Media Is Broken. Trust Is Shattered. Here’s How We Rebuild.
The big picture: The media that once informed us now divides us. Trust is gone, facts are optional, and the stories that matter most get buried under noise.
How it fell apart
- Profit over public service: Corporate consolidation turned journalism into clickbait.
- Infotainment wins: Fear, outrage, and division drive ratings — not truth.
- Attention economy: Algorithms reward the extreme, not the accurate.
- Gatekeeping + exclusion: Marginalized voices silenced. Communities ignored.
- Digital overload: Endless content, zero context.
Result: A polluted information system where truth competes with lies — and loses.
Why it matters
- Democracy weakens
- Communities fracture
- Public health suffers
- Empathy erodes
Trust isn’t just a media problem — it’s a society problem.
What healthy media looks like
- ️ Decentralized + diverse: Many voices, many perspectives
- Context over clicks: Root causes, not headlines
- Community-powered: Content shaped by the people it serves
- Solutions-driven: What’s working, not just what’s breaking
- Transparent + accountable: Open sourcing, corrections, media literacy
Bottom line: Media must be rebuilt as a public service — not a product.
How we restore trust
- Support local, independent news
- Build media co-ops + citizen reporting
- Demand transparency from platforms
- Create public-interest newswires and open knowledge commons
- Learn (and teach) media literacy like civic literacy
At The Conference for Our Future:
️ “Media That Heals” — a solutions lab featuring:
- Cooperative newsrooms
- Crowdfunded reporting models
- ActivityPub and decentralized storytelling
- Tools for fact-checking and community-based news hubs
The shift: From media that extracts attention to media that grows understanding.
Trust isn’t lost. It’s waiting to be rebuilt — together.
Join us at mobilizednews.com.
