News Futures releases final report

The News Futures 2035 foresight project is a response to concerns about the future of public-interest news in the UK. 

Launched in October 2022, the 18-month project has brought together hundreds of experts from inside, outside and alongside the news industry who worked together to imagine, and create, a better future.

Read the News Futures 2035 final report

The participatory action-research project was initiated by Dr François Nel at the Media Innovation Studio (MIS) at the University of Central Lancashire, with Dr Kamila Rymajdo as the Post-Doctoral Researcher.

The report authors came together with multiple stakeholders to tackle the issue of news avoidance among other issues affecting the industry: “Ultimately, many have a dystopian vision – where the provision of trusted news is lost – and where people are vulnerable to false information, disengaged or avoid news altogether. It may be that we are not currently able to give communities what they want or need – but if our audiences switch off – we know the public interest is not being served.”

The creation of a multi-disciplinary News Futures Forum that would create a united front of stakeholders with very different perspectives to tackle the challenges facing the provision of trustworthy public-interest news.

A News Futures Forum would:

– Create new relationships across the news industry and beyond.

– Remove unnecessary duplication between stakeholders.

– Build a shared understanding between policymakers and experts on the ground, making policy interventions more likely to succeed.

– Shape an ongoing conversation between news providers and their audiences, so that public-interest news genuinely meets the public’s needs.

– Remove the walls that divide news industry leaders from activists, journalists from academics, and technologists from regulators.