Future of Media: Publisher data rush, misinformation tsunami, innovation round-up

There are loads of media features and analysis for you below, but first, get comfortable, or trapped Suez Canal style, and settle in for a couple of deep-dives.

The publishing data race

Publishers with large defined audiences and an ability to entice advertisers are in for a prosperous future. It sounds too good to be true but this is a belief being forwarded by media execs who expect a windfall after the demise of the third-party cookie in Google Chrome.

Execs at Ozone Project, Future, Bloomberg Media and Accenture talked me through how they're dealing with this headache. If you're a publisher wondering how your ads will fare next year, or someone wondering how you'll buy audiences, this one is for you.

Meanwhile, we've got Kantar and Sir Martin Sorrell trading blows about the coming value of third-party data sources. Who's right, who's wrong? You be the judge.

What media innovation did you miss this month?

Adtech deep-dive aside, I'm pleased to welcome back Havas Media Group future man Marek Wrobel to talk us through some of the biggest media innovations this month.

Clubhouse, NFTs, cashierless shops, and inventive AR... he explains it all with snappy text and video.

Check it out.

Misinformation - the digital disaster

Fact-checking organisation Full Fact last week claimed it is trying to categorise misinformation events like some bodies do with natural disasters. It's a bit of a WTF statement, but there is method in the madness.

In the pandemic, journalists struggled to contextualize misinformation’s threat to human life. Did former President Trump’s off-the-cuff suggestion that people test bleach Covid cures cause more harm than a slate of QAnon-inspired crimes? What about genocides enabled, if not catalysed, by state disinformation? Were we complacent to the growth of anti-vax, anti-5G and Covid-skeptics? Did we miss when the engagement machine saw these conspiracies absorb popular racists tropes, such as ’Muslims as super-spreaders’ or ’Jews are vaccine hoarders AND virus creators’ (surely pick one)? Most recently, we’re seeing a steep surge in hate crimes caused by terms such as the ‘China virus’.

There are all questions answers by the chief exec of Full Fact and the co-chair of the Conscious Advertising Network (CAN). I'd love for this one to get a few more views, so go on, read it here.