Sara Fischer

Chinese internet giants like Tencent, Baidu and Alibaba are ramping up investments in US tech and media companies. They're also building data servers and acquiring ad tech businesses in the US that can help them monetize media engagement from citizens living in America, like students or tourists. There's a misconception that the Chinese push into the Western media tech market is to target new American users or to compete directly with US tech companies.

Sinclair Broadcast Group's proposed $3.9 billion acquisition of Tribune Media would give the conservative-leaning company control of an additional TV station in Des Moines (IA) — one of the most important presidential primary media markets in the country. Sinclair's possible acquisition of an NBC affiliate in Des Moines underscores Democrats' worries about the deal giving a right-leaning company significantly more control over local news. The Sinclair-Tribune deal is expected to be approved by regulators this quarter.

Proponents of major media mergers say that consumers will benefit if regulators approve the deals. But consumers, especially those who can least afford it, could get screwed by these deals.Multi-billion-dollar deals — along with regulatory changes such as the repeal of net neutrality rules — are often justified as ways to spur innovation and increase consumer choice, but consumer advocates argue the actions could actually make access to some popular content more expensive. The real question: Is choice at the expense of price really giving consumers what they want?

Technology companies are facing growing international obstacles affecting how their most valuable asset — data — flows across borders. New trade agreements and laws are affecting how companies share and store their troves of data around the world. For decades, trade talks centered around tangible goods such as oil, agriculture and cars.

News Corp is taking aim at the digital-ad dominance of Google and Facebook with a new platform to let advertisers reach audiences across all of its online properties. The new platform, called News IQ, will pull audience data from sites like The Wall Street Journal, New York Post and Barron's and give advertisers a way to reach specific audiences around safe content.  News Corp is the latest publishing company to launch a data-based advertising network to win back digital ad dollars from Google and Facebook. Disney, NBC and Vox Media, and Verizon and Oath have all similar steps.

For decades, the internet has been seen by most Americans as a democratizing force that makes life easier and more enjoyable. But the increase of instances of abuse on the open web is challenging our conventional notion of the benefits of the internet. Advances in technology always create unforeseen consequences, which is why laws are usually written to address broad use cases. But recent incidents show that the country is reaching a tipping point, and regulators seem eager to revisit outdated policies to protect Americans from an internet turned ugly.

One after another, regulators are making moves that underscore just how fast the media industry is changing, putting pressure on Washington to make sure laws keep up.

The economic strains of technology on the entire media landscape are intensifying. Weeks after Google and Facebook announced record earnings, some of the biggest players in the digital media industry are still struggling to hit revenue projections, make profit or grow. Rapid consolidation in every sector, but especially digital, shows how difficult it is for media companies to survive in an attention economy dominated by tech platforms.

The economic strains on local news have forced local outlets to close, shutter their print editions or consolidate into major holding groups, often headquartered in far-away cities. Most recently, billionaire Joe Ricketts' decision to shut down local city coverage site DNAInfo and Gothamist in response to employees voting to unionize has called into question how local news outlets can survive through conflicting business interests of ownership. The cuts are the latest of local coverage setbacks this month.

A new survey finds that 61 percent of people trust the advertising they see, an 11 percent jump from March 2014, according to eMarketer. In addition, 72 percent of respondents also said the ads are "honest," a 16 percent increase over the past two years.

Other studies have indicated that ad trustworthiness depends on the medium. Some studies show people are less likely to trust digital ads vs. traditional print or television ads. Why it matters: The most recent Gallup poll on trust in media shows that 68 percent of Americans don't trust the news - the lowest rate ever measured. The shift shows that as people trust established media brands less, they are turning towards unconventional sources of information, like social platforms. It also makes sense that digital ads are less likely to be trusted, because most are sold in an automated way that over 1/3 of consumers find invasive.