"Why didn’t we (the media and journalists) see this (COVID 19) coming sooner? And once we did, why didn’t we sound the alarm with more vigor?" In the political ecosystem, the media plays a central role in providing a framework and process for citizens to be part of the solution to challenges within the body politic. Transformed by digital technology, social, political and financial forces that have become the reality of life in the early 21st century, the media ecosystem and the multiple players that comprise it continue to play an important role in the lives of the citizens within their communities, nations and globally. Reporting that once required days and months to complete, is now expected to be made public in a matter of hours if not minutes. News organizations that controlled print newspapers, magazines, radio, and TV have become one of many sources for information transmission to the public. The citizen- depending on the media as a source for information, is easily overwhelmed with the amount of, the nature and conflicting information pushed at them. The central question for the Media as a stakeholder within the COVID 19 ecosystem and more specifically for the forum is, How can we make the media responsive to the citizenry? Background In the political ecosystem, the media plays a central role in providing a framework and process for citizens to be part of the solution to challenges within the body politic. What the COVID-19 pandemic reveals about the current state of the media, social media, and journalism and what can the coverage of the pandemic teach up about how to build a media ecosystem that serves informed citizens in a republican democracy. We offer a comprehensive journalistic approach to address the complex challenges associated with the press and mass communication in our current times. The Challenge Defined The Novel Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) first identified in December 2019 in Wuhan China, quickly became the most consequential global event of the past century. As the initial infective event led to COVID-19 and evolved into a pandemic, it met a rapidly changing media ecosystem. Ten months into the devastating impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic, as we head into the next phase, with new challenges facing the global community, and the impact of the measures to contain it is becoming more clear, it’s worth looking back to assess how the media performed, how it could have done better as the virus broke out of China and headed to the US, how could it have helped frame public opinion, how can it provide reliable up to date information, how to report on the political and related policy response locally, nationally and globally. By examining critically these areas with a complexity lens we develop a new framework for the media, journalism, and public opinion for the current moment. The topics that will be explored What is the role of the media in democratic society? The challenge and opportunity of digital technology and social media for western democracy The media in the COVID-19 age COVID 19  The media ecosystem & stakeholders How should the public address misinformation, conspiracy theories, fake-news and bullshit? The challenges of experts and expertise in media reports and social media Resources Learn More About the Media as a Stakeholder The Media Ecosystem and Stakeholders

Overview of the challenges to the body politic with disinformation, fake news, propaganda, conspiracy theories and frankly bullshit Topics for exploration: The fake news, conspiracy theories, mis and information ecosystems Conspiracy theories, delusions and psychology Tracers- time line of a conspiracy The public defense from conspiracy theories and fake news Outcomes and deliverables: Mapping the media ecosystem of COVID 19 Examine and highlight the incentives that drive media reporting and narrative formation Establishing and crowdsourced reliable time line for COVID 19 Establishing a check list for media organizations and news reports Provide a framework for reporting and informed citizens Educate the citizenry Crowdsourcing knowledge and news: Wikipedia CSPAN for the digital age Introduciton: We live in an era challenged by remarkable advances of digital technology, where social media platforms are connecting billions of individuals across the globe. The immediate consequences for democracy and world stability are mind blowing. In the past year we have witnessed the impact of “fake news,” a savage new form of populism, a tendency for people to declare themselves experts based on a few Google searches, and the globalization of movements. We have seen new technologies challenge the legitimacy of electoral democracy. Rising economic inequality and the superior access of elites to digital platforms have further threatened the democratic order. Technology companies mining clicks of users are developing increasingly sophisticated algorithms that exploit individual biases for political or economic gain. Politicians and interest groups with access to sophisticated digital tools leverage a deep understanding of psychological drives to channel political action by addressing and personalizing messages that promote emotional response and individual action. Information and facts are replaced by opinions and self-serving statistics. The media are fragmented and driven by the need to appeal to factions and interest groups rather than a desire to provide the accountability envisioned by our founding fathers. Rapidly evolving developments in the areas of artificial