So I’ve been thinking about the whole PSKY winning the bid for WBD situation, plus a ton of other US News sites being owned and controlled by MAGA — and now that PSKY owns massive legacy brands like CNN and platforms like TikTok, it got me wondering:
What would it look like if the Fediverse built its own large-scale news station?
And I don’t mean news apps (I know things like Flipboard already exist and are experimenting with federation). I mean:
A full-on journalism operation that is:
Fediverse-first
Hosted via PeerTube, Loops, its own website, etc.
Producing regular news broadcasts, investigative journalism, live streams, analysis panels, documentaries, etc.
Two Possible Models
- Professional Model (CNN-style equivalent)
A structured newsroom:
Editors, reporters, correspondents
Daily live broadcasts via PeerTube
Clip distribution via Loops
Federation across Mastodon/Lemmy/Pixelfed
Transparent funding (co-op model? public donations? instance-backed?)
Essentially: a decentralized alternative to cable news, but not algorithm-driven or corporate-owned.
- Amateur / Grassroots Model
Think:
Independent PeerTubers collaborating
Loop creators reporting locally
Lemmy communities functioning as distributed editorial desks
Citizen journalism amplified through federation
This could look more like a decentralized wire service, where stories propagate organically across instances.
Alternative Idea: Federated News Aggregator
Instead of building from scratch, what if the Fediverse collaborated with existing independent outlets like:
World Socialist Web Site
Communist.red
Mother Jones
The Nation
Common Dreams
The Intercept
Jacobin
Cpusa.org
(And many others.)
Podcasts:
The Deprogram:
https://youtube.fandom.com/wiki/The_Deprogram
Revolutionary Left Radio:
Guerrilla History:
https://guerrillahistory.libsyn.com/
etc
YouTubers:
https://youtube.fandom.com/wiki/Hakim
Second Thought:
https://youtube.fandom.com/wiki/Second_Thought
YUGOPNIK:
https://youtube.fandom.com/wiki/YUGOPNIK
r/TankieTheDeprogram
https://www.reddit.com/r/TankieTheDeprogram/s/mJqfxpGOYK
r/TheDeprogarm
https://www.reddit.com/r/TheDeprogarm/s/Re7CYFSaSW
Maybe:
A federated aggregator
A shared ActivityPub-based publishing layer
A “news hub” instance that boosts and categorizes content
Or something similar to the federated streaming marketplace idea I suggested before — but for journalism instead of an Amazon Prime alternative
https://lemmy.world/post/40697282
Big Questions
Would a Fediverse news network increase credibility — or fragment it?
How would editorial standards work in a decentralized ecosystem?
Could co-op funding sustain professional reporting?
Would mainstream journalists ever migrate?
Should this aim to compete with centralized media — or complement it?
Also: would this risk becoming ideologically siloed? Or would federation naturally diversify perspectives?
Curious what everyone thinks.
Is this unrealistic? Inevitable? Already quietly happening?
Link to same post, but on Reddit:
I like the concept. I don't know how it would work in practice.
I think it would ultimately end up fragmented, especially when funding gets involved.
Who makes the decision for what gets funded? What is that decision process?
I think there will be space for a community funded news non-profit, but also I think NPR is already primed to fill that void.
I think an aggregated approach is more "Fediverse" like. But once again, who decides what does/doesn't get published?
I think if those decisions and how they're made are transparent, that would increase credibility, but it would end up being silo'ed because people like to read/watch things that they already agree with.
As I said earlier, I think PBS & NPR are primed to take on this kind of role. Personally I would love some more non-profit news reporting organizations.
What I was thinking was something similar to how Lemmy operates.
You just take the already existing websites / platforms, use some code to connect them to together, and let users create their own apps
Basically just take Lemmy, but replace the instances with News Websites
If a website gets too egregious, then the others could potentially vote to have their access revoked