1st April 2018

The future of journalism depends on all of us working together.

By Cianán Clancy

We are living in the heart of the information age. Anyone with a mobile device and an internet connection can now access information about literally anything within seconds. And just as access has expanded to the masses, the ability to publish and disseminate information is now widely available. Journalists are no longer the sole gatekeepers of the media. Anyone can write and publish anything. This could be for good or for bad. We have seen the rise of misinformation, where the line between truth and falsehoods in the media can seem indistinguishable. It is for this reason that Google has rolled out the Google News Initiative.

The Initiative is Google’s formal intent to blend state-of-the-art technology with traditional journalism, creating a new and resilient global information machine. The effort is a three-pronged strategy, the development of technology products to help news outlets thrive in a digital marketplace, collaboration with news organizations to address industry-specific issues at a macro-level, and programs designed to drive innovation in journalism. All of this is intended to help journalism evolve alongside technology, rather than despite it.

The technology products involved with the Google News Initiative include Subscribe with Google, which allows news organizations to build their digital reader base; Accelerated Mobile pages, which enable websites and aps to load very quickly – even when they include audio, photos, and videos; and Google Trends, which gives organizations access to anonymized search data.

The Google News Initiative is important and timely. It will allow trusted news organizations to become more visible and accessible to the public, so that readers can stay informed through trustworthy sources. This is more important than ever, in a time when “alternative facts” have become the norm, not the exception. The Google News Initiative will equip journalists with the tools they need to reach their audience, give the news and thrive. Just as important, the Initiative will benefit consumers who rely on increasingly digital platforms to stay informed.