intelligence and machine learning weaponize digital technology and make seeking a different approach essential. A different framework for digital conversation is needed, a structure that starts with consensus on how to talk about complex issues. As the Brandeis Brief and the business plan refocused discourse in their fields, the Medical Case Presentation, and the accompanying Citizen Brief are uniquely positioned to put the citizen back into "We the People". Current technology allows us to rewire the body politic through digital technology. These tools allow unprecedented opportunity to get access to information, mobilize, challenge misinformation and provide for a more deliberative dialogue. Digital technology can enhance the effectiveness of government services and provide a way for citizens to be more actively engaged, connected to their political ecosystem. Together with a standardized template, the medical case presentation, offers a way forward for enhanced citizen engagement. Citizenism, our approach to reclaim the role of the citizen in the body politic, builds on this framework and includes a Citizen’s Toolbox to fully actualize their citizen role. Possible remedies Fact Checking: Facebook says fact-checkers may assess content in op-eds and editorials. The company also released two new ratings for its fact-checking partners: 'altered' and 'missing context'. Read more about it . https://poy.nu/31HKGOw Facebook: For many fact-checkers, opinion had always been outside the scope of the Third Party Fact-checking Program — until today. (Full disclosure: Facebook requires that its fact-checking partners are verified signatories to IFCN’s Code of Principles). Experts response: Twitter Wikipedia and Knowledge co-creation of citizen briefs Education to media literacy The citizen based Case: The Medical Case Presentation represents a framework that summons our fellow citizens to address the challenges confronting us as individuals, as communities and as a nation. Resources: 1. Media Bias Fact Check: Media Bias Fact Check was founded by Dave Van Zandt in 2015. Dave was a Communications major in college and over the years has focused on personal research in media bias and the role of media in politics. Dave is a registered Non-Affiliated voter who values evidence based reporting. 2. The Latest Fact Checks from the International Fact Checking Network 3. Inside the WHO's push to tame the COVID-19 infodemic Join host Andy Revkin, Earth Institute, Columbia University, USA, as Tim Nguyen of WHO describes a new initiative aimed at boosting the real-world impact of years of research and practice aiming to foster knowledge-based decision making and public behaviour. We'll also hear from Claire Wardle, the U.S. director of First Draft, an organization helping journalists and the public tackle misinformation challenges.

"Why didn’t we see this coming sooner? And once we did, why didn’t we sound the alarm with more vigor?" In the political ecosystem, the media plays a central role in providing a framework and process for citizens to be part of the solution to challenges within the body politic. What the COVID-19 pandemic reveals about the current state of the media, social media, and journalism and what can the coverage of the pandemic teach up about how to build a media ecosystem that serves informed citizens in a republican democracy. We offer a comprehensive journalistic approach to address the complex challenges associated with the press and mass communication in our current times. The Novel Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) first identified in December 2019 in Wuhan China, quickly became the most consequential global event of the past century. As the initial infective event led to COVID-19 and evolved into a pandemic, it met a rapidly changing media ecosystem. Six months into the devastating impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic, as we head into the next phase, with new challenges facing the global community, and the impact of the measures to contain it is becoming more clear, it’s worth looking back to assess how the media performed, how it could have done better as the virus broke out of China and headed to the US, how could it have helped frame public opinion, how can it provide reliable up to date information, how to report on the political and related policy response locally, nationally and globally. By examining critically these areas with a complexity lens we develop a new framework for the media, journalism, and public opinion for the current moment. Transformed by digital technology, social, political and financial forces that have become the reality of life in the early 21st century, the media ecosystem and the multiple players that comprise it continue to play an important role in the lives of the citizens within their communities, nations and globally. Reporting that once required days and months to complete, is now expected to be made public in a matter of hours if not minutes. News organizations that controlled print newspapers, magazines, radio, and TV have become one of many sources for information transmission to the public. The citizen- depending on the media as a source for information, is easily overwhelmed with the amount of, the nature and conflicting information pushed at them. Related links Stakeholders: The press, the media, social media and journalism. The elements of journalism In their book The Elements of Journalism, Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel identify the essential principles and practices of journalism.

