If you are one of those people who has a diverse platter from which you obtain your news, you’ll have easily noticed a very different information world following the events in Palestine-Israel on October 7. Of course, it has been like this for as long as ad-funded media has existed, but the sudden unmasking of networks, media personalities, reliable op-ed writers—even entire nations—in this particular context has been glaring and stark.
Social media websites like Twitter (to a certain extent) or private messaging channels like Telegram were literally free for-all exchanges compared to the alternate reality created by their more mainstream media competitors. This might sound a bit sensationalist, but a lot of trust in mainstream news outlets has been lost among audiences in “global north”, west-facing societies over the past three months and sadly, such outlets continue to bleed profusely the little remaining trust they have left in them.
I always thought the economics of reporting accurately and honestly will outweigh other interests in a “liberal” society, but the acute effects of loss-aversion, whether it is rooted in reputational damage for the news outlet or career damage for individual journalist, has forced all participants in the “free” world of the west to noticeably under-perform when it comes to accurate and honest reporting.
With some necessary context behind us, in this particular piece I will try to explore two important questions:
- Where can audiences go for reliable, trustworthy news in which they can have confidence?
- Is it possible for global north, west-facing media outlets to ever redeem themselves and earn the trust of their younger audiences back?
First, definitions are in order. “Trust” might be a very heavy word in some circles, but of course it shouldn’t be complicated at all. Just in case there’s any doubt, here’s how it’s defined in various online dictionaries:
to believe that someone is good and honest and will not harm you, or that something is safe and reliable
Cambridge Dictionary
a: assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something
b: one in which confidence is placed
Merriam-Webster
Confidence in or reliance on some person or quality.
Wiktionary
When it comes to obtaining trustworthy news (especially inside the United States), people from all walks of life have their favorite go-to sources. This very large basket of options includes the obvious ones like television, YouTube channels, local newspapers (print, websites & YouTube), public social media channels (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram), private social media (WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, Snapchat, etc.) or the total old-school one where you actually have a conversation with another person (God forbid!).
Regardless of where you obtain your information, you are likely to be flooded with all types of sources and with the sources come countless types of opinions, interests and costs. Needless to say, influencing Americans to take up a particular opinion can be a very lucrative endeavor—whether you’re a corporate executive, politician, theologian, activist—whatever.
The business of propagating news might not be as lucrative as it once was mainly because the advertising industry is monopolized by a handful of technology companies. Nevertheless, the business of influencing Americans is still very strong, whether that influence campaign is used to make a product sale or obtain a vote, a pair of American eyeballs are worth (much) more than any other pair from around the world (just like American lives are worth more!—it’s good to be consistent!). To give an example of this phenomenon, take a look at Facebook’s all-important ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) from around the world:
For example, the average Facebook user in North America is worth 3.1 times more than the average user in Europe, and 10.8 times more than the average user in Asia-Pacific:(a)
Source: DataReportal
- Facebook’s ARPU in the United States and Canada: USD $48.85 (April 2023)(a)
- Facebook’s ARPU in Europe: USD $15.51 (April 2023)(a)
- Facebook’s ARPU in Asia-Pacific: USD $4.52 (April 2023)(a)
- Facebook’s ARPU in the rest of the world: USD $3.35 (April 2023)(a)
With propagation of reliable information worth so much to so many interests, finding information that is reasonably accurate and honest gets tricky. I’ve personally come to the somewhat disheartening conclusion that it is nearly impossible to find a silver bullet source because it appears everyone has some sort of axe to grind. Previously Financial Times was fairly reliable mainstream outlet, allowing one to kill a few birds with one stone, but the Israel-Palestine conflict has even unmasked to a certain extent the once-venerable FT.
The only way around this problem of not getting the complete story is to increase the diversity of sources. This diversity must span multiple channels (i.e. print, website, podcasts, private messaging, video and in-person), but not necessarily at one given time. Few people have time to go through all their channels in one sitting so this is more of a recommendation for someone looking to consume information over the course of given week—30 minutes here, 30 minutes there, etc. Having said that, diversifying your information palette is a costly option in that it requires a considerable amount of time and makes you vulnerable to going down algorithm-driven rabbit holes that might cost you even more time. Simple awareness of these pitfalls is the best you can do because every source is financially incentivized to keep you tuned into their offering for as long as possible.
