News mirages (not news deserts) are the scarier problem

If communities living in a news desert are starved of credible, trustworthy information, then communities living in a news mirage are feasting on information that looks like trustworthy news — but isn’t news at all.

We know the crisis of news mirages: Communities who are lacking access to reliable information and news are flooded with mis- and disinformation and nothing else. While people may take that information with a grain of salt, it’s still the only information they have.

The consequences are dire. Just like its mis- and disinformation siblings, news mirages seek to manipulate communities and create a wedge within and between different groups of people. Ultimately, and especially in 2024, it seeks to manipulate people and how they vote.

Of course, one of the scariest things about news mirages is how much easier it has become to create them. Rapid developments in AI (and the billions in funding being poured into it) are making it easier and easier for bad actors to conjure these mirages using text, audio, photo, and video, using quantity to overwhelm the little oases of quality information communities manage to access.

These news mirages are what we need to counteract in 2024.

Each journalism organization is a news oasis. But we can’t simply exist, hoping communities will stumble upon us. It’s on us to make sure our work reaches them.

In 2024, journalists must double-down on finding, publishing, and distributing quality independent information to fill the void. It’s not enough to only dispel the illusions created by news mirages. If we only debunk misinformation without publishing quality information of our own, we have only shifted a news mirage back into a news desert.

It’s also not just about reporting and publishing stories. It’s about teaching communities how to recognize when they’re being manipulated by technology and how to access good information, that requires community involvement and genuine trust. Instead of only giving communities information, journalists need to do the work that turns that information into usable knowledge — whether it’s through creating or connecting communities with technology that can help, hosting in-person or virtual trainings, or amplifying community members who are already working on their own solutions. We have to focus on the journalistic “last mile” — not only producing reliable, independent information, but making sure that people actually receive it and can act on it.

It is not: If you build it, they will come.

It is: If you build it, deliver it to people.

By building these deeper connections, we can first understand what tools and knowledge would be helpful for the public, and second, create and publish what we can to support people making decisions for themselves and their communities.

It’s only through a model like this that we will combat misinformation in a lasting way, eliminate the alluring, shiny mirages of discord and division, and provide an oasis of truth.

Nabiha Syed contributed to this piece.