Strategy note #9: What comes after the news? (Part 2)
This is the second in my series of strategy notes exploring the future of "news" - read the first here.
In my last post I looked across ten trends in news media which are reshaping the modern information environment:
- Dying business models
- Declining trust in news media
- Oligarchic media ownership
- Algorithmic, biased, news filtering
- Tech platforms control distribution
- Pull-backs from content moderation and fact-checking
- AI-generated news content
- Alternative news platforms
- Low media literacy
- Enclosure of the knowledge commons
Many of these trends go against what might be considered the "utility function" of news media for individuals, societies, and societal systems:
"The utility function of news serves multiple purposes across individual, social, and systemic levels:
For individuals:
- Information acquisition - Provides knowledge needed for daily decision-making
- Risk management - Alerts people to potential threats or opportunities
- Sense-making - Helps interpret complex events and their implications
- Entertainment - Satisfies curiosity and interest in novel information
For societies:
- Shared knowledge base - Creates common understanding of current events
- Social cohesion - Facilitates conversation and connection around shared information
- Democratic function - Enables informed civic participation and accountability
- Cultural transmission - Perpetuates and evolves societal values and norms
For systems:
- Market efficiency - Distributes information that influences economic behavior
- Power monitoring - Scrutinizes authorities and institutions ("watchdog" function)
- Agenda-setting - Influences which issues receive public and policy attention
- Historical documentation - Creates the "first draft of history"
The relative importance of these functions varies depending on the context, the specific news outlet, and how individuals consume and process news information. Different stakeholders (audiences, journalists, publishers, advertisers, governments) may prioritize different aspects of this utility function based on their own interests and values."
Epistemic Technologies and the Future of News
In this post, I'll explore the range of emerging Epistemic Technologies which will potentially augment — or wholesale replace — traditional news media to achieve these utility functions.
Once again deferring to Claude as an on-demand, first-shot encyclopaedia:
**Insert Image 3 Here**"An epistemic technology is a tool, method, or system that helps humans create, organize, store, retrieve, and distribute knowledge. These technologies fundamentally change how we access, evaluate, and build upon information, influencing our cognitive processes and knowledge acquisition capabilities.
- Physical tools like writing systems, books, libraries, and filing systems that have historically transformed how we record and access knowledge
- Methodological approaches like the scientific method, logical reasoning, or statistical analysis that provide structured ways to develop and evaluate knowledge
- Digital systems including search engines, databases, AI systems, and collaborative platforms that have dramatically expanded our ability to process, share, and build upon information
"These technologies don't just store information but reshape our relationship with knowledge itself. They influence what questions we ask, how we process information, what we consider valid evidence, and how we collaborate to build shared understanding.
The concept of epistemic technologies emphasizes that our knowledge systems aren't neutral containers but active participants in shaping how we think and what we can know. Each new epistemic technology—from writing to the printing press to the internet—has profoundly transformed human intellectual capabilities and social organization."
In particular anticipating the forthcoming AI Slop Tsunami … what are the epistemic technologies we should be looking for in future?
I was already exploring these questions way back in Memia 2020.17 … at the time the debate was focused on how to counter the waves of mis- and dis-information related to the Covid-19 pandemic:
"At the heart of this debate lie at least two axes between free and controlled expression, and state vs private control:
…But is it really up to a small number of Silicon Valley companies to set the rules, govern, design and operate massive content moderation/censorship apparatus, especially across international borders? (And do they even want to do it - for one the costs are enormous, even if AI will be able to do more and more over time… and don’t mention the US$52 million settlement for content moderators who developed PTSD on the job.)"
**Insert Image 4 Here**(Well we all know how that turned out… X and Meta have abandoned their content moderation / "fact checking" apparatus, instead reverting to crowd-sourced "Community Notes" … which in their current guise is turtles all the way down…)
