News Fix #44: How should you invest your time and heart in this moment?

I'm back with your weekly news fix, and I'm happy we're in this together. If you're new here, welcome! Get in touch anytime; I can't wait to hear from you.

It can feel difficult right now to be somebody who wants a better world right now. We're living through a moment of almost overwhelming harm, existential threat, and economic instability. But there are a lot of us who aren't satisfied with the status quo, and that's especially true for those of us working in news and information.

It's hard to decide what to invest our time and hearts into when so many big things need fixing. I know because I have these conversations with people all the time. Is it even worth it to go for just a little improvement? To try something small?

This newsletter is a small thing. Why did I decide to spend my time this way? Well, so many of my favorite things are small: my family, one perfect chocolate from Bon Bon Bon (you will thank me), or even the strange but wonderful Thorne Miniature Rooms, which I hope to see decorated for Christmas one year.

It was also because I think our collective actions can create something better. If you are trying to decide whether to invest yourself in a new idea, practice, or project, I hope these reflections might be of use. They are somewhere between complete hokum and vigorously reported lessons, and all have come from work I've read and done since I started writing this newsletter in 2024.

• Small is the right size for connection: Let me quote Adrienne Marie Brown here because I always re-read emergent strategy when I'm trying to problem solve. She said in a recent interview, “One reason for hierarchy is that it’s actually much harder to facilitate direct democracy, direct communication, and relationship building. And now we’re so caught up in the capitalist expectation that everything must constantly be scaling up. It's very hard to keep the relationships that you need intact once you get to a certain scale.”
• Some discomfort is productive, but not too much: Candice Fortman, one of the loves of my life, is so good at knowing where the line is between growth and suffering. She has written about it many times. The discomfort of putting yourself out there is worth it if there is meaning and value on the other side. To just work to endure discomfort is either suffering or martyrdom. We need less of both.
• Choose projects that tie you more closely to other people: I was honestly unprepared for how happy reading replies to this newsletter would make me. It feels great to be in close conversation and collaboration around how we can improve news and information. But I don't actually want to be in closer relationship to news and information; I want to be closer to people. And, thinking with other people over time generates more and better ideas.
• Create some value for yourself and for others: It's up to you what this looks like. You could work toward a reduction of harm, an increase in belonging and joy, or actual material change, but real-world value should be the northstar.
• If journalism is a vocation, it's up to you to set your intention: I continue to commit to this idea that we can learn a lot from treating journalism as more of a vocation and less of a profession (not to be confused with working for free, which is a hard no). Vocations require a process of individual discernment and meaning-making. Define your path and go for it.
• Know the point and don't lose the thread: Define the essential functions of your work for yourself. Do that discernment. Then take stock regularly. So much of what we hate about news and information was created because people let personal goals get in the way of wider benefit. On top of that, they were careless experimenters. Care is a habit and a discipline, and we should practice it through our work. Read Traffic, Careless People, and Empire of AI as the cautionary tales they are.

A little AI mystery

I try to be a careful experimenter and adopter when it comes to AI, but not a resister. I hope we can learn from its promise and its harms to fundamentally change how we work in news and information. And I want us to harness our power as consumers and journalists to influence how this tech is developed, deployed, and adopted. All this to say, I try not to just mess around with AI too often or to just dunk on it. Today I'm doing both! I forgot to check the box in the image service I subscribe to, AdobeStock, to keep AI-generated content out of my search results. So when I put “small, illustration, continuous line drawing” in the search bar, this is what popped up. So strange, but somehow so funny. Who knows what exactly this is, but try to enjoy it anyway.

A little hype for my coach 🏃‍♀️

I knew I needed some help to step up this newsletter and turn it into something that would hit all of those notes above. Obviously I could use an editor, but I'm trying to keep recurring costs low so I don't need to ask you all for your money. When I saw Mattia Peretti of News Alchemists was looking to do some newsletter coaching, I was first in line. I hired Mattia for three coaching sessions spread out over more than a month. He helped me set some realistic goals, structure my work and this newsletter more efficiently, and think through how to measure the things I hope we can do together here: think differently, feel empowered to engage with the challenges in news and information, and try to do things differently. Mattia is so lovely, organized, and full of knowledge, great ideas, and spreadsheet templates! Find out how to learn with and from him on News Alchemists.

Until next week, please take care of yourself. And, if you have time,

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