In the past two years, we witnessed the algorithmically ranked News Feed that Facebook popularized colonize most of the remaining social platforms of influence. (With the exception of Snapchat…for the moment.)
In a sense, our feeds have always been algorithmically ranked; they’ve just been dominated by one variable in particular: time. In a simple reverse chronological feed, the punishment of bad behavior is left to the user — in the form of the unfollow or unfriend. That’s work, and as these platforms scaled beyond early adopters, it’s likely that most new users, rather than doing that work, chose to use the product less. So today, machines do that work for us, and all that’s left for us to do is Like, Comment, or Follow new people.
So now we’re lost in time. Gone from our feeds is the feeling of now-ness that made the real-time web so enthralling for many of us in the early days of the social media boom.
This does not seem to be lost on the major social platforms. “Messaging apps are now bigger than social networks” (though they are also, of course, owned by the social networks). On the back of major improvements in bandwidth, mobile processing power, and mobile battery technology, they are making major investments in Live Everything. Stories have changed the game for Snapchat and Instagram, and they don’t fit neatly into our understanding of “the feed.”
Breakout hits like the trivia app HQ remind us of that feeling of now-ness and community that once was pervasive. Sure, games tend to feel like flashes in the pan, until we look back and realize that embedded in that flash were the embers of some new truth. What can news organizations learn from a shortform live video experience broadcast at the same time every night (as eerily familiar as that sounds)?
Humans crave intimacy and connection, and that intimacy feels somewhat lost in the Age of the Feed — where presence has taken a backseat. In 2018, news organizations that want to stay a step or two ahead of the game might want to focus less on optimizing for a constantly changing set of Feed Rules, and think more about experimenting with Now.
Jake Levine is a venture fellow at betaworks and a former general manager of Digg.
Juliette De Maeyer A responsible press criticism
Brian Lam Sketchy ethics around product reviews
Craig Newmark Working together toward sustainable solutions
Ray Soto VR reaches the next level
Pablo Boczkowski The rise of skeptical reading
David Skok Finding an information-life balance
Julia B. Chan Looking for loyalty in all the right places
Caitria O'Neill The new court of public opinion
Mario García Storytelling finally adapts to mobile
Jared Newman Venture funding and digital news don’t mix
Mary Walter-Brown Show a little vulnerability
Imaeyen Ibanga Longform video leads the way
Dan Shanoff You down with OTT? (Yeah, DTC)
Rubina Madan Fillion Unlocking the potential of AI
Steve Grove The midterms are an opportunity
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Seeking trust in fragmented spaces
Kim Fox Audience teams diversify their approach
Claire Wardle Disinformation gets worse
Jesse Holcomb Information disorder, coming to a congressional district near you
Eric Ulken The year local publishers get smart(er) about change
Miguel Castro The arrival of the impact producer
Vivian Schiller Pivot to tomorrow
Trushar Barot The Jio-fication of India
Gordon Crovitz Serving readers over advertisers
Lucas Graves From algorithms to institutions
Monique Judge Letting black women tell their own stories
Rodney Gibbs Tech workers turn to journalism
Kathleen McElroy Building a news video experience native to mobile
Mi-Ai Parrish Blockchain and trust
Joanne Lipman Journalists inventing revenue streams
Alastair Coote The year of self-improvement
Julia Beizer A longer view on the pivot
Joyce Barnathan It will be harder to bury the news
Tanya Cordrey Finally, the seeds of radical reinvention
Monika Bauerlein The firehose of falsehood
Luke O'Neil The end is already here
Rachel Davis Mersey AI, with real smarts
Sam Sanders Shine the light on ourselves
Michael Kuntz The only pivot that might work
Richard Tofel The platforms’ power demands more reporters’ attention
Lam Thuy Vo Breaking free from the tyranny of the loudest
Damon Krukowski Reviving the alt-weekly soul
Rachel Schallom Better design helps differentiate opinion and news
Frédéric Filloux External forces
Rick Berke Value is the watchword
Lanre Akinola Making noise is not a strategy
Tim Carmody Watch out for Spotify
Alice Antheaume Are you fluent in AI?
