Follow-up: Redesign the news

This exercise was originally posted at: http://maritimeorca0.blogspot.com/2014/05/redesign-news.html

The Task

Redesign how the news works. Figure out how you think the news should work and explain the basics of your ideas.

My Idea

There are two primary issues with how the news should function that I wanted to address. The first is that the news that people want and need is highly variable due to the fact that no two people are the same. The second is that there should be a degree of neutrality (bias is human nature and impossible to actually eliminate) to the presentation of news.

For that first point, the ideal approach to the news would obviously need some interactive components. The Internet seems to be the logical approach to distribution. People could find a news source and register their location, other locations they want to follow (family and friends) their interests, and other information that could help filter the news. We could also have some sort of ratings system (5 stars if you like it) to help determine what kinds of articles should appear for an individual.

Addressing neutrality is trickier. The big issue is to prevent a common influence. A centralized news source would be a horrible idea. Even a series of competing news sources could be similarly influenced by the competitive nature. I will say that we should get our news from some form of news search engine that is separate from any actual news source. The news sources should be highly variable and include family and friends (social networking), news reporters, official sources (representatives for local, state, national, police departments, your favorite sports teams, businesses and brands you are following, publishers and developers of upcoming video games, etc.), freelance writers, and those who have been personally affected by a story.

A degree of standards would probably have to be developed. We would need to have methods for attaching news items to the news event, type of information (Fact sheet, opinion piece, official releases, reactions, photos, videos, etc.), and source (in case we want to block a horribly biased individual or follow a terrific writer). Much like the search and the source, standards should be kept separate to minimize the potential for biased decisions.

 

Notes

I obviously have issues with the bias of the media. I have already vented several times on my personal blog about my issues with what’s going on.

 

Upon completion of this exercise, please fill out the following form:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0Agcdh--NHOS0dDhhQ2lvaUJvZjBDOXpBelE4a0lzamc&output=html
Responses to the above form are collected and stored in a spreadsheet that can be viewed at:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dDhhQ2lvaUJvZjBDOXpBelE4a0lzamc6MA