TED Conversations

Alisa Miller

President & CEO, Public Radio International (PRI)

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TED Attendee

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What do you want from the news?

What do you want from the news each day? Do you get it? How does the news impact you each day? How does it make you feel?

Is the news positively impacting your life? Why or why not?

Answers that explain in personal narrative how the news impacts you are greatly welcomed!

Related Talks:
Topics: community impact journalism news public good
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  • Karolin Freiberger

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    May 11 2011: Well I believe, there is not just a necessity for transparency and facts, it is also about news organizations that need to shift their focus; because the problem lies as well in the concept news broadcasts and newspapers are still working after. When Suhel says, it is boring to hear the same news over and over again than this also comes from the new situation newsrooms are in nowadays. When televison news are about to air at the end of the day, everyone has already heard about Bin Laden's death. There is no monopoly of information or information-access anymore that newsrooms own. I believe it is a greater change that traditional media needs to undergo that just cutting back opinion. In times of customization, it might be more important that news are made based on the trending interest - gathering news topics from the crowd or the cloud. This would also mean: a new concept of agenda setting. Surely journalists should not stop caring about the not-hot-topics and still cover and investigate stories about the unheard. But in my opinion journalists and media companies also need to overcome the old concepts of what's news in general.
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    Lindsay Newland Bowker 50+

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    May 8 2011: Having engaged in your TED discussion on who we trust in the news, and having seen your TED Talk on the news about the news..I am beginning to question what I even mean when I refer to "news". I know that I want a more balanced picture of important global events and I know that right now it's very hard work to piece that together. It takes a great deal of personal commitment and energy to really understand both sides of a global event where the views of other nation are important for us to understand..where failing to understand them has ramifications for our lives and our future.In one of many Ted Conversations this past week arising from the news of Bin Laden's death , a TED member in India shared the headlines of a major Calcutta daily for each of several days. That story was not told here or in any western news and we need to understand and think through what we really think as global citizens about the Pakistani take on all this.The same with Egypt's revolution.No one in what we consider main stream news is telling the unfolding Egyptian story and its posisble implications for te US, for peace in the middle east, for the termination of the Camp David Accord long hoped for by the Egyptian majority..Few in the U.S., evenamong the educated and informed here at TED Conversations, seem aware that to the majority of Egyptian anti Mubarak and anti-US sentiments are one in the same.We can't do without whatever the news used to be( was it ever really that?). A healthy, independent vibrant fourth estate is indispensable to freedom throughout the world. And to me in our modernal global wolrd that means the fourth estate has to provide balanced and acurate reporting on all event s of global significance.
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      Meher Like Spring Rabbit 10+

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      May 9 2011: GREAT COMMENT! You really put your finger on it.
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        Lindsay Newland Bowker 50+

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        May 11 2011: So Meher how do we revive the fourth estate? How do we help get themessage out, as I believe Alisa has tried to do here at TED that the fourth estate is in terrible trouble. I truly blieve withou tthe fourth estate..without a free press reporting both side on global as well as important local news we can't have a vibrant healthy democracy. Do we need to become citizen journalists not in the haphazard opinoins are more fun than facts world of most blogs but writing as journalists..in the trdaution of journalism..? Are you personally willing to do that on your own life..not to cover everything of cures but to write responsinly about events you know in your heart we are not gettimng the whole story or the right story on? What about setting up a blog of "citizen" journalists..would you be one? Would you help organaize and run such a thing?..
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          Mario Tinoco

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          Jul 1 2011: Lindsay, i suggest you take a look on the Taste Series Conversations on TED. I've been engaged on one about Iran and it was very interesting.

          And we are really doomed by west's journalistic view (and it's sooo hard for us to go searching for enlightenment on different countries news.
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    Meher Like Spring Rabbit 10+

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    May 8 2011: Get rid of the punditry and straw man debaters.
    Do away with advertisements.
    Put the experts who did the work and understand the research on the screen to tell us what its about.
    Get rid of the actors reading scripts.
    Create very distinct lines of separation between news and opinion, like not even on the same channel. I don't want to turn on what should be strictly news and be subjected to asinine commentary by some outrageous puppet sensationalizing everything just because I turned it on at the wrong time.
    Give me FACTS
    Give me Figures
    Give me TED!

