Newsgeist is “a gathering of 150 key practitioners and thinkers from the worlds of journalism, technology, and public policy who are re-imagining the future of the news,” usually (though not always) at Arizona State University. It’s sponsored by Google and the Knight Foundation (disclosure: a Nieman Lab funder), and it serves as a significant meeting of the minds; Google’s AMP was born out of brainstorming at one recent iteration of Newsgeist, for instance. I’ve been a happy attendee over the past few years.
Most of Newsgeist is made up of unconference-y sessions that are off the record. But there is one part of the event that is recorded and rendered public: a series of Ignite sessions featuring some of the smartest people in digital media. Those have been posted to YouTube, but seeing as none of them have even 200 views at this writing, they could use a little more publicity. So here’s a selection of videos of the Ignite talks held at the most recent Newsgeist in November — lots of smart thinking embedded in each.
Joshua Benton is the senior writer and former director of Nieman Lab. You can reach him via email (joshua_benton@harvard.edu) or Twitter DM (@jbenton).
Benton, Joshua. "Brain food: Here are 15 smart people talking for 5 minutes each about journalism’s future." Nieman Journalism Lab. Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard, 16 Feb. 2016. Web. 10 Sep. 2024.
APA
Benton, J. (2016, Feb. 16). Brain food: Here are 15 smart people talking for 5 minutes each about journalism’s future. Nieman Journalism Lab. Retrieved September 10, 2024, from https://www.niemanlab.org/2016/02/brain-food-here-are-15-smart-people-talking-for-5-minutes-each-about-journalisms-future/
Chicago
Benton, Joshua. "Brain food: Here are 15 smart people talking for 5 minutes each about journalism’s future." Nieman Journalism Lab. Last modified February 16, 2016. Accessed September 10, 2024. https://www.niemanlab.org/2016/02/brain-food-here-are-15-smart-people-talking-for-5-minutes-each-about-journalisms-future/.
Wikipedia
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| url = https://www.niemanlab.org/2016/02/brain-food-here-are-15-smart-people-talking-for-5-minutes-each-about-journalisms-future/
| title = Brain food: Here are 15 smart people talking for 5 minutes each about journalism’s future
| last = Benton
| first = Joshua
| work = [[Nieman Journalism Lab]]
| date = 16 February 2016
| accessdate = 10 September 2024
| ref = {{harvid|Benton|2016}}
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Big tech is painting itself as journalism’s savior. We should tread carefully.
“We set out to explore how big tech’s ‘philanthrocapitalism’ could be reshaping the news industry, focusing on countries in the Global South…Our findings suggest an emerging web of dependency between cash-strapped newsrooms and Silicon Valley’s deep pockets.”
Rebooting the Minnesota Star Tribune: A conversation with Steve Grove
“We would like to see at least 25% of our P&L look different in a couple of years than it does now…I don’t think any media company right now can just be banking on subscriptions to save the day.”
