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Are we going to see prediction markets enter mainstream journalism? Taylor Lorenz says yes (archive.md)

submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by swlabr@awful.systems to c/techtakes@awful.systems

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“If all of this sounds like a libertarian fever dream, I hear you. But as these markets rise, legacy media will continue to slide into irrelevance.”

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[–] sc_griffith@awful.systems 14 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Journalists will also face ethical dilemmas as prediction markets are normalized. Should reporters participate in markets they cover?

sorry, what exactly is the dilemma here? how is it an ethical dilemma to have an unethical way to make money?

The rise of prediction markets raises questions about ethics and regulation. Current platforms are primed for market manipulation, insider trading, and the potential for bad actors to game the system. Platforms will need to enforce rigorous safeguards to maintain credibility and prevent misinformation from being incentivized.

lmaooooooo

[–] swlabr@awful.systems 7 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

sorry, what exactly is the dilemma here? how is it an ethical dilemma to have an unethical way to make money?

I'm guessing what's being said is that in this fictional scenario with an ethically neutral prediction market, you could do insider trading but with fake news? Like, you predict that they will find cheese on the moon, and then you make a story about cheese on the moon.

Either way, it is a moot point since prediction markets are bunk, ethically or otherwise.

[–] sc_griffith@awful.systems 10 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

there has to be difficulty determining what the most ethical choice is to have an "ethical dilemma." when the options are "do something unethical or don't" that's the opposite of an ethical dilemma!

[–] swlabr@awful.systems 9 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Oh yeah, haha. I often face the dilemma dilemma in which I have to choose between ignoring the 'incorrect" usage (i.e. not a choice between two things that are difficult to choose between) and seethe OR mention the correct usage and look like a pedant. Sometimes it's a trilemma, and I'm all over the shop. But more seriously, I usually let it slide and let people use it to mean "a situation".

I doubt that Lorenz has a dilemma in line with the correct usage. I couldn't fight the urge to steelman, spoilered below, which I suspect this is nothing near what Lorenz had in mind.

exhausting Steelman within. I only tried to come up with something, it's not a good steelman. I'm so sorry about this.

In the world that Lorenz posits, where prediction markets somehow represent accurate news reporting, either a journalist participates in the market whilst reporting news (conflict of interest), or they don't, and they are bad at their job (and not performing at your job is unethical, I guess?)

[–] antifuchs@awful.systems 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Oh lol, isn’t this what Hindenburg Research and others are doing, except on the real market? Shorting some company’s stock and then publishing news stories about how bad things are gonna happen to them is a very fun grift…

Guess what I’m saying is, wonder if an FTC with fangs wouldn’t treat prediction markets as an as-yet unregulated securities exchange…

[–] Soyweiser@awful.systems 10 points 2 weeks ago

Prediction markets create incentives for people with information to share what they know.

What? No they dont they create incentives for people to keep things secret and bet on them.

[–] wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 2 weeks ago

[–] froztbyte@awful.systems 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

as is tradition, I’d just about managed to get to forgetting that Lorenz and her shitty opinions exist, but a.s has my back!

(and just to head off chud potential: it’s shit like this that I mean, not her being a woman or any other of the fucking strange complaints people have been attaching over the last few years)

[–] swlabr@awful.systems 5 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

FWIW, I read this somewhat charitably: I didn't read this article as "I want there to be prediction markets in journalism" as much as "The right-wing fuckos are very into this shit, so expect for it to froth up out of the sewers in 2025." That being said, as discussed elsewhere, many of the finer points are questionable.

N.B: I am not aware of Lorenz's shit opinions.

[–] Soyweiser@awful.systems 4 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Only thing i can recall is her platforming the libsoftiktok woman and all the flak around that.

The weird right also hates her with a passion for unrelated things which honestly I cant recall right now. She is one of those women they clamped unto and never not talk about.

[–] froztbyte@awful.systems 3 points 2 weeks ago

they're in a weird place - not always egregiously terrible in the immediate-eyeroll sense, but every so often some soar icarus-like to flagrant insensibility

(and this has happened enough times that I treat it a bit 🤨)