    The "news" as done by popular media lost my attention a long time ago, and will never get it back. turn off the T.V. folks it tells nothing by lies. the "news" wants nothing but money and power, and has absolutely nothing to offer the world anymore. Good Information comes direct from the source, that is what the internet is for.

  • Karl Hummel

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    May 7 2011: I want the news to report what's happening and what people like me are thinking and doing about it.

  • James Janisko

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    Apr 23 2011: Yes, my version of the news would be commercial free and yes, there would be more money spent by news stations on research, but on both accounts I see this as an improvement.

  • Sam Loyd Janlov

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    Apr 21 2011: Most leading news channels, including leading newspapers, are part of a giant propaganda machine. Unfortunately, most people cannot begin to imagine the extent of this manipulation and deceit. Our entire culture and entertainment industry is built around it. The greatest lies perpetuated and communicated by the media today is, imho, the crimes against humanity carried out by the "Western Empire" (U.S. and U.K.). These crimes are actually so extensive, pervasive, and atrocious that most people refuse to believe it even when blatantly confronted with the truth. This phenomenon brings to mind a certain popular passage:

    "...in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because... in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods. It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Even though the facts which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to think that there may be some other explanation. For the grossly impudent lie always leaves traces behind it, even after it has been nailed down, a fact which is known to all expert liars in this world and to all who conspire together in the art of lying. These people know only too well how to use falsehood for the basest purposes."
    - Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler, 1925.

    For those interested in the propaganda perpetrated by modern news organizations feel free to explore the following documentaries:

    Manufacturing Consent by Noam Chomsky
    The War You Don't See by John Pilger
    Outfoxed - Rupert Murdoch's War On Journalism by Robert Greenwald
    Orwell Rolls In His Grave by Robert Kane Pappas
    The War on Democracy by John Pilger and Christopher Martin

  • Alisa Miller 200+

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    TED Attendee
    Apr 21 2011: Awesome Comments everyone. Another theme that is coming through is transparency. A lnumber of you are speaking to the desire to understand the sources featured in the stories, wanting to find out more depth beyond the story itself, and understand sources and stories in context with OTHER sources and stories. Who is saying what, saying the same or different things.
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    Leo Bi 20+

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    Apr 21 2011: Firstly, the truth....

    Secondly... transparency..... being able to trace their source of information.... or if the source is to remain confidential, that fact shared explicitly. An access to act is also critical. For instance, if a news paper has an article about going to war, it could also publish information on who to contact to get further information, or who to express your concerns too etc.

    http://www.ted.com/talks/dave_meslin_the_antidote_to_apathy.html

    This is a great talk that outlines this idea and other flaws in media. Hopefully it will get your cortex flowing with ideas :)
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    Mario Tinoco

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    Apr 20 2011: I like news to know what is happening, and just for that.

    The explanations and projections i like reading from specialists, not journalists.
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      Sargis B.

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      Apr 21 2011: Reminds me of a specialist on CNN who, when asked of Osama bin Laden's status, so smartly answered,"All we know for sure right now is that he could either be dead or alive". Random, I know...just saying that specialists aren't always specialists but more like people who are titled specialists on TV just to give people the false sense of security when in reality many viewers might be twice as smart as them.
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        Mario Tinoco

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        Apr 25 2011: I got your point, but i was too short to explain mine better. Specialists are those who you know that are specialists. That you see they have some theory behind their arguments, not just a random commentary maker.

        Not necessarily the "specialist" shown on tv is the a real "specialist" and on that i agree with you.

