Beehive News responds to the UK Media Green Paper

Overview

The future of media will be shaped increasingly by aggregators, recommendation algorithms and other discovery systems. The central policy question is therefore how these systems can help audiences identify the best and most reliable content.

Our response argues that prominence should not be granted automatically to preferred, pre-selected or legacy providers designated as Public Service Media. It should be earned when - and to the extent that - individual content meets clear and independent quality standards. This would allow established institutions, smaller providers and new entrants to compete fairly, while linking discoverability and financial rewards more directly to quality.

Beehive News already applies this model to written news, assessing thousands of articles every day against transparent journalistic and evidential best practices. The same principle can be adapted to broadcast news and video content.

We propose that assessments should be specific to each piece of content, transparent, non-binary and available in real time. They should not censor lawful content, but help audiences make better-informed choices while remaining free to access lower-rated content if they wish.