As for sources, this is where it gets tricky. I’m simply going to recommend my sources and you can go about slowly building up your information soup. Just like any great soup, you need the basics that will get you started:
- Independent intellectuals are the holy grail of information sources. I can say this with confidence because if you think about it, they are the ones who will speak their mind without having to deal with the effects of reputational loss aversion or incentive-caused bias. They will fearlessly take contrarian points of view without having to worry about losing career opportunities, social status, etc.. Think along the line of Max Blumenthal and Aaron Mate of The Grayzone; Owen Jones, Norman Finkelstein, and others. The great unmasking comes with certain costs. One such cost is that it has made the lives of average people very difficult in that since you can’t necessarily trust any single source, you must verify information yourself using other reliable sources—this is especially true for social media sources.
- Large mainstream publications: You must hold your nose and have a few of these because they are important in gauging whether you’re on the right path. A few of mine are Financial Times, LA Times, Atlanta Constitution-Journal (yes, it’s random by design), Middle East Eye, Jerusalem Post (or Haaretz), The New Arab and South China Morning Post, and a few others. Find a way to translate foreign websites—for my browser add-on called TWP (Translate Web Pages), but I’m sure there are many others.
- A YouTube channel that has ton of old-school lectures from which to learn and continuously shape and challenge your thinking. The whole goal is to never remain intellectually stagnant. You want to scrap your best ideas every year or two and rebuild things intellectually. The channel Manufacturing Intellect has a great collection of lectures and speeches by notable people from history.
- Eventually you want to find a couple podcasts and shows on YouTube (or similar video service).
Creating this information “soup” will take a some time to get simmering at a level that you will find intellectually stimulating, but once you get the hang of the flavor levels of your various sources, you will begin to enjoy it more and more. You’ll quickly notice if you put too much of one thing or too little of another because each additional source serves as a check on itself. The goal is to achieve some sort of intellectual balance, which of course can never be perfectly achieved so it’s a life-long pursuit of calibration that will keep you thinking and questioning the status quo. Once you begin to hear echoes within the flow of information or your “soup” begins to taste bland and predictable, that’s a telling sign that your collection of sources needs updating.
Just like sources serve as a check on each other, forming a group of curious friends to talk things over with is also very important. Not only will you get to find more reputable sources of information, but you’ll also get to bounce your thoughts and ideas off actual humans who might not hold exactly the same views and perspectives.
As for the second question of whether there’s some sort of path to redemption for big media, I am unfortunately not as positive on this front. The way the system is setup is such that the people in power get to create the knowledge according to their economic, political and ideological interests. The books and research papers published by entrenched academics or media personalities are used to oil and further reinforce the gears of the system. You’ll notice that the people who challenge the system are the ones who come from the outside—ones who don’t directly benefit from it.
Short of some some sort of ideological miracle in which niche super powers of honest humanism out-muscles military-politics of knowledge and power, it appears audiences all around the globe will be more and more centralized in their main news sources. There’s a reason everyone in the media starts to talk about one thing at one time. This theory has hints of conspiracy-theory in it, but there’s definitely some element of truth. The probability of five or ten news sources talking about one obscure thing at the same exact time is minuscule, but it literally happens all the time.
Look for increased algorithmic censorship on larger, more entrenched social media channels as the youth dig in and avoid mainstream media. I have a feeling there will be some sort of breakthrough on this front in the next few years where large swaths of information can be freely exchanged without having to depend on the generosity of billionaire tech bros.
I could go on and on about this topic, but all good ramblings must come to an end at some point. Floating around in an ocean of information requires a little extra work and I hope I contributed at least one or two things to help you build a raft to help you stay afloat while you enjoy your information soup.
Faisaling.com 
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