Name: Social media expert discusses Facebook whistleblower's claim that company chooses profit over people
Uploaded: 2021-10-04T22:11:32-0400
Duration: 254287
Description: UNC School of Journalism and Media Assistant Professor Dr. Shannon McGregor studies social media and the role it plays in our everyday lives.

WRAL Weather Alert Day issued for Saturday, severe risk upgraded. On WRAL at 4:30, the areas that could see isolated tornadoes & power outages.

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UNC School of Journalism and Media Assistant Professor Dr. Shannon McGregor studies social media and the role it plays in our everyday lives. 


CA >>> FACEBOOK CONTINUES TO CHOOSE PROFIT OVER PEOPLE. THAT IS ACCUSATION BE LAID OUT BY THE NOW IDENTIFIED FACEBOOK WHISTLEBLOWER AND SHE IS EXPECTED TO TESTIFY BEFORE LAWMAKERS TOMORROW. IN AN INTERVIEW WITH 60 MINUTES, FRANCES HAUGEN SAYS SHE SHARE THE DOCUMENTS OF THE WALL STREET JOURNAL SHOWING HOW FACEBOOK AND INSTAGRAM COULD BE HARMFUL TO MANY TEENAGERS . HAUGEN, HE WORKED AS A PRODUCT MANAGER FOR FACEBOOK, SAYS THE COMPANY CHOSE TO MAKE DECISIONS IN ITS BEST INTEREST DESPITE ITS EFFECTS ON THE PUBLIC. THE UNC SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM AND MEDIA ASSISTANT STUDIES SOCIAL MEDIA AND THE ROLE IT PLAYS IN OUR EVERYDAY LIVES. DR. McGREGOR, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR JOINING US. BOY DO WE HAVE A LOT TO TALK ABOUT WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT FACE BOOK. THIS AFTERNOON I WAS TALKING WITH A COLLEAGUE ABOUT THE REVELATIONS AND WE THOUGHT SOME OF WHAT SHE ALLEGED MIGHT GO OVER THE HEADS OF MANY FACEBOOK USERS. CAN YOU EXPLAIN WHAT SHE MEANT ABOUT HOW THE WAY FACEBOOK WORKS, MISINFORMATION AND HATE SPEECH, IS BASICALLY BEING REWARDED? >> SO AFTER THE 2016 ELECTION, FACEBOOK MADE SOME CHANGES TO DE-PRIORITIZE TRADITIONAL NEWS CONTENT AND TO PRIORITIZE ENGAGEMENT BETWEEN REGULAR USERS. BUT WHAT IT TURNS OUT THAT THAT MEANT IS THAT POSTS HAD TO BE MORE ENGAGING THAN IN OUR ONLINE WORLD, OFTEN MEANING MORE POLARIZING, MORE EXTREME, SO WHAT THAT DID WAS HELP DRIVE THE EXTREMITY OF ENGAGEMENT AND IT WAS ABOUT PEOPLE ENGAGING WITH THOSE POSTS WHICH IS WHAT BECAME THE SORT OF UNDERLYING MECHANISM OF THE ALGORITHM. >> SO WHAT CAN BE DONE ABOUT THAT? THERE ARE A LOT OF COMPANIES THAT PRIORITIZE PROFIT OVER SOME COLLECTIVE GOOD. >> YEAH, I MEAN, IF YOU ARE A PUBLICLY TRADED COMPANY, YOU ARE LEGALLY BEHOLDEN TO PUT PROFIT OVER MANY OTHER THINGS. I DON'T GET IS NECESSARILY PROFIT THAT IS THE PROBLEM. IT IS THINKING ABOUT ENGAGEMENT AS ENDS NEUTRAL, RIGHT? SOME ENGAGEMENT IS GREAT, RIGHT? THE SAME TOOLS THAT HAVE LED TO THE SPREAD OF MISINFORMATION AROUND COVID-19 AND HAVE COME YOU KNOW, HELPED INSIDE THE ATTEMPTED COUP ON JANUARY 6th, THEY ARE ALSO THE SAME TOOLS THAT HAVE ALLOWED, YOU KNOW, THE PROTEST OVER THE SUMMER FOR JUSTICE AND THE BLACK LIVES MATTER MOVEMENT TO FIND ONE ANOTHER AND TO ORGANIZE EVENTS IN THE COMMUNITY. SO IT IS ABOUT TRYING TO FIND A WAY TO LOOK AT ENGAGEMENT WITHOUT IT BEING AS TURBULENT AND TRYING TO FIND A WAY TO DO THINGS THAT FROM ENGAGEMENT THAT UNDERMINES DEMOCRACY. >> SO WE THOUGHT HEARING LAST WEEK, TALKING ABOUT THAT NEW RESEARCH BY INSTAGRAM AND ITS IMPACT ON TEENAGERS, NOW THE WHISTLEBLOWER WILL BE TESTIFYING TO FEDERAL LAWMAKERS. WHAT ROLE, IF ANY, CAN THE GOVERNMENT PLAY IN REGULATING, IN GETTING FACEBOOK TO DO WHAT THEY WANT THEM TO DO? >> WELL, THERE ARE CERTAIN, THERE ARE DIFFERENT WAYS THEY CAN REGULATE MEDIA, TARGETED TOWARDS CHILDREN, SO THAT'S ONE THING THAT THEY MAY BE ABLE TO STEP IN ON. ANOTHER THING IS JUST THIS SIZE OF THIS COMPANY, RIGHT? THERE'VE ALREADY BEEN SOME MOVEMENT ON CAPITOL HILL AGAINST, FROM AN ANTITRUST PERSPECTIVE, AS WE SAW NOT ONLY THE IMPACT OF THESE DECISIONS IMPACTING FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM, BUT ALSO, EVEN TODAY WITH THE OUTAGE, YOU KNOW, FACEBOOK WAS DOWN, INSTAGRAM WAS DOWN, ONE ERROR CAN HAVE THESE REBILLING AFFECTS AND WE HAVE A COMPANY TO FIX, SO REGULATING THAT MAY ALSO BE A WAY TO TRY AND STOP SOME OF THE HARM. >> I READ AN OP ED BEFORE THIS NEWSCAST ARGUES THAT FACEBOOK'S BEST DAYS ARE BEHIND IT. DO YOU AGREE WITH THAT? >> I THINK THIS WAS AN INTERESTING TAKE, THAT IF YOU LISTEN TO THE ALLEGATIONS MADE BY THE WHISTLEBLOWER, AND THE ACTIONS COME YOU KNOW, THAT THEY LOOK INCREASINGLY DESPERATE, THAT FACEBOOK IS LOOKING TO HANG ONTO WHAT LITTLE BIT OF A MARKET THEY HAVE AND ARE REALLY SEARCHING FOR WAYS TO CAPTURE YOUNG PEOPLE WHO ARE LEAVING THE PLATFORM FOR SNAPCHAT AND FOR TIKTOK SO IF YOU ARE LOOKING AT IT AT THAT WAY, IT DOES LOOK

