It’ll be no great surprise to read that the rapid democratization of mobile and online technology has significantly changed how information is shared and interpreted. Today, almost anyone with a phone can voice their opinion online, making it harder to know what’s accurate. When anyone can be a source, and everyone has a point of view, how do we know what’s true?
If 2017 focused on raising awareness of phony news and media manipulation, I predict that 2018 will be the year of solutions from news organizations, tech platforms, and consumers.
News organizations have been given a clear call-to-action to reaffirm the value of news to their readers. Journalism’s code of ethics needs to be updated to match the realities of today’s landscape. The 24-hour news cycle and real-time digital dissemination increase pressure on reporters and editors to get news right within shorter editorial deadlines. How news organizations respond will directly affect whether they remain relevant. Their business model — and our democracy — depend on it.
Next come the tech platforms that have played a big role in inadvertently spreading misinformation. They’ll be a major player next year as congressional scrutiny widens and more information is revealed about how platform distribution affected the 2016 presidential election. As an engineer and a proponent of new technology, I will be the first to say that the scale of media manipulation, which came to light last year, was a huge surprise, and engineers have been working hard to come up with maintainable solutions. Initial steps have been taken in 2017, and I predict that we’ll see bigger, more sustainable solutions toward removing bad actors.
Lastly, I predict that 2018 may be the year in which readers use the power of their hive-mind to ask tough questions and hold reporters’ feet to the fire, acting as an essential stress test for good journalism. This starts with understanding how to identify credible news sources. I think people want to be effective news consumers, and they’ll take on the responsibility to become highly media literate. People don’t like being conned or lied to, but to a great extent, that’s what’s happened over the last year, particularly by disreputable sources that were amplified on social media.
Media education will spread, and as purveyors of phony news continue to be exposed, more people will learn how to recognize the markers that distinguish between real and fake reporting. Once credibility is established, the next step will be for readers to differentiate between the types of media that they’re absorbing. Educated consumers will discern a news story from an opinion piece and from an advertisement. They’ll also recognize satire when they see it. With these skills available to them, readers will be equipped to understand the difference between good and bad journalism.
The good news is that we raised awareness of the misinformation issue over this past year and started the hard task of fixing it. Looking to 2018, we’ll need to build on this work to create truly sustainable solutions. The responsibility is with all of us.
Craig Newmark is the founder of craigslist and Craig Newmark Philanthropies.
Gordon Crovitz Serving readers over advertisers
Feli Sánchez The year for guerrilla user research
C.W. Anderson The social media apocalypse
Elizabeth Jensen Show your work
Sarah Marshall Loyalty as the key performance indicator
David Skok Finding an information-life balance
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen The Snapchat scenario and the risk of more closed platforms
Ruth Palmer Risks will grow for news subjects — especially minorities
Monika Bauerlein The firehose of falsehood
Miguel Castro The arrival of the impact producer
Alice Antheaume Are you fluent in AI?
Rick Berke Value is the watchword
Mira Lowe The year of the local watchdog
Sam Sanders Shine the light on ourselves
Laura E. Davis Writing answers before you know the question
Matt Thompson Here come the attention managers
Kristen Muller The year of the voter
S. Mitra Kalita The arc of news and audience
Amie Ferris-Rotman More female reporters abroad (please)
Jennifer Coogan The future is female
Matt Carlson Attacks on the press will get worse
Will Sommer The year local media gets conservative
Felix Salmon Covering bitcoin while owning bitcoin
Tim Carmody Watch out for Spotify
Vanessa K. DeLuca Women’s voices take center stage
Dheerja Kaur Fun with subscription products
Corey Johnson The pro-fact resistance
Jarrod Dicker Honesty in advertising
Craig Newmark Working together toward sustainable solutions
Borja Echevarría TV goes digital, digital goes TV
Rubina Madan Fillion Unlocking the potential of AI
Mariano Blejman News games rule
Caitria O'Neill The new court of public opinion
Rodney Benson Better, less read, and less trusted
Hossein Derakhshan Television has won
Christopher Meighan Passive partnership is in the rearview
Niketa Patel Live journalism comes of age
Mariana Moura Santos Think local, act global
Julia B. Chan Looking for loyalty in all the right places
Aron Pilhofer We can’t leave the business to the business side any more
Andrew Haeg The year journalists become relationship builders
Eric Ulken The year local publishers get smart(er) about change
Zizi Papacharissi Women come back
Tanzina Vega It’s time for media companies to #PassTheMic
Tamar Charney We get serious about algorithms
Justin Kosslyn The year journalists become digital security experts
Caitlin Thompson Podcasting models mature and diversify
Monique Judge Letting black women tell their own stories
Nushin Rashidian Publishers seek ad dollar alternatives
