Facebook, Craig Newmark, Mozilla and others Spend $15 Miln to Combat Declining Trust in News Media

[engine]

Combating declining trust in the news media is being tackled through the News Integrity Initiative, formed and funded by a group of businesses and individuals. The whole fake news angle has taken a higher stage with so many high profile individual making claims about false and fake news, and it's clear that it has had an impact on how people view even legitimate news.

As webmasters we've seen fake news going on for such a long time, but it's now impacting mainstream, so everyone sits up and listens. The genie is out of the bottle and now people are noticing..

The News Integrity Initiative, which will be administered by the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, will unite an initial group of 19 organizations and individuals around the world to make journalism more informative and help news consumers understand it better.

Notable among the list of funders is Facebook, the social network where much of the world's news consumption occurs.Facebook, Craig Newmark, Mozilla and others Spend $15 Miln to Combat Declining Trust in News Media [poynter.org]

[keyplyr]

That's going to be a tough battle. I see the comments from people who think the media is a plot to control their brains. I don't know how all this got started, but I agree... the genie is out of the bottle and it isn't Barbara Eden.

[Webwork]

When we allow our nation's final arbiter of truth - the Supreme Court - to be filled with justices who are appointed based upon their known or predictable biases instead of their undying yearning for neutral and wise justice - what do we expect to follow?

If the highest version of fact finding and truth is viewed as corrupted what then?

[toidi]

Part of the russian plan was to not only interfere in the elections but destroy our faith in the media, worldwide.

[engine]

toidi, this is about a readers perception of the media: From click-bait headlines written by marketers through to fake news.

[Panthro]

I really hope this is a legitimate attempt to help ensure news reporting is just that and not so hyper-biased, poorly-written, and poorly-researched - not just a brainstorm on how to keep doing the same thing, only better. The speed of the web and the money involved has made it too tempting for major media companies to measure their own performance by views and ad revenue. Webmasters know all too well that the means to that end is often clickbait and user engagement by any means (ie - stir people up so they comment on your site and come back for more).

As it stands, the current major outlets are a joke, a far-cry from professional "journalism" in most cases.

[J_RaD]

to late i stopped watching the news 12 months ago.

[seoskunk]

"Without debate, without criticism, no Administration and no country can succeed--and no republic can survive. That is why the Athenian lawmaker Solon decreed it a crime for any citizen to shrink from controversy. And that is why our press was protected by the First Amendment-- the only business in America specifically protected by the Constitution- -not primarily to amuse and entertain, not to emphasize the trivial and the sentimental, not to simply "give the public what it wants"--but to inform, to arouse, to reflect, to state our dangers and our opportunities, to indicate our crises and our choices, to lead, mold, educate and sometimes even anger public opinion." JFK

What does your newspaper talk about? Latest Pop Star?

[keyplyr]

What does your newspaper talk about?

JFK

[tangor]

Mine talks about "fake news" while being guilty of providing most of it. :)