        For a case of economy, for example, your neighbor who is a economist or studies economy can suggest something better than the fool on tv, said "specialist". But, probably, the architect, your other neighbor, don't know a thing about economy and will be doing a random commentary on the issue.
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      Lindsay Newland Bowker 50+

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      May 11 2011: important distinction

  • Suhel Singh

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    Apr 20 2011: I would like to hear about the important things going on in the world, such as actual news, which I feel the ABC in Australia is a good example. Where they don't (from what I've seen so far) give an insane amount of time to filler programs on things such as celebrity news, or other pointless rubbish that might just confuse a person to the point of insanity, taking current affairs programs such as today tonight and a current affair as good examples. I would like them above all, not to exaggerate information and not make up information, just to fill in the gaps or over emphasize points that don't need to, just pure over emphasis on nothing. Also, when reporting major events, coverage for an insane period of time, seems ludacris, where, one need to take into account the basic aspect of the human condition, we get bored with somebody going on about the same thing over and over again. Talking about a certain even at intervals would seem a much better approach, people would not only listen and appreciate the content, but also actually sit and watch it.
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    Chantelle Prince

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    Apr 20 2011: I want the unbiased truth.

    Media pros are taught to give priority to the voices of authority over any other wittness. I have seen firsthand how they even fail to tell the truth when they themselves have not only seen it but filmed it; instead they let the police commissioners lies tell the story. The people are not heard, even in democratic nations like Australia.

    Media often make a point of giving both sides to story, but they dont tell us when the number of "experts" of a given opinion are rediculously outnumbered by experts against it. Thus, the arguement is weighted in favour of what is probably wrong.

    The choice of which stories to air/print/etc. and how much prominence is and always has been weighted in favour of people like "us". A story about 1 white westerner, is given prominence over 1000 or more black foriegners.

    If we look at the news and take it as reality we would assume that young people attack old people frequently and rarely does any youngster get hurt by any but another youngster. This is so far from reality and it serves no-one but the media (it sells), for example, 1 in 4 girls are sexually abused in Australia (Australian Bureau of Statistics) usually by an adult family member.

    The media have a lot to answer for. I would like to see more journos and editors with a concience.
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    Jannette Hughes

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    Apr 19 2011: Hi Alisa,I can not watch the news daily because it makes me feel hopeless. I prefer to watch international news or to inform myself on social network news sites. Today most of the news are focusing on the sensationalism in the press. They do not report the real facts without being bias anymore. For instance, you can see more news spending its time covering events related with "famous stars". Objectivity is not the professional norm anymore and, I do not care about their own perception of reality or their own political agendas. I will like to see more stories related with positive outcomes and more facts. Maybe how communities are supporting each other in difficult times, or new leaders in our communities. New companies that are emerging and, their stories. Of course you need to portrait reality but, with a more positive ambiance!
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    Lance Miller

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    Apr 19 2011: No news is good news, that's what my mother always said. I don't think she realized how prophetic that actually was.

    Mainstream media is not reporting from their higher selves, therefore propaganda is widespread.

    Alternative news options are more informative, but again, will the news change your life?
    That answer should be yes and for the better. Sensationalism sells, but during prime time hours, is it necessary to report about a mother driving her kids into a lake while the children are within an ear shot?

    I feel if the news can open your eyes to something you can constructively contribute to, it's worthwhile. If it informs you of imminent dangers or educates you with profound discoveries, it's worthwhile.

    Public broadcasting is certainly something I have more confidence in.

    • Suhel Singh

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      Apr 20 2011: Mate, I second what you say, pardon my ignorance, but what do you mean by alternative news options?

  • Robertson Klaingar

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    Apr 18 2011: money

  • Mohamed Bassam Adam

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    Apr 18 2011: We always want the True news. And goods things happening around. Which leads us to Positive thinking and motivates us. I try to avoid news most of the time, cause it gives me headache, some politics, wars, crimes and stuff.

    Sometimes News gives us Positive impacts on life, But most of the time it discourages us.
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    AbdelRahman Siddig

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    Apr 17 2011: I stop watching T.V get the news from the web when needed
    1- news should be pure news not mixed with opinion
    2-News that matter to me not matter to government

  • Philip Crume

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    Apr 17 2011: I have a degree in communication, and I agree with many others here that the biggest problem in American news is propaganda. I choose international sources first as they're more likely to give me a neutral frame. Unfortunately propaganda is primarily a product of the entertainment model of news where news is a lure to draw large audiences for advertising revenue. The entertainment model has ruined news and stupified it to pure irrelevance. Do we REALLY need to listen to more celebrity gossip? Imagine how large an audience would be if the news delivered... actual news?

