UK must avoid becoming an ‘American news swamp’, Channel 4 chief executive warns
UK must avoid becoming an ‘American news swamp’, Channel 4 chief executive warns
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Channel 4 chief executive Alex Mahon has said the UK media industry must avoid becoming an “American news swamp” where young people get their news from unregulated platforms such as social media. The 51-year-old said that if a “British solution” to Gen Z getting news from unverified platforms was not found, then “an international market force will impose on us some other reality that we can regret at our leisure”.
Speaking at a Royal Television Society event called Gen Z: trends, truth and trust, Mahon said: “The simplest case would be the United States Of America, where many people get their information from non-verified platforms, or from those with a vested economic interest in the algorithms that are set to produce popularity rather than promote factuality.
“Here in the UK, I believe we can still resist sliding into an American news swamp. “So what are we doing? The first thing is that we have to adapt what we ourselves as news providers do. “First, we have to rapidly change how we make things, where we publish them and how we promote them.
“Public service media needs to accelerate delivery of our news to the platforms where people consume it. “Young people want their news to be rapid, easy, entertaining and digestible. “They want it to be timely, well-made, engaging and accessible, and it needs to be in an appealing voice.