The primary purpose of journalism is to provide citizens with the information they need to be free and self-governing. The Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople Should Know and the Public Should Expect The goal of this article is to provide a framework to create crowdsourced checklists to assess the news products. Much has been said and written in recent years about whether journalism can be trusted and whether it matters; some of it has been spewed out of the Oval Office. The question has been settled in recent weeks. How to make sure the information you get is reliable, the source is credible? Checklist for assessing the particular media format and outlet Checklist for assessing an article, social media item, news report Tracers regarding specific topic: Flatten the curve, masks, social distance, vaccine Scientific topics Medial Models The elements of journalism In their book The Elements of Journalism, Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel identify the essential principles and practices of journalism. Here are 10 elements common to good journalism, drawn from the book. Thus, write Kovach and Rosenstiel, “The first task of the new journalist/sense maker is to verify what information is reliable and then order it so people can grasp it efficiently.” A part of this new journalistic responsibility is “to provide citizens with the tools they need to extract knowledge for themselves from the undifferentiated flood or rumor, propaganda, gossip, fact, assertion, and allegation the communications system now produces.” But I would ask this of any journalist who pleads that they were just relaying and providing context for expert opinions: what was the experts' percent confidence in their position? I am so serious about this. What fact could possibly be more relevant? What context could it possibly be more important to give? I'm not saying you need to have put a number in your articles, maybe your readers don't go for that. But were you working off of one? Did this question even occur to you?Checklist for assessing the particular media format and outlet: Is there clear bias in the reporting? Who owns the media outlet? Is the content is controlled by owners, editorial boards and newsrooms. Is there a pay wall? What is the business model? Who are the experts and how are they paid? Checklist for assessing an article, social media item, news report The CRAAP Framework for articles When deducing the credibility of a sensational piece of news, ascertain its currency, relevance, authority, accuracy and purpose (CRAAP). These criteria provide guiding questions that we could use to evaluate if the articles about COVID-19 are trustworthy. Think about: the moment you have chosen to read an article (currency), the date of publication (relevance) and the intention of the writer (authority). You should also look for secondary sources to verify the claims made in the article (accuracy and purpose). Additionally, you can note the vocational training of the writer. Is the writer trained in the topic of interest? Does the writer sit in a position of power? Currency: Timeliness of the article Evaluate the source of information When was the article published? Is it timely? Were there revisions/updates made Relevance: Applicability of the article Was the article related to the topic of interest? Authority: Source of the article Who wrote the article? What are the credentials of the author(s)? Accuracy: Factualness of the article Was the information correct? Was the tone unbiased? Is the content guided by science? Is the news item commercial free or attribute financial relationship Purpose: Reason for the existence of the article What was the purpose of the article? Was there conflict of interest? Additional questions about the news item Context: Does the article/ news item provide context for what is happening? Does the news item address a local vs. national vs. global perspective ? Is the article/ news item diverse in the reporting? Emotional tone: Is the organizing focus of the news item personal experience Pictures and emotion Experts How often are particular “experts” mentioned in the article Role of interest groups (Pharma) Solutions and action: how concrete and useful is the information provided. Does the article provide meaningful information about relevant regulation and legal requirements For example: What we need is specific, actionable information: What’s the capacity of hospitals in our town? Are there viral hot spots in particular neighborhoods? Which stores have groceries? Visualization and data: How does the article use data, visual effects. Click bait Does the headline reflect the content of the article? Sport reporting approach Our political press has to cover our government not with scorecards and spin rooms, but with a depth and a seriousness that reflects what is at stake. Is news article or item driven by "Trump Obsession"? Coronavirus: Conspiracy Theories: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) Jul 19, 2020 How the address false news A recent episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver was dedicated to false news and misinformation. The host offered the following three topics to treat the COVID 19 Is there a rational non- conspiracy explanation? When evaluating scientific papers analyse the raw data evaluate the methodology. Correlation vs. Causation Infographs are easy to read, but some might be misleading. take note of negative evidence. Has it been held up to scrutiny with experts and how did it fare? Projections based on models Five Questions to Ask About Model Results What is the purpose and time frame of this model? For example, is it a purely statistical model intended to provide short-term forecasts or a mechanistic model investigating future scenarios? These two types of models have different limitations. What are the basic model assumptions? What is being assumed about immunity and asymptomatic transmission, for example? How are contact parameters included? How is uncertainty being displayed? For statistical models, how are confidence intervals calculated and displayed? Uncertainty should increase as we move into the future. For mechanistic models, what parameters are being varied? Reliable modeling descriptions will usually include a table of parameter ranges — check to see whether those ranges make sense. If the model is fitted to data, which data are used? Models fitted to confirmed Covid-19 cases are unlikely to be reliable. Models fitted to hospitalization or death data may be more reliable, but their reliability will depend on the setting. Is the model general, or does it reflect a particular context? If the latter, is the spatial scale — national, regional, or local — appropriate for the modeling questions being asked and are the assumptions relevant for the setting? Population density will play an important role in determining model appropriateness, for example, and contact-rate parameters are likely to be context-specific.

