Growing an Alternative Media System
Pat Kane, thealternative.global
OUR MEDIA SYSTEM IS BROKEN
OUR MEDIA SYSTEM IS BROKEN
WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?
NATIONAL TABS PLAY ON COLLECTIVE FEARS, INCREASING SOCIAL POLARISATION
WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?
"Just 28% of people in the UK said they trust “most news most of the time”, according to a poll in January this year, down from 40% in January 2019.
WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?
MOST
COMMUNITIES
DON’T SEE THEMSELVES, OR THEIR LOCAL/GLOBAL WORLD,
IN THEIR DAILY NEWS MEDIA
NON-LEGACY, INDIE/ALT MEDIA IS A VERY SMALL PERCENTAGE OF OUR TOTAL INTERACTIONS WITH “ADDICTIVE” MEDIA
TOTAL MONTHLY UK VISITS:
7,259,262 (6.4% of below)
TOTAL MONTHLY UK VISITS:
114,120,000
WHO NEEDS & WANTS AN AMS?
COVID HAS SOLIDIFIED ETHICAL AND SUSTAINABLE CONSUMPTION VALUES IN BRITISH LIFE… FOR SIGNIFICANT MINORITIES (Deloitte report)
The Value-Action Gap… In the UK 92% of people say they want to live a sustainable life, but only 16% are actively changing their behaviours. Kantar report: https://we.tl/t-K2TceZOdCD
Using visceral affect to try and close the value-action gap
OUR IMMEDIATE, DOMESTIC, PRACTICAL LIFE OF CONSUMED “STUFF” IS WHERE PEOPLE MAY BE MOST SUSCEPTIBLE TO STARTING “THE GREAT TRANSITION”...
BUT TWO QUESTIONS HERE...
“THE GOOD NEWS”
THE HARD NEWS?
This is what it may entail...
This will upend the existing economy/employment conditions… so we must:
IMAGINE AN ALTERNATIVE MEDIA SYSTEM, WORKING FROM THESE ASSUMPTIONS...
WHAT ELEMENTS WOULD WE NEED TO MAKE IT BOTH VIABLE AND ATTRACTIVE?
WHAT’S THE SOLUTION?
SOLUTIONS-BASED OR CONSTRUCTIVE JOURNALISM
‘Recent social psychology research has shown how “solutions” journalism (sometimes termed “constructive”) increases the likelihood of a reader’s active and civically-oriented response to its content.’
‘This as opposed to the passivity induced by the norm of existing news media - catastrophizing, polarising, problems-centred.’
From AMS “White Paper”:Baden, Denise, Mcintyre, Karen and Homberg, Fabian (2019) ‘The impact of constructive news on affective and behavioural responses’. Journalism Studies, 20 (13). Also, the Center for Humane Technology’s Your Undivided Attention Podcast Episode 40: The Power of Solutions Journalism (transcript here).
Q: WHAT ARE INTERESTING OPPORTUNITIES FOR TELLING POSITIVE STORIES?��A: COMMUNITY/LOCAL STRENGTHENING AND EMPOWERMENT ��A STORY WHICH LANDS FROM THE OUTSIDE ONTO A COMMUNITY IS A MOMENT OF JOY, THEN GONE IN THE MEDIA FLOW...��A STORY WHICH ARISES FROM/ENABLES A COMMUNITY'S SELF-DETERMINATION & IMAGINATION (PEOPLE'S PODIUM?, IMAGINE ASHFIELD?) IS SUSTAINABLE JOY, AND A RESOURCE FOR ACTION...�����
What is the new story Stoke wants to tell about itself?
Crafting – how it feels to
make, making a mark
Creating value – the
community we build
Remaking our
economy
What could this story do for you – for All of Us?
Reclaiming the self, ourselves
Developing social / cultural capital
Attraction: more people want to come to Stoke, more investment
A safer world: built on relationship and interconnectedness
Q: "HOW MIGHT WE DEVELOP AN ETHICS OF MEDIA DISTRIBUTION...
- ...WHICH STAYS TRUE TO OUR VALUES?
- ...WHILE ALLOWING US TO REACH AND INSPIRE MORE KINDS OF PEOPLE (BEYOND THE PROGRESSIVE ACTIVIST BASE)?"
A FEW ANSWERS....
A: DON'T UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF THE "USUAL SUSPECTS"
...AS LONG AS THEY HAVE A THEORY OF GROWTH THAT EXPANDS OUTWARDS FROM THOSE WHO ALREADY HAVE ENOUGH RESOURCES + WILLPOWER
Q: "HOW MIGHT WE DEVELOP AN ETHICS OF MEDIA DISTRIBUTION…
- ...WHICH STAYS TRUE TO OUR VALUES?
- ...WHILE ALLOWING US TO REACH AND INSPIRE MORE KINDS OF PEOPLE (BEYOND THE PROGRESSIVE ACTIVIST BASE)?"
