be corporations (see Cambridge Analytica) or non-profit NGOs or think tanks. This can make it hard to track down the source of messaging, since there’s plausible deniability all around. It’s all a rabbit hole that can get crazy-making if you look too deeply into it, but the upshot is that our global information space is turning into a silicon-based Mad Max. Without a fact-based, nurturing information space – one that is designed for public benefit – the challenges we are facing have little chance of being overcome and the amazing potential we all have has little chance of being realised. In fact, without a fact-based, nurturing information space, the Covid vaccine roll-out is going to be an utter mess. So what do you do as a media CYBER-AVENGERS ASSEMBLE company? Simply, your mission in 2021 will be to do everything you can to produce and promote truths and to make them available to people. And this can happen in all kinds of interesting and creative ways. In your business life, it can often happen through a free and frank exchange of ideas. As trade shows and in- person conferences wind down (they
them. A candidate ten points behind will be using every dirty cyber trick in the book to get back in the race. You need to offer them alternatives, better information and ways to make them empowered individuals rather than mere followers (they may not like this, but it’s the right thing to do). “Don’t be evil” – but really mean it this time. Did you really get into the media industry to just to make a bunch of money? If you did, then
robust method for finding them and testing them. Launch your own start- ups. Don’t wait for someone else to do the right thing. If you have an idea for a new – better – way to get deliver factuality and ideas where they are needed, build something. As a FEED reader, you should know by now that it has never been easier to test an idea across different platforms with different audiences. To misquote Mark Zuckerberg: “Move fast and fix things.” Yes, I am cheerleading. And yes, I really believe in all this stuff. Climate change is the biggest immediate threat we face. The scale of transformation that needs to have happened yesterday is huge (and really positive) (but also scary) (but also really positive). I’m sure you’ve already heard it from That Guy, but the human and economic toll of the past year ’s Covid is tiny when compared to what’s going to hit us with climate change – what is hitting us right now, in fact. And mitigating climate change also means having to solve all sorts of other problems of inequality, resource distribution and democratic participation. It’s really a chance for the biggest upgrade in hundreds (if not thousands) of years and it’s absolutely impossible without the full support and global participation of the media space. But our chances of pulling that off are slight if we don’t get this cyberwar thing sorted out. An interconnected world is useless if no one knows what is real and what’s not. “The truth will set you free”, they say. Let’s see if that’s really true.
that wasn’t a very smart move, was it? As long as you have these amazing tools at your disposal, try to use them to help people. Look for cool opportunities to marry your technology to people’s desire to see, hear and experience the truth. And the truth isn’t always about science – sometimes the truth is Miles Davis or Shakespeare. Listen to experts.
will never return to their former status), online opportunities for connection and knowledge-sharing are popping up all over the place. The great thing about Zoom-type platforms and conferences built around them is that they help to circumvent social media platforms. Social media has proved to be quite
TO MISQUOTE MARK ZUCKERBERG: ‘MOVE FAST
AND FIX THINGS’
Real experts. Some of them have appeared in the pages of FEED , in our Genius Interviews. Scholars like Nina Jankowicz, Adam Alter, Lauren Klein and Taha Yasseri have devoted a huge amount of brainpower to solving the problems in our information space ( feedmagazine.tv/interviews- category/interviews ). Turn their insights into actions. Always insist on factuality. And if you don’t know the real facts – I know that’s unthinkable – implement a
‘anti-social.’ Many of the paid-for conferencing apps are offering a renewed level playing field that really does allow people to share ideas free from the influence of algorithms with their own agendas. Start getting engaged with your governments – at the local level especially. A lot of people just plain don’t understand how media technology works – or what amazing tech and tools are waiting to empower
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