Hossein Derakhshan Television has won
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen The Snapchat scenario and the risk of more closed platforms
Andrew Ramsammy The year ownership mattered
Rodney Benson Better, less read, and less trusted
Nushin Rashidian Publishers seek ad dollar alternatives
Vanessa K. DeLuca Women’s voices take center stage
Elizabeth Jensen Show your work
Felix Salmon Covering bitcoin while owning bitcoin
Jessica Parker Gilbert Design connects storytelling and strategy
Marie Gilot No assholes allowed
Kawandeep Virdee Zines had it right all along
Umbreen Bhatti The trust problem isn’t new
Juleyka Lantigua Women of color will reclaim and monetize our time
Sara M. Watson Feeds will open up to new user-determined filters
Mira Lowe The year of the local watchdog
Taylor Lorenz Social and media will split
Kyle Ellis Let’s build our way out of this
Cristina Wilson The year of the Instagram Story
Jim Moroney Newspapers have to be good enough for readers to pay for
Aron Pilhofer We can’t leave the business to the business side any more
Tamar Charney We get serious about algorithms
Michelle Ferrier The year of the great reckoning
Dheerja Kaur Fun with subscription products
Tanzina Vega It’s time for media companies to #PassTheMic
Alan Soon The rise of start of psychographic, micro-targeted media
Justin Kosslyn The year journalists become digital security experts
Emma Carew Grovum Newsroom culture becomes a priority
Matt Thompson Here come the attention managers
Emily Goligoski Looking beyond news for inspiration
Joanne McNeil Gatekeeping the gatekeepers
Basile Simon We need better career paths for news nerds
Hannah Cassius The year of the echo-chamber escapists
Carrie Brown-Smith Transparency finally takes off
Laura E. Davis Writing answers before you know the question
Charo Henríquez Training is an investment, not an expense
Francesco Marconi The year of machine-to-machine journalism
Betsy O'Donovan and Melody Kramer Skepticism and narcissism
Edward Roussel Eyes, ears, and brains
Nicholas Quah Stop talking trash about young people
Mariano Blejman News games rule
Alfred Hermida Going beyond mobile-first
Pete Brown Push alerts, personalized
Matt DeRienzo A recession, then a collapse
Jennifer Brandel and Mónica Guzmán The editorial meeting of the future
Jamie Mottram From pageviews to t-shirts
Matt Boggie The intellectual equivalent of the Dead Sea
S. Mitra Kalita The arc of news and audience
Manoush Zomorodi Self-help as a publishing strategy
P. Kim Bui The reckoning is only beginning
Nikki Usher The year of The Washington Post
Borja Echevarría TV goes digital, digital goes TV
Debra Adams Simmons And a woman shall lead them
Michelle Garcia Navigating journalistic transparency
Jacqui Cheng Retailers move into content
Jarrod Dicker Honesty in advertising
Andrew Losowsky The year of resilience
Cory Haik Suffering from realness, pivoting to impact
Sam Ford The year of investing in processes
Sydette Harry Listen to your corner and watch for the hook
Evie Nagy Pivot to mobile video frustration
Corey Johnson The pro-fact resistance
Sally Lehrman Trust comes first
Renée Kaplan The year of quiet adjustments (shhh)
Yvonne Leow The rise of video messaging
Susie Banikarim R.I.P. Pivot to Video (2017–2017)
Bill Keller A growing turn to philanthropy
Tracie Powell The muting of underserved voices
Kristen Muller The year of the voter
Corey Ford The empire strikes back
Alexios Mantzarlis Moving fake news research out of the lab
Errin Haines At the ballot, it’s time to count black women
Jassim Ahmad Thriving on change
Nicholas Diakopoulos Fortifying social media from automated inauthenticity
Marcela Donini and Thiago Herdy Collaboration is the way forward for Brazilian journalism
Adam Thomas Sharing is caring: The year of the mentor
Christopher Meighan Passive partnership is in the rearview
Kinsey Wilson Facebook and Google: Help out or pay up
Doris Truong Computer vision vs. the Internet vigilantes
Jim Brady With the people, not just of the people
Dannagal G. Young Stop covering politics as a game
Molly de Aguiar Good journalism won’t be enough
Daniel Trielli The rich get richer, the poor scramble
Matt Carlson Attacks on the press will get worse
Mandy Velez texting is lit rn, fam
Ruth Palmer Risks will grow for news subjects — especially minorities
Ernst-Jan Pfauth Publishing less to give readers more
Jennifer Coogan The future is female
Feli Sánchez The year for guerrilla user research
Mike Caulfield Refactoring media literacy for the networked age
Mariana Moura Santos Think local, act global
Pia Frey Address users as individuals
Amie Ferris-Rotman More female reporters abroad (please)
AX Mina Memes and visuals come to the fore
Carlos Martínez de la Serna The new journalism commons
Mary Meehan Real lives are at stake in rural areas
Sarah Marshall Loyalty as the key performance indicator
Jennifer Choi Standing up for us and for each other
Raju Narisetti Mirror, mirror on the wall
Federica Cherubini The rise of bridge roles in news organizations
Millie Tran and Stine Bauer Dahlberg (Hint: It’s about your brand)
Will Sommer The year local media gets conservative
Raney Aronson-Rath Transparency is the antidote to fake news
Heather Bryant Building the ecosystems for collaboration
Andrew Haeg The year journalists become relationship builders
C.W. Anderson The social media apocalypse
Caitlin Thompson Podcasting models mature and diversify
Niketa Patel Live journalism comes of age
Zizi Papacharissi Women come back
Ståle Grut Reclaiming audience interaction from social networks
Helen Havlak Keywords, not publishers, power the world’s biggest feeds
Amy King Let’s amplify visual voice