    What's missing from news, and what pushes people into a wide variety of other sources, is context. It's a rare and valuable product absent from the marketplace. Talking heads giving analysis and partisan spin is not context, it's inertia. Giving objective and non-partisan context has all but disappeared. If there's a controversy over a topic, then quantify the controversy. If a crime occurs, put it into context of other criminal events in a particular area and relate it to a particular phenomenon (i.e.: gangs or drugs).

    If I could mention one more thing, it would be to not be afraid to generate more news than what airs, and have news be contextually relevant (think of Amazon.com's model of offering related books). Ideally this would let people see a story as well as memes evolve over time. If contextual relevance can be measured (I'm sure it can), then the top threads of maximum relevance might offer the best guide on what to actually broadcast.
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      Lindsay Newland Bowker 50+

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      May 8 2011: Wonderful analysis and I love your idea of a contextual model for the news. Versions of this somehow exists in some places. When I was trying to understand fro myselfwhat was happening in Egypt or Libya a google search on "Egypt Today" or "Libya Today" would turn up a huge indexes of headline accounts from all over the world with the link and the story lead in..not sure how that worked or who did that compilation but it was very broad, included the major dailies all over the wolrld and alsomore in depth analysis and commentray by folk like Ralph Nader or Mort Zuckerman in very obscure little papers ( obscure to me anyway) like The Palestine Chronicle.: Still a lot of work but it made it possible to get a broader picture and a more complete picture of the story behind the headlines. I think you are right that that is the model.

  • Alisa Miller 200+

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    TED Attendee
    Apr 17 2011: There have been a number of comments posted here over the last week or so about the desire for more 'Good" news. It seems that there is pent up demand in this regard and that many feel that good things are also newsworthy and that the culture of news does not take this into account. Further reactions? What is good news? Is it merely happy stories, is it sharing solutions to problems, all or none of the above, what else?
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      Daniel Beringer

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      Apr 18 2011: Hi Alisa,

      One of the local news channels here in Denver used to have a series called "Everyday Heroes". I liked the series because it wasn't just happy stories or overcoming adversity/problem solving, but a mix of the two, and it wasn't overwhelming. Each piece was short, I doubt any went longer than 5 minutes. But that was enough. Most of the segments were geared towards making the best of a bad situation, but all had happy endings that left you with a feeling of accomplishment.

      Unfortunately, most of the important stuff happening in the world isn't exactly nice, and the news industry has a responsibility to present the world as it is, sans rose tinted glasses. But neither should the media wear darkly tinted glasses. There should be something to balance all the negative news we hear, and something like "Everyday Heroes", at least for me, provided just the right counterweight to leave me not feeling too depressed by the time I got done watching the news.
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    Marshall Barnes

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    Apr 16 2011: it's very simple, Alisa - I want the truth. I have a journalism background, am a political analyst, as well as being a veteran operator of psy-ops and information warfare, so I know how to tell when I'm not getting it and how it's being manipulated into something else.

    • Alisa Miller 200+

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      TED Attendee
      Apr 17 2011: Marshall, based on your background, what do you use/what insights can you share about how you sleuth out potential manipulation?

  • Tim Middlehurst

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    Apr 16 2011: I want greater transparency from the news. I want to know the judgements that went into deciding which stories made the news, and which did not. I want to know who is deciding who gets interviewed and who is not. I dont trust the news, because I dont know what is existing in the vacuum outside the publicly broadcasted 'mega' channels.
    The day I can watch the news and come away knowing that I know what happened in the world, not just what someone wants me to know about what happened in the world, will be a great day.
    Networks like CNN have this capacity right now. I can watch for a whole afternoon and see three stories repeated a dozen times. Cover the news in its entirety and let me judge what I deem to be important.
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    Jonas Eriksson

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    TED Translator
    Apr 16 2011: We need more good news from the world. It the media could take their responsibility as educators a bit more serious we hopefully could see some changes. I think the best example are the months before the UN Climate Conference COP15 in Copenhagen 2009. Media from around the world joined the discussions and we had the embryo for a global movement in a couple of weeks.

