The startup ‘Genius’ was proclaimed to hold huge promise — even touted as “the future of journalism” by The Washington Post. A service that allows people to annotate any text, adding information, context, or their opinions, they envisioned a world powered by their annotations, both online and offline; instead, they “got blamed for killing music journalism, got banned from Google for gaming search results, and got slammed for being a vehicle for harassment online”. The team’s final move was to sell to a company infamous for buying washed up brands. Read full article here
Research
Improving media literacy could boost trust towards the news, IMPRESS report suggests
The UK media is regulated by the likes of IPSO and Ofcom. The report by press regulator IMPRESS highlights the link between low levels of media literacy and trust in the news. The study found that three quarters of those who did not know if journalists were regulated did not trust the news. It suggests that improving media literacy is one way to stem the erosion of trust, and shows that audiences have an appetite for information on news processes. Stakeholders need to collaborate in order to rebuild trust in the news, and independent media is well placed to do this. Read full article here
Merv
February 1, 2023