The challenge of covering the COVID-19 pandemic, a fast moving and evolving story that has wide-ranging social, political, health economic consequence on the global, national local stage. Journalism has value. You only need to read the coverage out of Seattle or Milan or Beijing to appreciate the commitment of the people reporting these stories. They believe that what they are doing is worthy of their personal sacrifice. And indeed it is why all of us are here: because in the midst of a pandemic, having quality information is second only to the work of doctors and scientists. How well has the UK news media kept the public informed and held the authorities to account during the COVID-19 crisis? Leading British journalists and political communicators discuss how the news media has coped with the practical, editorial and political challenges of covering coronavirus. Jul 15, 2020 That burden is ours. Much has been said and written in recent years about whether journalism can be trusted and whether it matters; some of it has been spewed out of the Oval Office. The question has been settled in recent weeks. Now our focus has to be on doing it well, on serving our audiences as our neighbors, giving them the information that they need to cope and make difficult decisions, and ditching the peripheral, the banal and the mindless. We are in one of the darkest moments in our national history. Journalism is among the few lights we have left. A Failure, But Not Of Prediction by Scott Alexander Axios Mar 6, 2020 - Health Coronavirus panic sells as alarmist information flies on social media . Neal Rothschild, Sara Fischer Many of the coronavirus stories getting shared the most on social media are packaged to drive fear rather than build understanding about the illness, according to NewsWhip data provided to Axios. Why it matters: Social media greases and amplifies dramatic headlines, while more functional or nuanced information gets squashed. Details: The English-language story shared the most on Facebook since the outbreak began was "Coronavirus declared global health emergency" from the BBC. Some of the other top-performing articles featured largely debunked claims, such as that the coronavirus came from bats and that it might have leaked from a laboratory. One of the biggest dangers during this outbreak is the misinformation that has been spreading about the virus, experts say. (Here's a Foreign Policy article debunking the myth that it came from bat soup, and a Poynter article about the three waves of misinformation about the virus.) Moving and evolving facts: (Maintaining story over time, updates, etc. ) Jon Allsop notes in March 16, 2020 CJR newsletter, advice and analysis that seemed pressing a week ago is quaint and complacent today. The impossible has become commonplace before our eyes. Example: Vox Media A coronavirus reading guide for the perplexed, the anxious, and the obsessive Confused about coronavirus? Here’s a list of the articles, papers, and podcasts we’ve found most useful. By Roge Karma and Ezra Klein Mar 14, 2020, 9:40am EDT Uncertainties, skepticism of the pandemic data, Keeping up with the 'firehose' of news about Covid-19 Reliable Sources Source: CNN Helen Branswell, who covers infectious diseases for Stat News, says "there's just so much information coming at us at any one time, it is really hard to keep up." She says the press should keep emphasizing that "we can't wish this away." The virus "is just going to keep infecting people if we give it an opportunity to do so." The journalism that matters is local. We’ve known for a while that the loss of good local news outlets not only imperils a working democracy, but leaves a void in thoughtful journalism. We have too many (cheap) talking heads and not enough (expensive) concrete and useful information. This crisis reinforces that. The need for actionable information. What we need is specific, actionable information: What’s the capacity of hospitals in our town? Are there viral hot spots in particular neighborhoods? Which stores have groceries? The Seattle Times has delivered all of this as it has covered the community in Washington State that has been hit hardest. But so much more is needed. This crisis may, eventually, help us realize that finding a financial support system for local journalism is critical to the way we live. Avoid focusing on Trump and the political “horse race” The Trump obsession is dangerous. The media’s hate-fawning over Donald Trump, particularly on cable television, has been a problem since he ran for president: the live shots of his circling plane, the amplification of his absurd tweets, the showcasing of his rallies as anything other than campaign set pieces. He was cravenly wrong, and will likely have to answer for his politicization of one of the darkest