4A Forming an Opportunity Belief.

My belief is that the media in its current form isn’t sustainable. The purpose of good media is to be an unbiased producer of relevant content and to provide relevant context. The unmet need is an unbiased, relevant, and simplified version of the media. The individuals who have the need are primarily young (15-24) and relatively uneducated. This need isn’t new, but increasingly especially in the context of politics. To meet these needs now, people are referring to newsletters such as Theskimm and Morning Brew to get a form of media that’s both entertaining and relatively unbiased. I’m about 60% sure this opportunity exists.

The prototypical customer is an individual without strong partisan affiliation. They are young (age 15-24), American, and have a demand for news they can digest easily and trust.

Interview 1: Kristin Bausch.

Q1: What is the exact nature of the need for a new version of the media?

A: “The media we have today represents larger corporations, they serve as the face of these companies so these companies often have incentives to promote a certain agenda. This sort of affiliation means that the news is a business not a public good.

Q2: When do you become aware of this need?

A: for me, it was the 2016 election when Trump pushed the narrative of the “fake news”. That really stuck with Americans and has a lot of people not trusting the media. I became aware when I noticed everyone around me hated the news media.”

Q3: do you experience this need all the time or only sometimes?

A: I would say all the time, there's never a time where we should accept to go without informing ourselves so yeah, read the news every day.

Q4: How are you currently addressing your need for a modern media company

A: truthfully I settle for whatever article looks interesting to me, I don’t really actively seek out alternatives. Sometimes I’ll avoid reading articles from certain publishers though.

Q5: Are you satisfied with that?

A: Honestly, no. I think it’d be better if we had like a government-sponsored version of the media without incentives to promote an agenda. But that’s probably flawed too so I don’t really know how to fix it.

Interview 2: Garrett Kost

Q1: What is the exact nature of the need for a new version of the media?

I don’t really read the news all that much, unless it's from twitter or Instagram or just people are talking about it. When I watch the news or like read it on my news app it just doesn’t appeal to me. Especially stuff about politics, I read an article but don’t really understand it all.

Q2: When do you become aware of this need?

Probably when the impeachment case started with Trump, I wanted to know more than what I saw on twitter so I did a google search and couldn’t find anything really useful

Q3: do you experience this need all the time or only sometimes?

Just sometimes for me, only when stuff is happening that I can't understand or see on twitter.

Q4: How are you currently addressing your need for a modern media company

I think a lot of people in our generation get their news from other people on social media and I do that too. Most of what I consume as news comes from trending hashtags on twitter honestly

Q5: Are you satisfied with that?

For me it is fine, I’d honestly like to know more but I don’t have a need to do so right now.

Interview #3, Alicia King

Q1: What is the exact nature of the need for a new version of the media?

The media is really biased the way It is right now and honestly most people just want objective facts not the opinion of the news corporation that’s presenting them. So I’d say the nature is structural.

Q2: When do you become aware of this need?

I feel like I’ve always sort of been aware of this need. The news isn’t doing a great job at journalism. They’re running a company not a newsroom and that really has always been clear. But I feel like more so in recent years, like people trust the news they read and hear less and less each day.

Q3: do you experience this need all the time or only sometimes?

This is a need I experience all the time. I read the news every day so I want accurate and objective news. Sometimes that’s hard to find.

Q4: How are you currently addressing your need for a modern media company

I currently read like CNN, FOX, BBC, MSNBC but really have no allegiance to any sort of media outlet. I especially like CNN though so that’s how I address the need I suppose.

Q5: Are you satisfied with that?

Its ok, I’d definitely be supportive of a movement to create better journalist, because I know what I have isn’t perfect but there’s drastic room for improvement.

Reflection:

In conclusion, these interviews helped me really understand how unique each of these students saw the news. I had a lot of personal opinions on this topic, but not all the ideas the student had lined up with mine. Honestly, a lot of the interviews I got helped both structures the problem better and pick at the roots of it. Kristin mentioned in her interview that the Media was running as a business and Alicia said the same thing, leaving me to think a lot of people have a severe distrust in the media because of this. In the future I’d like to do more sampling, to get a bigger and more accurate idea of what students need in journalism.

Summary:

My original opportunity definitively exists but has changed a bit, now that I better understand the root of the issue isn’t just these media outlets, its how the whole industry is structured. I think my opportunity is more accurate now too, everyone I talked to had an issue with the media in some way or another, which means it's failing to serve its purpose. Entrepreneurs should adapt their entire opportunity based on customer feedback so long as it's overwhelming. The market is driven by demand so having an understanding of what that demand looks like is pivotal.