#7. protect journalism
the to-do list — how to quash fake news and fix our broken democracy
Investigative journalism and newspapers are disappearing, digital media algorithms are amplifying extreme content, fact-free news is rampant, and curated news feeds from aggregators like News Break have the potential to filter the news narrative across the globe.
If advertising losses are threatening the viability of newspapers and investigative journalism — if we’re losing the kind of coverage that democracies depend on to keep voters informed, expose wrongdoing, and synthesize the important issues of the day — then the solution lies in finding new ways to pay for the service. Funding can come from taxing social media giants who’ve siphoned off the advertising dollars that used to flow to newspapers. Maryland recently started taxing digital ad revenue (big tech is fighting it)— what happens next could be pivotal. The American Journalism Project, the Knight Foundation, and the Texas Tribune are also focused on solutions. Google News Initiative launched StoryShare in 2020 — an AP experiment that helps local newsrooms quickly share information. The City University of New York’s journalism school coordinated a program to connect $10 million in advertising revenue from city agencies to local news outlets—a strategy that could be replicated in other cities.
Innovative news formats
The smarties at Crooked Media / Pod Save America saw the writing on the wall — Podcasts are the new radio — and understood their power to energize the under-forty crowd. Crooked is jumpstarting a farm team of progressive young activists and voters — and they’re making the Democratic Party hip again, one podcast at a time.
Video journalism content is hot. Two trends, user generated content (UGC), and citizen journalism have the potential to popularize a return to fact-based news by focusing on first-person reporting. Ted Turner’s original vision for CNN was a 24 hour international news format using local correspondents with firsthand knowledge of regional issues to provide on-the-ground coverage. His plan proved to be relevant, hugely successful, and expensive to maintain. A more cost-effective online version of Turner’s idea is now possible in the form of a YouTube-style site for news. Citizen journalist uploads — featuring footage of breaking stories, interviews and insights on regional news events, and curated by an editorial news staff — has the potential to bring truthful reporting back to center stage. This trend is already starting to gain traction: see the Guardian’s The Rise of Citizen Journalism.
everything all at once
The world has subtly and profoundly changed. The media landscape has shifted — and with it the playing field for American politics. In the ephemeral world of airwaves and cyberspace, we’re just now recognizing the magnitude of the changes and their impact on public opinion.
When Trump came to power, Americans from every sector mobilized. Those actions created key Democratic wins. Now, a strategy of targeted actions across a wide range of communication-related fields can collectively douse the fake news firestorm that threatens our country. Adopting an approach that includes changes to the law, developing a useful relationship with Fox, connecting to a broader base of voters and rural areas, holding spin-snipers and powerbrokers accountable, funding investigative journalism, creating a strategy center to tackle the fake news frontier, and rethinking the Democratic Party brand — can bring integrity back to news coverage and ensure a long life for American democracy.
the to-do list: 7. protect journalism / 7 part series
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