What if the polarizing mess of social media, clickbait headlines and addictive algorithms isn't a breakdown of media but a transition to something better? Substack cofounder Hamish McKenzie explores how independent creators are growing a new media "garden," where trust beats engagement metrics and audiences matter more than ads. Learn why clicking “subscribe” doesn’t just signal support; it gives you power.For a chance to give your own TED Talk, fill out the Idea Search Application: ted.com/ideasearch.Interested in learning more about upcoming TED events? Follow these links:TEDNext: ted.com/futureyouTEDSports: ted.com/sportsTEDAI Vienna: ted.com/ai-viennaTEDAI San Francisco: ted.com/ai-sf Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas and conversations to spark your curiosity every day. I'm your host, Elise Hu. The journalism business has been imploding for my entire adult life, collapsing business models, shuttering publications, fewer and fewer jobs for the important work of informing the public.
Hamish McKenzie, one of the founders of Substack, goes so far as to say that we're in an age of chaos media. There's a cacophony of voices online driven by algorithmic whims and viral trends, but the rewards go primarily to the platforms.
In his talk, he shares a vision for a new media ecosystem where relationships are valued over, quote, flimsy validation, and his hope for a world where journalists and creators can own and live off their work. Coming up.
We're living through the most significant media disruption since the printing press. It's a transformation that explains everything from political polarization to why algorithms now do the jobs of editors. And it's creating a hell of a mess. But I secretly think that we're on our way to something greater than we've ever seen in human history.
This is a massive deal, of course, because media systems don't just convey information. They shape how we think and how we behave, They shape our culture. I spent my career navigating these shifts. As one of the founders of Substack, I helped writers and creators make money directly from their audiences.
Before Substack, I was the lead writer for Tesla, I wrote a book about the electric car revolution, and I covered media startups as a reporter. So I've witnessed firsthand how media systems evolve and how they collapse. The arrival of the internet promised to democratize media. But so far, I think, it has broken more than it's fixed.
Yes, social media has given everyone a voice, but it has still concentrated power in the hands of a few. But I see a new system starting to flourish. and I call it the garden. This garden includes a new generation of media platforms that give more power to creators and consumers.
It's coming from places like Patreon, Twitch, Supercast, and then the company I started with Chris Best and Jiraj Sethi, Substack. It's an ecosystem that gives economic autonomy to independent voices, and it fosters direct relationships that are built on trust, instead of just putting everyone at the mercy of algorithms that maximize engagement and advertising revenue.
For decades, we all lived in a media world that was kind of like a temple. It was top-down, centralized and controlled by gatekeepers. We had the city newspaper over breakfast, radio for the morning commutes, TV news just before dinner. And it was a relatively stable system, but it was also rigid. It could represent only a few perspectives, and new voices had to be let in by favor.
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