Where will credible information come from?
#212
My Dear Friend of Democracy,
I took the picture above last week after I had arrived at Frankfurt Central Station. The renowned German daily newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung advertises there; it seems as though it has always done so. Everything about it seems a thing of the past. The way of advertising. The font.
I like it anyway.
But which young person still reads this newspaper? Which young person even reads newspapers at all? Most newspapers have long since disappeared behind paywalls. And they are expensive. Young people with tight budgets simply can’t afford it (maybe they wouldn’t read newspapers anyway). At the same time, budgets for public broadcasting are being cut. In my country, Germany. Not only here.
Where are the strongholds of factual information? Who will provide credible, understandable, truthful information when propaganda and interest-driven untruths are conquering the digital space? My fear: In ten or twenty years, we will look back in disbelief at how we left providing information to those who are only interested in increasing their power and influence. My hope: The open society recognizes its enemies quickly and reacts faster than we imagine today.
See you in Europe,
Johannes