Fantastic article Tobias! I would go one step further to say ad-based media is a market failure. I look forward to your proposed solutions. I think persuasive and ethical design must be explored, as well as open-source algorithmic news feeds, emerging technologies like blockchain and alternative distribution models like freemium or public media etc.
What I like about your analysis in particular is your integration of the psychology behind how we perceive the news. Why not extend this analysis to the psychology behind why we’re not willing to pay for it? Journalists/editors/producers etc. all moan that audiences don’t want to pay for the news anymore. If news is as precious as you’ve described— then it shouldn’t be subsidized by ads and transformed into churnalism. So, the trick is how to get audiences to pay for something, which — on the surface, doesn’t appear to be beneficial. Could it work through a 0.5–1% levy added onto people’s Internet bills? Or a license fee? This is where the psychological analysis is so desperately required. We need these experts working on policy outcomes — not in the offices of Facebook or Google, where they instead work on new behavioral habits to keep our eyeballs glued to the screen.
Needless to say, ad-based media has to end. It’s crippling democracy.
