The Web and Journalism

Civic Technology Community Group,

Hello. In this Community Group, we previously discussed how civic technologies could support the local journalism ecosystem [1].

Along these lines, I would like to share some articles pertaining to past and ongoing deliberations about the Web and journalism in Australia [2], Canada [3], and, more recently, California [4][5].

In a recent Google blog article [5], I discovered some interesting information: only 2% of queries on Google Search are news-related. Meanwhile, almost 62% of adults get their news from social media platforms and that number is increasing [6].

Brainstorming: should journalists on social media be able to obtain special verification badges, a.k.a. digital press passes, to verify that they are journalists and that they adhere to a code of conduct [6]? Should social media platforms compensate press-pass-holding journalists at all, per their content's ratings, or per more intricate algorithms? If so, should content from press-pass-holding journalists be distinguished from other forms of content and be measured, e.g., in terms of shares, across social media platforms to better algorithmically compensate them?

Which other technology-related topics and possibilities with respect to "the future of news" interest you? Any thoughts about real-time journalistic video streams and documentary videos [7] on streaming media services [8], where menus could be provided to navigate content?

Any other thoughts, comments, questions, or ideas on these topics? Thank you.


Best regards,
Adam

[1] https://www.brookings.edu/articles/local-journalism-in-crisis-why-america-must-revive-its-local-newsrooms/
[2] https://www.cnet.com/tech/tech-industry/googles-fight-in-australia-could-change-the-future-of-media/
[3] https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/06/google-tells-canada-it-wont-pay-link-tax-will-pull-news-links-from-search/
[4] https://www.npr.org/2024/04/12/1244416887/google-blocks-california-news-payments-bill
[5] https://blog.google/products/news/california-journalism-preservation-act-puts-news-ecosystem-at-risk/
[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media_as_a_news_source
[7] https://www.documentary.org/
[8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_streaming_media_services