The Un-News
👊 The News :
News since this election has transformed quite a bit. A lot of change has occurred, we now talk about fact-checking and fake news sources. I’m not sure about you, but FaceBook is where I get my news. My network of friends tailor this, so my news source is very biased. I’m also having trouble navigating this new stream, a messy regurgitation of comments and links.
Even Journalists have transformed. We are becoming the journalists. And professional journalists that become free agents will prosper. It’s more about blogging and less about articles.
With such a large number of journalist and content. I feel digital writing is becoming more opinionated. Fueled by massive sharing on social media.
As an example, I write stuff like this in hopes people will share it. That gives me a ego-nudged feedback loop. I tailor my writing to have more of a edge and to provide a fast message.
FaceBook and Twitter are to news, what YouTube was to television.
News starts with facts and consumes those. The facts are the beef patty and the burger is dressed-up with the journalist’s opinions. Much like the McD.L.T the facts are hot and juicy and the condiments are cold and flaky. We want more beef and less lettuce, the bigger the burger the bigger the lettuce.
But opinions matter, people agree with opinions and accept facts, More now than ever, I look for articles that say exactly what I want to say to my friends. There is so much news, I can literally tailor my message. I can passively express an agenda via posting an article to FaceBook. If I want my friends to become more vegan. I can easily find a thousand biased articles to become that voice for me. I don’t ask people to be vegan, I post an article that might convince them to consider that.
Plus, CNN and Fox News are destroying the integrity of news. This election has made that more apparent to the public. Even trusted and established newspapers like The Wall Street Journal are crumbling. The balance of opinion and fact is off-kilter, and that isn’t going to get better.
All of this is pretty obvious and general knowledge. This election has made me hate my FaceBook feed. I’m pretty sure I’m not alone. So, why am I sharing my opinions? Because, I have an idea to fix it. Something I would love and maybe others would also.
It starts with Wiki technology. A simple idea that might already be thought of, but sharing nevertheless.
Imagine a self-generating news source of facts and opinions.
Facts policed by everyone, using the same magic that keeps the WikiPedia accurate. And opinions created by all of us, each one associated to both the author and the fact that generated it.
Above, I’m visualizing this with some sample facts and opinions. It could become a massive mapping of millions of facts. I tried to pick some sample content that was relevant and also apolitical.
But how would a simple fact and a bunch of opinions become a story? Where would the substance of the story come from?
I foresee, facts spawning discussion. Captured via a list of linked opinions. Opinions that become a conversation about that fact. These facts would be entered by everyone and monitored just like WikiPedia pages.
Opinions would also be entered by everyone, from celebrities to normal folks. Opinions change over time, so these could be edited to reflect that.
In the spirit of the internet itself, I see this tool extending the idea of hyperlinks. Opinions would be able to have underlined-hyperlinks that link to other facts or other opinions. Creating a rich and dynamic way to experience discussions. Further mapping together a ‘concept’, with a fun and easy way to see other’s viewpoints.
This massive map could be searched and browsed by subjects, specific facts or even authors. You could search for all opinions from your favorite celebrity, or even a close friend.
Just for fun, I gave this a name. I thought the name ‘WikiThis!’ was cool. And might coin a phrase much like ‘I’ll google that for you’. In this case ‘Let me WikiThis!’
Facts would generally be statements in the form of simple sentences. Opinions would mostly consist of quotes. There would be some difficulties around blurring these lines. Hopefully the community would help solve this. WikiPedia has had difficulties but the vision still lives on.
Thanks for looking, I love sharing ideas like this. In hopes they spark something or anything. Would love for someone to kickstart this to a funded project … so my news doesn’t suck as bad! ;)
I also love to share word clouds from my stories, enjoy :