Sydney Franklin

Lena Tillett

Social media expert discusses Facebook whistleblower's claim that company chooses profit over people 

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Good morning. I'm meteorologist Elizabeth Gardner. Saturday is now a wr weather alert day. Our southern counties are in a level two risk for severe storms and we have a level one risk for the rest of the viewing area. Almost all of it timing mid to late afternoon and evening, damaging winds, isolated tornadoes would be the main threat is isolated tornadoes potentially in our southern counties. And those counties are Wayne County, Sampson County, Cumberland County and Hoke County. And then most of the remainder of the viewing area in that level one risk, we could see some wind damage. We take a look at the big picture and we had deadly thunderstorms coming through Houston yesterday and last night, they continued to slide eastward with a lot of scattered severe weather, severe thunderstorms mostly. And you can see where that is now down in the deep south along the Gulf coast. And so that system is headed our way and it will linger around the area through the weekend. Checking out futurecast this morning, we'll see a mix of sun and clouds. None of these days today. Tomorrow or Sunday will be a total wash will be dry this morning. There's nine o'clock. After lunchtime we start to see a few isolated storms developing. There's two o'clock, five o'clock again, you can see it's just widely scattered there at five o'clock, seven o'clock, a storm or two, but some heavy rain potentially and some dusty winds. And then tomorrow we have the severe threats Saturday in the morning, 6 a.m. there's 9 a.m. maybe a Sprinkle or two, probably going to be cloudy in the morning, but we're still fairly dry at lunchtime. And then once we get into the mid to late afternoon, that's when we'll have a better chance for storm three o'clock. The showers and storms down south five o'clock around the triangle area and then that continues to lift northward. So not a ton of coverage out there for Saturday, but we do have that potential severe threat in our southern counties. Weather watcher in Sanford. Kristen Cox said this is beautiful sunrise there. You can see some high cloud cover there for us. We're going to see increasing clouds and showers and storms this afternoon. 82 Raleigh 81 Durham, 85 in Fayetteville. And the Mikey meter is sitting at tolerable with a due point of 62. It will be a little higher over the weekend of the showers and storms, but it dips a little bit from Monday and Tuesday with some sunshine and some actually fairly pleasant temperatures. Saturday, the Bin Bay Cultural Arts Festival is happening in downtown Durham. Of course, we do have a level one risk for severe storms in Durham. Not a washout but scattered storms. And the later you wait in the day, the better chance we'll have of seeing some of those thunderstorms. It does look a little drier and quieter for much of next week.

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Good evening. I'm Tina sold in cash with tonight's lottery drugs for Thursday. May 16, 2024. Here we go with the Carolina pick three. Our first winning number one. Second pick 32. 3rd winning number tonight is one and our pick three. Fireball number is also one. Joining me for tonight's drawing is our auditor from the Common and Jones L LP. Now it's time for the Carolina pick for here. We good luck. First winning number eight. Second pick for tonight is four, third pick 40. 4th winning number is one and our pick for fireball number is seven. Let's turn now to the Carolina cash five. If no one matches all five numbers to win the jackpot tonight, tomorrow's top prize is an estimated $120,000. First winning cash 5, 36. That's followed by 43 3rd cash five tonight. 15, 4th winning number five and good luck. Our final winning cash five number tonight is 40. The North Carolina education lottery has contributed over $10 billion to education. Thanks for your support and get the winning numbers every night right here.

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Good afternoon to you. I'm Noah Klein. Welcome to this afternoon. Joining us for Thursday, May 16th 2024. Let's get started. Carolina pick three. That first number is three. The second number is five. The third number is zero. Last number is six. Joining me for this afternoon's draw auditor from mcconnell and Jones. Now, let's with Caroline pick four. That first pick four number is zero zero. Fourth number is six pick where a firewall number is two. The North Carolina Education lottery contributed over $10 million in education. Thank you for your support.

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The Second Quarter North Carolina Economic Forecast is held Thursday at UNC Charlotte. Economist John Connaughton will present his quarterly forecast on the North Carolina economy.

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