You have probably noticed that in the media – everything is awful, and even if it is good news, it will be spun into bad news and negativity.
As newspaper monopolies collapsed, as digital online media swept the world, the newspaper business model also collapsed. Today, there are content mills and new focused “non profit” news organizations such as Fearless Health Journalism | The Examination.
Just a quick visit to their web site reveals a focus on “everything is awful”.
- Big Food and dietitians push ‘anti-diet’ advice, despite rising obesity | The Examination
- Top UK public health official advised vape giant Juul, documents reveal | The Examination
- A decade after its pioneering food law, where does Chile’s obesity crisis stand? | The Examination
- Lead-tainted applesauce pouches sailed through gaps in US food safety system | The Examination
- How lead-tainted applesauce pouches ended up in US stores | The Examination
- British American Tobacco undermines Kenyan health laws in bid for Gen Z | The Examination
- Indian companies are bringing the world’s most polluting industry to Africa. People are getting sick. | The Examination
If you wonder why so many people suffer depression and anxiety, just look at any media outlet: it’s all negativity, all the time. There is nothing good or positive in the world. Everything is awful!
The MSN Start page is crammed with content mill output and mills with an axe to grind (e.g. The Cool Down), and content mills who have fake authors (their bio pictures appear on multiple sites and were sometimes stolen from LinkedIn profile pages of people having nothing to do with the content mill). Some of the organizations admit they are basically AI generated, producing stories for widespread dissemination in the hopes that 10% get shared, go viral and generate sufficient ad revenue clicks.
Then we have the “non profit” news outlets that are funded, who knows how, and which like The Examination, focus on one specific area – and grind their axe steadily on their focus area. These non-profits might improve the quality of reporting in that some of them hire people with formal backgrounds in the subjects that they report on. Thus, they are not a reliant on the “beat reporter” developing experience over time, but instead, hire people with actual subject expertise based on education and work experience. Time will tell if this is an actual improvement, though.
