[basch]

I'd argue the press has always chosen the political winners (sometimes by accident by always talking negatively about them) and facebook as the new kingmaker is not much different than hearst, gannett, murdoch or soros anointing someone. the main difference is facebook actually abandoning any cohesively human choice in who they pick, shifting blame/responsibility towards an algorithm they write and control but want to remain sentientish in its own ways. i do see some reckless abandon in letting mathematical output get a nearly final say vs just admitting to and owning the existence of editorial discretion.

>changing the mood of the public

its the same type of thing the press has been doing since forever, just more targeted. the change is in scale (both more macro AND more micro) not kind.

[CharlesColeman]

> I'd argue the press has always chosen the political winners (sometimes by accident by always talking negatively about them) and facebook as the new kingmaker is not much different than hearst, gannett, murdoch or soros anointing someone.

There's an important difference you're missing: The press isn't monolithic and it's also self-consciously part of the American democratic political order. Facebook is monolithic and it seems to want to shirk its democratic responsibilities much of the time.

[basch]

I'm not sure I see it as monolithic in its press displaying reach. Facebook, Twitter, GoogleSearch/GoogleNews/Android/Youtube, Apple each have their own way of controlling peoples attention and driving what sites people view, what apps people open. Facebook may or may not be the biggest of those four, but Facebook does not have a monopoly on peoples attention. One could argue Twitter is much smaller than Facebook, but its concentration of celebrities and journalists brings into question its overall utilitarian influence and impact, as opposed to just its raw MAU. The attention of one influential person may change way more in the world than 1000 nonfluencial people.