy thread that includes receipts that back up Shoshani’s statement. Make sure to click on the tweets to expand them for more detailed explanations:

The tweets are here

[agentfascinateur]

Americans who get their news from cable are the only people believing Israel is not committing genocide in Gaza

Asked if Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza, cable news viewers said no by a 34-32 margin. All other news consumers said Israel is committing genocide, including print (36-33), YouTube (41-31), and social media users, who agree with the statement by a 44 to 19 percent margin.

What does it say about the mainstream media...?

[butchscientist]

"media literacy is dead" was it ever alive though?? are people today actually worse at interpreting media than they were in the past, or is it perhaps a matter of people being exposed to far more media than ever before (thus having more opportunities to misinterpret media) as well as a variety of platforms to share their interpretations. were people in the 1970s better at media literacy or are you comparing preserved 1970s media interpretation (largely things written by professional critics, journalists and academics) to bad takes 17 year olds have on twitter

[tending-the-hearth]

people outside of new york: they are Freaks, they are Weapons, they are Terrifying

actual new yorkers: they share a single brain cell and most of the time don't know who has it. look at them. they have never done anything wrong in their entire life.

[politijohn]

Source

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[thecolorsfucked]

got a firefox ext to download youtube videos and now im gathering fucking audiobooks damnit

[asterionstarryeyed]

link building devices that work for about a minute and can't be reproduced with hyrule's current technological capabilities: broke

traysi non-anachronistically innovating and bringing about the advent of mass print media in hyrule: bespoke

[g0nta-g0kuhara]

I recently got my hands on the copy of Weekly Famitsu from V3's release, and found this inside. In light of recent jokes/half jokes about DR4 with The Hundred Line's announcement, I think it might be an interesting read. Sorry that its google translated, but I think the point still gets across

[thepastisalreadywritten]

(CNN) — Jack Latham was on a mission to photograph farms in Vietnam — not the country’s sprawling plantations or rice terraces but its “click farms.”

Last year, the British photographer spent a month in the capital Hanoi documenting some of the shadowy enterprises that help clients artificially boost online traffic and social media engagement in the hope of manipulating algorithms and user perceptions.

The resulting images, which feature in his new book “Beggar’s Honey,” provide rare insight into the workshops that hire low-paid workers to cultivate likes, comments and shares for businesses and individuals globally.

“When most people are on social media, they want nothing but attention — they’re begging for it,” Latham said in a phone interview, explaining his book’s title.

“With social media, our attention is a product for advertisers and marketers.”

In the 2000s, the growing popularity of social media sites — including Facebook and Twitter, now called X — created a new market for well-curated digital profiles, with companies and brands vying to maximize visibility and influence.

Though it is unclear when click farms began proliferating, tech experts warned about “virtual gang masters” operating them from low-income countries as early as 2007.

In the following decades, click farms exploded in number — particularly in Asia, where they can be found across India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, the Philippines, and beyond.

Regulations have often failed to keep pace: While some countries, like China, have attempted to crack down on operations (the China Advertising Association banned the use of click farms for commercial gain in 2020), they continue to flourish around the continent, especially in places where low labor and electricity costs make it affordable to power hundreds of devices simultaneously.

‘Like Silicon Valley startups’

Latham’s project took him to five click farms in Vietnam.

(The click farmers he hoped to photograph in Hong Kong “got cold feet,” he said, and pandemic-related travel restrictions dashed his plans to document the practice in mainland China).

On the outskirts of Hanoi, Latham visited workshops operating from residential properties and hotels.

Some had a traditional setup with hundreds of manually operated phones, while others used a newer, compact method called “box farming” — a phrase used by the click farmers Latham visited — where several phones, without screens and batteries, are wired together and linked to a computer interface.

Latham said one of the click farms he visited was a family-run business, though the others appeared more like a tech companies.

Most workers were in their 20s and 30s, he added.

“They all looked like Silicon Valley startups,” he said. “There was a tremendous amount of hardware … whole walls of phones.”

Some of Latham’s photos depict — albeit anonymously — workers tasked with harvesting clicks.

In one image, a man is seen stationed amid a sea of gadgets in what appears to be a lonely and monotonous task.

“It only takes one person to control large amounts of phones,” Latham said. “One person can very quickly (do the work of) 10,000. It’s both solitary and crowded.”

At the farms Lathan visited, individuals were usually in charge of a particular social media platforms.

For instance, one “farmer” would be responsible for mass posting and commenting on Facebook accounts, or setting up YouTube platforms where they post and watch videos on loop.

The photographer added that TikTok is now the most popular platform at the click farms he visited.

The click farmers Latham spoke to mostly advertised their services online for less than one cent per click, view or interaction.

And despite the fraudulent nature of their tasks, they seemed to treat it like just another job, the photographer said.

‘There was an understanding they were just providing a service,” he added. “There wasn’t a shadiness. What they’re offering is shortcuts.”

