Rolf Dobelli – whose work was influential in the founding of our Dutch sister site, De Correspondent – is of the view that news has no value at all. Comparing breaking news (which he defines as "information on events from around the world") to sugar, the Swiss writer suggests we should cut the news out of our diet completely.
He’s not the only one who suggests a radical rethink of the function and form of news. Both Sanity and Better Politics correspondents Tanmoy Goswami and Nesrine Malik have spoken about their intention to help transform how the news media covers their beats. Then in November 2019, we published Dutch journalist Joris Luyendijk’s take on "why good reporting won’t put bad things right". So, do we still need the news?
On Thursday 23 January, at 15:00 CET, we’ll be hosting our next transnational chat with media professionals from around the world. Some run newsrooms for media companies that are household names, others have started their own independent media projects; some are academics, others are "media insiders", all will be joining our members to debate over two hours to establish just what is the value and role of news media – if any?
Our confirmed guests:
- Indrajit Gupta, co-founder and director, Founding Fuel, and former founding editor, Forbes India @IndrajitGupta
- Julie Posetti, Australian journalist and global research director at the International Center for Journalists (US) @julieposetti
- Alan Rusbridger, former editor of the Guardian (UK) @arusbridger
- Mizuto Tanaka, executive producer and head of media design team for NHK, the public broadcaster in Japan
- Ayodeji Rotinwa, deputy editor of African Arguments, pan-African media platform covering African politics, culture and economics across the continent (Nigeria) @ayodejirotinwa
- Catherine Edwards, editor, at digital news publisher The Local (Sweden) @CatJREdwards
- Alberto Puliafito, editor and co-founder of Slow News (Italy) @albertopi
- Rachel Hamada, co-founder of Scottish investigative journalism cooperative the Ferret and community organiser, Bureau of Investigative Journalism (UK) @rachelhamada
- Alan Soon, co-founder and CEO, Splice Media (Singapore) @alansoon
- Mariana Santos, co-founder and CEO of Chicas Poderosas, an organisation launched in Latin America promoting female leadership in media @marysaints
- Kareem Chehayeb, lead investigative journalist of The Public Source, Lebanon @chehayebk
- Jay Rosen, journalism professor at NYU and director of the Membership Puzzle Project (US) @jayrosen_nyu
- Stephanie Busari, editor at CNN International, Nigeria
- Jakub Górnicki, co-founder of Outriders, with a focus on foreign reporting and coaching digital media (Poland) @jakubgornicki
- Paul Salopek, National Geographic journalist walking the world for "Out of Eden", a decade-long experiment in "slow journalism" (Myanmar) @paulsalopek
- Kunal Talgeri, co-founder, Kaleido Media Labs, and publisher of children’s newspaper Key Passage (India) @KunalTalgeri
- Olalla Tuñas Martínez, journalist at Civio, an independent nonprofit news organisation (Spain) @olalla_tunas
- Chani Guyot, publisher of RED/ACCIÓN, a startup producing constructive news (Argentina) @chaniguyot
- Mijal Iastrebner, co-founder of SembraMedia, a nonprofit dedicated to increasing the diversity of media voices in Latin America and Spain @mijebner
- Javier Borelli, editor at Tiempo Argentino, the biggest cooperative media outlet in Argentina @JaviBorelli
- Kiki Mordi is an investigative journalist, filmmaker and radio presenter who worked on BBC Africa Eye’s "Sex For Grades" @kikimordi
- Felix M Simon, media researcher and Leverhulme Doctoral Scholar, Oxford Internet Institute (UK) @_felixsimon_
- Augustin Naepels, co-founder Les Jours, a media which serialises news topics as "obsessions" (France) @AugustinN
Things to note:
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