What is News?

News is a crucial aspect of modern society, providing us with information about the world around us and helping us stay informed and engaged in the issues that matter most. But clearly it has morphed into something else over the past few decades, so I want to explore: what exactly is our current gen of news, and what should it be?

First, let's consider what news should be. In an ideal world, news should be relevant, timely, and of interest to the public. This means that news should cover events, issues, and topics that are currently affecting or likely to affect a significant number of people, and should be reported in a timely manner so that readers can stay informed and up-to-date. Additionally, news should be of interest to the public, meaning that it should be engaging, informative, and thought-provoking, and should provide readers with new information or insights that they can use to make informed decisions. To be considered newsworthy, a story should also be verified and fact-checked for accuracy to ensure that the public receives accurate information.

One of the key elements of news is its ability to provide context. This means that news should not just present the facts, but also explain them in a way that makes sense to the reader. This means providing background information, historical context, and other details that help readers understand the significance of the information being presented. Citations, links to source data, and transparency of conflicts of interest are crucial here.

News has a noble purpose.

However, in the current world, news has been commercialized. The revenue model has quickly turned from subscription based to advertising based. As the internet commoditized content, it become free, so there became no reason to be a paid subscriber when 100s of publications were breaking the same scoop. The news media outlets now are more focused on getting views, likes, shares and followers more than providing a genuine information. This is a survival mechanism, not necessarily a cynically calculated business maneuver. In order to get more viewership, news outlets tend to focus on more sensational stories and events. This type of news is called yellow journalism, and has a negative impact on the society as it creates a false sense of reality and also creates a divide among people.

We are where we are. Publishers are now essentially digitally branded with their political affiliation for all to see, yet somehow none of them cop to such associations. This deepens the divide as consumers within an echo chamber are presented news under the guise of it being “fair and balanced”, and gives the context that something outside the echo chamber is “extreme”.

Fortunately, some of that tide is changing. Reporters with large followings are leaving institutional media to write Substacks, and it has been determined that there is still demand for high quality writing, for which customers will pay a premium. But this still leaves the question of how we actually get our news. Who do we trust? If all news passes through a human filter before it reaches our feeds, how can we be sure what context was stripped?

There are a few trends happening that I think will be the future of good news. It will be hard to break the stranglehold that sensationalism has on our collective attention, but I have faith that there will be enough truth-seekers out there willing to do the work, take the time, and perform the diligence required from both the consumer end and the publisher end, to instill some trust back into society.

Diversity

It is critically important to diversify your consumption of news outlets because it provides a broader perspective on current events and issues. By getting information from a variety of sources, you can gain a more complete understanding of the facts, and also get different perspectives and opinions on those facts. By consuming news from a diverse set of sources, you can also guard yourself against potential biases and misinformation that may be present in any one particular outlet. There are many news aggregator sites, but it would be great to see an AI-generated news aggregator that analyzes language for context and biases, and offers an equally biased source from a separate publication.

Moreover, diversifying the consumption of news outlets also helps to promote media literacy and critical thinking. When you are exposed to different viewpoints and ways of presenting information, you are more likely to question and evaluate the information you receive, rather than accepting it without question. This can help you to make more informed decisions and to be a more active and engaged citizen.

Conversational

This to me is by far the most interesting trend, and my preferred method of news consumption. Conversational round tables where participants have their opinions and biases clearly on display, debating or discussing what they deem an important topic from multiple perspectives. This is the live action version of my Thought Leader Diversity Matrix, (thoughtleaderdiversitymatrix.com coming soon), where you can respect different people for different reasons, and pick and choose your opinion based on critical thinking and the arguments presented. The All-In Podcast popularized this, and many others podcasts are beginning to form around the same concept. The key here is that it is friendly and conversational, and not accusatory and confrontational.

On-Chain Fact Checking

This has the most upside, but is the most difficult to achieve. Within the current vision of DeSci (decentralized Science), there is a movement to establish a record of truth, linked back to the source data, with subsequent entries entered on-chain, so that the downstream consumption can be trusted. There are many issues with this (namely the Oracle Problem), but conceptually it makes the most sense. This is already being tackled by science, as the basis of the scientific method is to have a repeatable experiment. In theory, the scientist can perform an experiment, publish their findings to the blockchain, statistical model and all, allowing others to perform the same experiment and confirm or deny the original experiment’s findings. This creates more trust around the scientific process (which through the conduit of biased news organizations) been put through the ringer the past couple of years. The same playbook can be performed by news. An event happens and is recorded on chain, and any fact based news that springs from that event must link back to the source data in order for the next block to be accepted. Very often in today’s headline driven news cycle an article will cite a citation of a citation of the source data, and the context is either lost or purposefully misrepresented.

All of these types of future news share a common theme: they are work. Diversity on behalf of the consumer who has to perform 2x diligence and apply critical thinking to get to an opinion. Conversational on behalf of the panel participants, as well as consumer who has to spend 10-20x the time speaking or listening to a full-fledged perspective instead of being instantly told what to think. On-chain from the amount of engineering, computational, and societal rigor it would take to be accepted as a better form of truth payment.

In the end though, the burden falls on the consumer to use his or her brain to determine what they think is truth in the world. This is called civic or media literacy, and perhaps should be taught in school with other long lost lessons such as math, and science. Publishers have zero incentive to tell the full truth other than to retain credibility. Citizen or independent journalists can try as they might to brand themselves as unbiased, and might truly do a fantastic job, but again there is no burden of proof they must overcome. However, these independent journalists can be viewed as slightly more trustworthy in certain circumstances as they have the added pressure of being self-sufficient, without the safety net of a media conglomerate. One false move by an independent journalist could tank their entire reputation, whereas the conglomerate has the luxury of performing content blitzkrieg, effectively rendering any one piece of news forgettable.