A: DON'T UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF THE "USUAL SUSPECTS"
HERE'S THE "PLANETS" OF INTEREST/PRACTICE THAT COULD ALREADY FEED INTO AND REINFORCE AN A/UK MEDIA SYSTEM... WHERE ARE YOURS? "BUILD, CREATE, START" FOR YOURSELVES
An alt media system to close the value-action gap
MakeHub constellation of SE’s etc
The Daily Alternative sub-based news platform
Feel
Think
Do
Reactive Social Strategy*
*Reactive social media is responding in real-time to current events. Requires an always-on social media team.
WellBook social media platform
Mass Reach to catch the feel
Subscriber community
in the UK 92% of people say they want to live a sustainable life, but only 16% are actively changing their behaviour (Kantar)
INTEGRATED WITH…
IN A LOOP WITH...
OWNED BY…
“Produce content that starts with where people are, but doesn't impose dumb limits on itself” - Dan Hind
BIG 🏗
PLANS
Who has the biggest ambition for their town? How do we make it real?
THIS LAND IS YOUR GARDEN
When a community decides to feed itself, amazing things happen
DA is a prototype of a news service which works from Hickel’s grid/agenda, but also responds to culture, entertainment, self-help... makes news from its content, content from its news
2. A DEDICATED, SUBSCRIBER-BASED SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM [“WELLBOOK”?]
SIGNAL, TELEGRAM AND CLUBHOUSE SHOW THERE CAN BE NEW, OPEN SOCIAL MEDIA APPS/SERVICES...
BUT SOME ARE EVEN OFFERING AN ALTERNATIVE APP STORE… SEE CLOUDRON.IO
3. A “CONSTELLATION” OF SOCIAL ENTERPRISES, CIVIC MAKERS, SOLUTIONISTS [“MAKEHUB”?]
WHAT ORGS ARE ALREADY NETWORKING IN A NEW PARADIGM? WHO COULD READILY SUPPORT/
PROMOTE/
STAKEHOLD THIS NEW SYSTEM?
4. LONG-TERM MEDIA FOUNDATION/TRUST, ORGANISED AS A COOPERATIVE, PARTICIPATIVE COMMONS [“PRACTIPEDIA”?]
FOUNDATION MODEL:
NESTA TRUST: £423,734,000
DIVIDEND TO FUND NESTA CHARITY OPERATIONS: £21,800,000
5% yield, similar amount “in perpetuity”
(2020 ANNUAL REPORT)
COMMUNITY SHARES
“Owned by 3600 readers--not 3 billionaire families”
4. LONG-TERM MEDIA FOUNDATION/TRUST, ORGANISED AS A COOPERATIVE, PARTICIPATIVE COMMONS [“PRACTIPEDIA”?]
SUBSCRIPTIONS, PARTICIPATION:
“A MEDIA SYSTEM BETTER THAN SUBSTACK OR PATREON”
Growing an Alternative Media System
Pat Kane–thank you!
“Personally think, the decline of @bbcnews & the emergence of @GBNEWS is creating space for someone to build a high integrity, high fidelity, rich interaction news system #Strategic Opportunity” Indy Johar
Manifesto
“He not busy being born, is busy dying”
It feels like the old systems - political, business, media - are dying.
Laid low by the the Crash, legitimation crises, populism and Covid
We are interested in what’s being born
Being born in villages and towns, on the outskirts and in the margins, in inner cities and on remote islands
It’s not one thing being born, it’s a million different ideas
Manifesto
The MSM perpetuates a feeling of helplessness in the face of relentless, unceasing crises
And the progressives who are driving change are isolated in a million tiny networks.
But the law of networks, Metcalfe’s Law, states that when networks merge their size is exponentially greater than their sum. (10 squared plus 10 squared is less than 20 squared)
When the networks come together - Corbynism, BLM, MeToo - the effect is explosive
Manifesto
For the last 5 years, we at the Alternative we have been building relationships with the little networks
We are a system that connects desire for change to opportunities to create change
Now we want to take it to the next level and build a new alternative media system for the networked progressives
One that connects feeling to thinking and to action
That breaks the illusion of the media produced reality of helplessness in the face of crisis
And replaces it with hope and optimism built on actually-happening-changes
Elevator pitch brief
Insight: there is a huge appetite to live more sustainable lives, but this rarely translates into action due partly to a media created “reality” of helplessness in the face of unrelenting and ceaseless crisis
Proposition: An alternative media system that closes the gap between values and action by making the connection to changemakers feel effortless
RTbs:
Alternative achievements
CAN relationships
Current and potential reach
WHAT’S OUR ASK?
FIRST ASK: £Millions…
SECOND ASK: Remember the urgency…
What can effect the cultural, practical and values changes, so that people descend down that slide happily and meaningfully - not angrily, resentfully?