News of the Future

Luis Felipe Mussalem

From its very roots, journalism was responsible for carrying the role of the "fourth pillar of democracy." It became the shield of society and the one knowledge system that could "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." Journalism created history, reported on it, and has been part of it. In the digital era, in light of so many issues involving the field and its real-life impacts on active audiences, the new trend in reporting requires solutions, and not only focuses on the past and the present but on the future too.

If we look deeply into strong issues like inflation, the rise of fake news, inadequate use of social media, and global warming, all of them have one thing in common: they are not limited to borders, ethnicity, or nationality. They have strong global impacts, in some places more than others in the short term, but their solutions require global collaboration. The framework that allows nations all across the globe to come up with meaningful solutions for similar issues, part of globalization, is made up of willing and well-informed beings on a certain issue that gather to provide solutions and, little by little, improve collectivism and create a better world. It’s a system that works in function of looking deeply into a problem, and questioning how it can be solved.

Likewise, "solution" is a word that often surrounds the walls of many newsrooms across the world. Journalists from all over are critical of the things that surround them and their audiences. If we understand that global problems require global solutions, journalism stands as a bridge of communication between everyone, everywhere. The field lives and breathes large audiences in the digital era, where news in the West matters for the East, and it only requires an internet connection for a being to possess powerful and useful information.

Therefore, journalists have a big role in providing space in diverse platforms for specialists on these issues, following transparency and accuracy techniques. However, it goes beyond that: journalism can adhere to the "solutions method," which includes the many ways specialists and citizens can come up with a better approach. Solutions journalism includes limitations, challenges, and main agents on an issue, allowing everyone to have a better understanding of how to deal with it. The news of the future helps solve problems, and without international events that are able to dissect what is essential for human survival, it has a long way to go. The future of news coverage consists of global cooperation, where humans create spaces to develop resolutions that affect all of our lives.