Deceptive perception

Across its 134 pages, “Beggar’s Honey” includes a collection of abstract photographs — some seductive, others contemplative — depicting videos that appeared on Latham’s TikTok feed.

He included them in the book to represent the kind of content he saw being boosted by click farms.

But many of his photos focus on the hardware used to manipulate social media —webs of wires, phones and computers.

“A lot of my work is about conspiracies,” Latham said. ” Trying to ‘document the machines used to spread disinformation’ is the tagline of the project. The bigger picture is often the thing we don’t see.”

Click farms around the world are also used to amplify political messages and spread disinformation during elections.

In 2016, Cambodia’s then-prime minister Hun Sen was accused of buying Facebook friends and likes, which according to the BBC he denied, while shadowy operations in North Macedonia were found to have spread pro-Donald Trump posts and articles during that year’s US presidential election.

While researching, Latham said he found that algorithms — a topic of his previous book, “Latent Bloom” — often recommended videos that he said got increasingly “extreme” with each click.

“If you only digest a diet of that, it’s a matter of time you become diabetically conspiratorial,” he said.

“The spreading of disinformation is the worst thing. It happens in your pocket, not newspapers, and it’s terrifying that it’s tailored to your kind of neurosis.”

Hoping to raise awareness of the phenomenon and its dangers, Latham is planning to exhibit his own home version of a click farm — a small box with several phones attached to a computer interface — at the 2024 Images Vevey Festival in Switzerland.

He bought the gadget in Vietnam for the equivalent of about $1,000 and has occasionally experimented with it on his social media accounts.

On Instagram, Latham’s photos usually attract anywhere from a few dozen to couple hundred likes.

But when he deployed his personal click farm to announce his latest book, the post generated more than 6,600 likes.

The photographer wants people to realize that there’s more to what they see on social media — and that metrics aren’t a measurement of authenticity.

“When people are better equipped with knowledge of how things work, they can make more informed decisions,” he said.

“Beggar’s Honey,” co-published by Here Press and Images Vevey, is available now.

[miirshroom]

Radagon and the story of Narcissus and Echo

'On the walls of Venus's temple The tale of Narcissus and Echo A beautiful young nymph Sentenced to repeat The last words of the others Never to talk first

She fell in love with Narcissus And followed him longing to speak He said "Who is here" and she replied "Here" He called for her saying "Come" She just replied "Come"

As none came near, Narcissus Called her again "Why do you shun me" She could only say the same

These words hurt deep His pride his actions leads "I would rather die Than you should have me"

Narcissus went forth To a fountain in the north He kneeled down to drink And then he fell in love

He said "Who is here" His voice kept sounding "Here" He called again the one That couldn't ever come

His face was young and In the crystal waters glowed His smile was cold reflecting Back a thought

"I would rather die Than you should have me"'

Narcissus, Septic Flesh (2008)

Basically, the story of Narcissus and Echo goes that Echo was cursed by Juno/Hera after impersonating the voice of Zeus, and the curse was to only speak back words that someone else has spoken. Echo fell in love with the beautiful young man Narcissus and followed as his echo for a time, but when he first laid eyes on her he was repulsed and ran away. As punishment for the cruel rejection, Narcissus was cursed by Nemesis to also have a love that is not reciprocated. And this manifested that he could see his own reflection as beautiful but could not recognize it as his own self. He saw his reflection in a pool of water, but when he reached for it he fell in the pool and drowned. In time Echo too diminished with her body faded and bones turned to stone and only her voice remained.

As, I've mentioned before, the relationship between Radagon and Marika has seemed to me much like a person talking to their reflection in the mirror. A fantastical version of dissociated identity, with one of the most famous examples being the way that Gollum and Smeagol are portrayed as speaking through reflections in the Lord of the Rings films.

Radagon can shift form to have the exterior appearance of Marika as explicitly shown in the final boss opening cutscene. And throughout the game no one really questions the existence or non-existence of Marika - but much like the story of Narcissus, I think that it is a flaw of Radagon who cannot identify the image of Marika seen in the mirror as "this is myself". Marika is seen as something "other".

"O Radagon, leal hound of the Golden Order. Thou'rt yet to become me. Thou'rt yet to become a god. Let us be shattered, both. Mine other self."

Like, do y'all never talk to yourselves when no one's around? When you've done something stupid or are preparing to do something stupid? It's like that, except also with an element of being in the role of another persona to imagine that persona is saying those words. I dunno if real people do this imagining - I'm no psychologist - it's just that the Narcissus myth provides a template from which to build the story of Radagon and Marika.

Elden Ring even phrases Marika's words as "spoken echoes" - Marika's words are Radagon's words echoed back across time.

(and for what it's worth, that would also seem to make Melina a manifestation of the faded Echo, who performs the function of speaking the echoes but is otherwise freed from the curse)