Sensational News?

Competing for eyes and ads

As a reporter involved in news gathering and reporting for decades, I'm in mourning. Not just for the state of what passes for journalism in the Online Age (which alone is appalling) but also for how the definition of news itself has radically changed. With some clear exceptions, such as both liberal and conservative outlets that maintain the basic requirements of journalism, the field of news reporting has morphed into a free-for-all. Spewing instead of time-honored reporting.

It seems as if we're riding on the slim edge of a cultural revolution as our ways to communicate expand and become increasingly available to (almost) everyone anywhere. The abundance of reporting outlets requires us to be more educated and particular about our sources. It once was easy to distinguish liberal, conservative, middle-of-the-road, sensationalism, and fiction  - and choose our favorite flavor. Of course, this was largely in the days when news was printed on paper, fact-checked by editors, delivered, or broadcast on TV and radio. All methods that required significant investment in staff, salaries, and infrastructure. With few exceptions – such as gossip magazines and the time-honored National Enquirer, readers could basically trust the validity of mainstream news. Alas, that era went extinct, along with the Golden Toad and Tasmanian Tigers, which also vanished in the 20^th century.

It's ironic that the current online free-for-all is not a new concept but rather a repeat of earlier, highly competitive newspaper publishing in the late 1800s, focused mainly on two giants of publishing in America – William Randolph Hearst's "The New York Journal and Joseph Pulitzer with New York World. It's the era that birthed the term "Yellow Journalism" –likely referring to the yellow ink that sometimes appeared on newsprint.

Readers were treated to increasingly graphic photos and descriptions of accidents, battles, murders, and tragedies that clearly failed "The Breakfast Test." This concept originated in newsrooms where the standard was based on how graphic a photo could be before it forced readers to shove aside their breakfast in disgust.

In fact, Yellow Journalism even helped spawn The Spanish American War. In 1898, the New York Journal ran headline stories about the explosion of the USS Maine in the waters off Havana, Cuba, in which 266 crew members were killed. The Journal named Spain as the perpetrator. The story was rushed out with little evidence in the race to be 'first and best' in the U.S. It was, according to historians, a sensational story designed to sell newspapers, free of any factual evidence. And that it did! But at the same time, those competitive newspapers directly influenced the start of the Spanish American War. A tragic example of the power of the press.

The passage of time and expansion of newspapers throughout the U.S. only added to the power of the press. Eventually, in 1947, a federal commission established guidelines for journalists and broadcasters. Those guidelines were meant to be the end of fact-free reporting in the pursuit of selling newspapers. Publishers and reporters committed themselves to being responsible and accountable, kicking off a new era in journalism.

That informal 'law of the land' eventually changed the character of news reporting that is ethically applied to all forms of media. That is, until the advent of the Information Age and the subsequent opening up of a new form of the Wild, Wild West. Today, we can still access legitimate, professional news sources online, anytime, day and night. However, because the Internet is open to all and lacks governance that might infringe on global and individual freedom, information, disinformation, propaganda, pornography, and dangers are at our fingertips.

Of course, most of us feel no urge to access the dark part of the Web, but the demand for us to judge what's legit or fake, safe or dangerous, is now an individual responsibility. And it's about to get even more challenging.

Artificial intelligence is already permeating the Internet – and most of the time, we don't even know the information we're reading is the product of bits and bytes instead of from a human brain. There is buzz about the next frontier called 'general artificial intelligence' or GAI. This is the training of an algorithm that works without a human behind the curtain. For those of us not deep into tech – here is an accepted, simple definition from supergeek-speak – "Algorithms act as an exact list of instructions that conduct specified actions step by step in either hardware- or software-based routines."

This GAI-speak comes with a warning too dire to ignore. One acknowledged expert even suggests that over decades of development of GAI, civilization itself could be "wiped out." This artificial intelligence doesn't just respond – it creates content from text to music and more. It's not just in our future; it's here now and being used in ever-more expansive applications.

Now, you and I (even if you're half my age) may not live to see the ultimate product of this powerful technology. But some big brains are suggesting that civilization could "be wiped out" by unregulated GAI within the next 100 to 200 years.

This warning comes just as we're worrying about climate change. What's next, you might ask? Well, we've been in dire straits before. In 1910, Halley's Comet was due to pass by the Earth, and doomsayers predicted there would be a "celestial collision." There was worldwide panic with newspaper headlines such as "Comet May Kill All Earth Life, Says Scientist." Furthermore, people rushed to buy "bottled air," and a group of believers in Oklahoma tried (and thankfully failed) to sacrifice a virgin. All we have to do is unplug to save the world from self-destruction.

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