Geek Tycoons
Google and Facebook Are the New Media Barons
No longer gatekeepers, they play a crucial role in deciding what news and entertainment gets made.
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A handful of big technology companies are becoming the next William Randolph Hearst and Walt Disney: They wield enormous power over what news and entertainment get made.
In case you needed more evidence of the power of big tech in people's lives, Google is giving you more. The company is negotiating with some news and information companies, including Time Inc. and CNN, to create tailor-made news and information for a new Google project. The idea, as the Wall Street Journal first reported, is to funnel people from Google to allied organizations' articles, photos and video that people can swipe through quickly, presumably on their smartphones.