Mary Walter-Brown Show a little vulnerability
Emma Carew Grovum Newsroom culture becomes a priority
Alexios Mantzarlis Moving fake news research out of the lab
Ståle Grut Reclaiming audience interaction from social networks
Mike Caulfield Refactoring media literacy for the networked age
Kathleen McElroy Building a news video experience native to mobile
Luke O'Neil The end is already here
Jesse Holcomb Information disorder, coming to a congressional district near you
Mary Meehan Real lives are at stake in rural areas
Susie Banikarim R.I.P. Pivot to Video (2017–2017)
Pia Frey Address users as individuals
Juliette De Maeyer A responsible press criticism
Joyce Barnathan It will be harder to bury the news
Manoush Zomorodi Self-help as a publishing strategy
Amy Webb Listen to weak signals
Brian Lam Sketchy ethics around product reviews
Marcela Donini and Thiago Herdy Collaboration is the way forward for Brazilian journalism
Matt DeRienzo A recession, then a collapse
Mario García Storytelling finally adapts to mobile
Raney Aronson-Rath Transparency is the antidote to fake news
Joanne Lipman Journalists inventing revenue streams
Rachel Schallom Better design helps differentiate opinion and news
Errin Haines At the ballot, it’s time to count black women
Debra Adams Simmons And a woman shall lead them
Rachel Davis Mersey AI, with real smarts
Jim Brady With the people, not just of the people
Nicholas Quah Stop talking trash about young people
Tanya Cordrey Finally, the seeds of radical reinvention
Mi-Ai Parrish Blockchain and trust
Millie Tran and Stine Bauer Dahlberg (Hint: It’s about your brand)
Jennifer Brandel and Mónica Guzmán The editorial meeting of the future
Lam Thuy Vo Breaking free from the tyranny of the loudest
Jim Moroney Newspapers have to be good enough for readers to pay for
Federica Cherubini The rise of bridge roles in news organizations
Michael Kuntz The only pivot that might work
Claire Wardle Disinformation gets worse
Lucas Graves From algorithms to institutions
Adam Thomas Sharing is caring: The year of the mentor
Nicholas Diakopoulos Fortifying social media from automated inauthenticity
Kinsey Wilson Facebook and Google: Help out or pay up
Amy King Let’s amplify visual voice
Cory Haik Suffering from realness, pivoting to impact
Hannah Cassius The year of the echo-chamber escapists
Vivian Schiller Pivot to tomorrow
Raju Narisetti Mirror, mirror on the wall
Alan Soon The rise of start of psychographic, micro-targeted media
Kawandeep Virdee Zines had it right all along
Cristina Wilson The year of the Instagram Story
Sydette Harry Listen to your corner and watch for the hook
Daniel Trielli The rich get richer, the poor scramble
Ray Soto VR reaches the next level
Jessica Parker Gilbert Design connects storytelling and strategy
Frédéric Filloux External forces
Trushar Barot The Jio-fication of India
Taylor Lorenz Social and media will split
Francesco Marconi The year of machine-to-machine journalism
Andrew Ramsammy The year ownership mattered
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Seeking trust in fragmented spaces
Jassim Ahmad Thriving on change
Edward Roussel Eyes, ears, and brains
Jacqui Cheng Retailers move into content
Steve Grove The midterms are an opportunity
Michelle Ferrier The year of the great reckoning
Heather Bryant Building the ecosystems for collaboration
Richard Tofel The platforms’ power demands more reporters’ attention
Jared Newman Venture funding and digital news don’t mix
Rodney Gibbs Tech workers turn to journalism
Carlos Martínez de la Serna The new journalism commons
Nikki Usher The year of The Washington Post
Pablo Boczkowski The rise of skeptical reading
Joanne McNeil Gatekeeping the gatekeepers
Charo Henríquez Training is an investment, not an expense
José Zamora Revenue-first journalism
Michelle Garcia Navigating journalistic transparency
Corey Ford The empire strikes back
Jennifer Choi Standing up for us and for each other
Marie Gilot No assholes allowed
Matt Boggie The intellectual equivalent of the Dead Sea
Basile Simon We need better career paths for news nerds
Cindy Royal Your journalism curriculum is obsolete
Mandy Velez texting is lit rn, fam
Yvonne Leow The rise of video messaging
P. Kim Bui The reckoning is only beginning
Imaeyen Ibanga Longform video leads the way
Alastair Coote The year of self-improvement
Damon Krukowski Reviving the alt-weekly soul
Evie Nagy Pivot to mobile video frustration
Sally Lehrman Trust comes first
Carrie Brown-Smith Transparency finally takes off
Ernst-Jan Pfauth Publishing less to give readers more
Molly de Aguiar Good journalism won’t be enough
Julia Beizer A longer view on the pivot
Dannagal G. Young Stop covering politics as a game
Dan Shanoff You down with OTT? (Yeah, DTC)
Helen Havlak Keywords, not publishers, power the world’s biggest feeds
Sam Ford The year of investing in processes
Juleyka Lantigua Women of color will reclaim and monetize our time
Lanre Akinola Making noise is not a strategy
Andrew Losowsky The year of resilience
Jamie Mottram From pageviews to t-shirts
Pete Brown Push alerts, personalized
Sara M. Watson Feeds will open up to new user-determined filters
Alfred Hermida Going beyond mobile-first
Betsy O'Donovan and Melody Kramer Skepticism and narcissism
Tracie Powell The muting of underserved voices
Renée Kaplan The year of quiet adjustments (shhh)
Doris Truong Computer vision vs. the Internet vigilantes
Bill Keller A growing turn to philanthropy
Emily Goligoski Looking beyond news for inspiration
Kyle Ellis Let’s build our way out of this
Eric Nuzum Beyond the narrative arc
Umbreen Bhatti The trust problem isn’t new