Where there's muck there's brass

As they used to say up north. Maybe they still do.

I was reminded of this earlier today reading about the travails at YouTube over offensive and worse content.

It seems that the business model of products of this sort is to maximise advertising revenue by maximising viewing time. And the way to maximise viewing time is by the system keeping the clicks coming by recommending to its viewers ever more outrageous content. Which, it seems, the viewers, many of them young, if not children, think is great. As a result the quality of the content - in the sense of the word that might be used by a teacher - is driven to the bottom. Not to mention the stuff which tips over from outrageous to thoroughly unpleasant, if not illegal. Stuff which the online world would be a lot better off without.

Maybe not helped by consumption of such stuff being semi-private. Nobody need know what you are looking at on your telephone on the tube: not like everybody looking at you sideways because you are reading the Sun or the Star.

Much the same seems to be true of the products which provide 'free' online news. Never mind the quality, count the clicks. Whereas in the olden days, there seemed to be a steady demand for responsible newspapers to pay for - newspapers like the Times used to be and the Guardian (in my younger days the Manchester Guardian) still is - and a steady supply of very rich people who were happy to bankroll such newspapers as vanity projects. With the chance of a bonus in the form of a peerage.

All a bit depressing, in that I see no way forward. How to wean our young people off tripe on YouTube and how to provide serious news. The Economist and the Financial Times seem to be managing, but it would be good if there was a bit more of it. Perhaps even some middlebrow stuff for all the people who find the Economist and the Financial Times a touch heavy going over breakfast.

PS: there is no denying that there is lots of good stuff on YouTube. It is a good source, for example, of performances of classical music. Or of educational videos about changing the battery on some obscure brand of car. The problem is all the bad stuff.