moments in our history. Fox News will have to do the same. Our solution is not to fall into the same trap again. We have now seen that not even matters of life and death are immune from his narcissism and misinformation. Shame on us (the media) if we revert to the norm after this passes. Covering politics as sport needs to end. Remember the campaign for the presidency? Remember when we obsessed over which jabs this person got in on one of the dozens of ratings-grabby TV debates or which nasty campaign ad lit up Twitter? Remember when we used to cover the American presidency and the race to fill the office as a reality show? Much of media treatment of political debate has gone the same way, further cramping the spaces in which reasonable people can engage in rational discourse. Our political press has to cover our government not with scorecards and spin rooms, but with a depth and a seriousness that reflects what is at stake. I thought after the enormous failures in coverage of the 2016 presidential race that political journalism would be in for a wholesale revamp. It didn’t happen, but this story has only reinforced how urgent that need remains. Provide accurate, science based news That tendency in recent weeks has endangered lives. Even as scientists were telling us that Trump’s early dismissal of the virus was wrong and potentially life-threatening, journalists continued to air it and debate it and both-sides it, as if there were an alternate scientific approach to fighting the virus. There was not. The challenge: How to explain the science More than a science story, understanding and communicating uncertainty Contextualizing and communicating complex topics Sources of information The challenges of experts: The mainstream media journalist expertise “ We will continue to infuse our journalism with expertise by having lawyers cover law, doctors cover health, and veterans cover war. We will continue to search for the most compelling ways to tell stories, from prose to virtual reality to whatever comes next.” Data and visualization vs. words (Medium is the message) Data isn’t the whole story. Journalists love numbers. Which is strange given the level of innumeracy in the profession. We see it in politics, where polling data is given much more prominence and credibility than it deserves, and we’ve seen it in the coverage of the virus, where news organizations, largely unsuccessfully, have tried to get their heads around flattening curves and wildly divergent projections. Use projections as they are meant This virus is horrific on every level. But what most scares us—and what terrifies reporters—is the fact that most predictions are at best a guess. To compensate, news reports feverishly wield the projections, which are empty information appearing real. Let’s hold off on them for now, and focus on what science says it knows for certain and what actions people can take now to prepare for whatever will come next. Provide context and frame for the topic and the stories This national crisis, in all of its horror and heartache, has taught us, even in these early days, that national political decision-making is deadly serious. Healthcare policy matters. Economic policy is about keeping people out of bread lines. Credibility and accountability in public office can influence individual decisions that determine whether people live or die. The media outlet Business model and citizen access: Paywall and limited access to reporting and resources WSJ Ownership of the media: Financial motivation (Ad revenue, models) The content has become increasingly infantilized The right-wing-media echo chamber is starting to downplay the risk that a second wave poses to Americans. The Left-wing-media echo chamber is starting to downplay the risk that a second wave poses to Americans. Created an atmosphere of hypervigilance The Monetizing eco chamber The Journalist Cognitive biases of the reporters and the media consumers Understanding of passions (Cognitive and brain science) Experiential reporting, private lives Risk of getting infected: the Wall Street Journal’s Benjamin Mullin reports that cable news networks are planning to pool their coverage of this summer’s Democratic and Republican conventions, due to health concerns. Financial uncertainties Argument has turned cruder, ruder, more polarised and less anchored in facts. The Public : Polarization and passions The tyranny of the minority (Impact of Twitter ) Blistering flame-thrower about the consequences of the digital revolution. The noise has magnified The Future of News From politics and culture, to entertainment and sports, technology has dramatically impacted how people receive and consume news. Innovators and industry leaders discuss how news will evolve as technology continues to disrupt the Fourth Estate. Jan 17, 2018