    But then the conference itself was a big failure and we didn't reach the tipping point at that time. Hopefully we can see the same actions from the media soon again, maybe before the Earth Summit in Rio 2012.

  • George Abramowicz

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    Apr 16 2011: I would like the news to spwnd 80% of the air time on positive stories to lift the hearts and minds of people each day.
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    Alan Bishop

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    Apr 16 2011: Facts without opinion. International news. At least one human interest story. At least one investigative story. Provide links for all items to enable deeper analysis. Daily topic that looks at; Education, Environment, Business, Law and Order, Welfare, Health, Security. Each topic should have a useful weekly process indicator to monitor performance, this, of course, could be challenging but somebody, somewhere should be tracking these things.
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    Erik Richardson 500+

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    TEDx Organizer
    Apr 15 2011: Connect us to local issues, events, and opportunities. If there is a zoning issue open for public debate this week, tell us where and when to show up, and definitely tell us why people on both sides of the issue should/would care. Make it easier for us to step into the process. This kind of thing is often only covered in longer mid-day news radio talk shows, but not everyone's job is amenable to that.

  • Søkemotoroptimalisering SEO

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    Apr 15 2011: I want stories that go deeper than most stories in the news today. There are som many big hedlines with so little to back it up. I belive we have to move away from the common impression that you have to know a little bit about everything, and move towards depth. Or else I fear that the next generation will become a bunch of hyperactive "screamers"...

  • Nancy Capps

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    Apr 15 2011: As long as our news are dependant about revenue, they have to create a "product that sells" -- they have stockholders too, hence the "Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, et.al." I'm not sure that even Cronkite could tell the news as he did in today's "stockholders reign supreme" world. I'm open to hear alternatives on this business model that would ensure insightful, educational, unbiased news. And would we even know what to do with this? Don't you feel that today's consumer wants to hear what they want to hear, rather than what they should hear? Again, open to feedback.

    • Alisa Miller 200+

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      TED Attendee
      Apr 17 2011: Nancy, you have touched on a real hot button when it comes to whether we are just getting what we want, etc., we just WANT Brittany all the time. There are studies, some by Pew research that suggest we actually DO want a more balanced diet of news.
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        Lindsay Newland Bowker 50+

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        May 8 2011: Alisa& Nancy.. I am beginning to wonder what the real texture is underneath that Pew research, that hi percentage reporting they want global and international news.. I love your observation, Nancy, that even Walter Cronkite ( the last person all of America truly trusted in the news) might be seriously challenged by the compleixty and obscurity of the workings which shape our lives and our futures now. I see quite a bit of laziness or perhaps its just a malaise of disenfranchisement caused by the realities of our plutonomy.. My sense is that people want every single detail about an international event, like Bin Laden's slaying last week, for two or three days they can't get enough of it and then attention just drifts on to the next big event. I wonder whether there really is an audience with a real appetite to understand and follow important world events day by day. It woud be interesting to take a closer look at those Pew respondents who say they want to know more about international news and see how they actually engage with international events.
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      Erik Richardson 500+

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      TEDx Organizer
      Apr 18 2011: Do you think that's because they don't care about the issues, or because the news about world events and politics is over their head? When was the last time you saw a story about the economy translated down to the reading level reflected in Us or People?

      Now part of the failing is the education system, to be fair, but part of it is the social motivation to keep those with lower education levels out of political affairs except when someone needs to whip the mob into a quick frenzy to push through some legislation. This is compounded by the fact that politicians and many news outlets spin the news so badly the average person doesn't know what to believe. Pictures of Brittany with a shaved head are pretty clear. If there were millions of dollars in profits to be made for one group if the public believed she was bald AND by another group if the public beleved she still had her hair, then you'd see a parallel.

  • Valeriy Vislobokov

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    Apr 15 2011: It'd be nice if they worked hard to tell verify the truth, even for unexciting stories. I don't expect hardcore investigative journalism for every story, but at least some effort put into having some code of ethics.

    Currently, aside from certain personalities I've found interesting, I get nearly all my news by reading the same story online from several sources. It'd be nice if the news people online were inspirational, something we watched because we could related to it as far as the human experience is concerned.
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