TED Talk: Lara Setrakian: 3 ways to fix a broken news industry

Something is very wrong with the news industry. Trust in the media has hit an all-time low; we're inundated with sensationalist stories, and consistent, high-quality reporting is scarce, says journalist Lara Setrakian. She shares three ways we can fix the news to better inform all of us about the complex issues of our time.

http://www.ted.com/talks/lara_setrakian_3_ways_to_fix_a_broken_news_industry

Lara is uniquely motivated by her global and culturally diverse experience that is resonating with Americans following the U.S. presidential election and the rise of #fakenews.  While social media continues to gain influence in how people get their news, Lara argues that change needs to come from both government efforts, as well as professional journalists themselves.

• Idea number one: we need news that's built on deep-domain knowledge.

• Idea number two: we need a kind of Hippocratic oath for the news industry, a pledge to first do no harm.

• The third idea? We need to embrace complexity if we want to make sense of a complex world. Embrace complexity — not treat the world simplistically, because simple isn't accurate. 

Lara Setrakian is building innovative news platforms that stand ready to engage and explain the complexity of our world.


Why you should listen
Lara Setrakian  is the co-founder and CEO of News Deeply, a startup that creates news platforms and builds passionate communities centered on the most pressing issues of our time. Her team's inaugural site, Syria Deeply, launched in 2012 and won the 2013 Excellence in Online Journalism Award from the National Press Foundation. The team went on to launch Ebola Deeply, Water Deeply, Arctic Deeply, Refugees Deeply and the Women & Girls Hub; the model is expanding to cover new topics in environment, public health, geopolitics and social impact. Each site is staffed by beat reporters and editors with substantial experience of the subjects they cover and augmented by a network of contributors, commentators and area experts who share their perspectives. A hard-edged optimist, Lara believes in building innovative news platforms that are rooted in public service, that stand ready to engage and explain the complexity of our world. She also believes that there are successful media business models to be built -- ones that capturing the value of specialized information and the power of targeted reader communities. By fusing news and community, journalism and product design, she is developing a way to sustain in-depth and continuous coverage of vital issues. In light of that work Inc Magazine called her one of "8 Women Who Could Own the Future," while Fast Company named her one of the "Most Creative People in Business."