Online, Everything Is Alternative Media - The New York Times

As Steve Jobs might have said about the way many people counterproductively consume "news" and participate in social media: "You're using it wrong" (although we do now have a case study in how related dynamics can be exploited to unscrupulously con your way into an unprecedented power grab)

"Faith in the importance of social metrics was a common trait among pro-Trump media, and for obvious reasons. They were clear indicators of support, participation and success, though exposed to no methodology. They were relative to other media and, by proxy, to politics.

The pro-Trump media understood that it was an insurgent force in a conversation conducted on social media on an unprecedented scale. It understood that its success could be measured by the extent to which it contributed to the assembled millions carrying out their political reading, watching, sharing, commenting and arguing among family and friends. David Bozell, president of ForAmerica, a conservative nonprofit group that operates a large Facebook news page, boasted of its social media prowess: “Because of our success, we know there are real voters delivering real-time political activism every day on these platforms. The press and the political class, at their own peril, ignored the signs, which is why so many got President-elect Trump’s victory wrong.”"

Online, Everything Is Alternative Media - The New York Times