EPIC 2014

EPIC 2014

I've only just spotted this, but it apparently has been online for months. It's a "documentary" set in the year 2014 and about the creation of one huge, dominant news site that everyone uses and contributes to. You get exactly the news you want, even if it's mostly rumour and speculation. The New York Times, meanwhile, becomes a paper-only newsletter for the elite and the elderly. The Financial Times yesterday said the film has been viewed by Rupert Murdoch and other media luminaries, and they're scared. So what to do? I noticed that, even in the film, people paid freelance editors to filter the news for them, and presumably do some fact-checking or at least handicap the sources for reliability. That's the ticket. People like the National Enquirer as entertainment and (I believe) watch Fox News as sort of a protest, but at least a signficant portion of the world will still want accurate news. The main issue facing any news organization is that the readership no longer trusts them. They have to win back that trust.