We are living through a historic media transformation as consequential as the invention of the printing press, said Nancy Gibbs, the director of the Shorenstein Center and the Edward R. Murrow Professor of Practice of Press, Politics and Public Policy at a recent webinar by Harvard Kennedy School Executive Education. The webinar addressed themes Gibbs will cover in more detail in a two-week Executive Education program next month, “Leading Through the Changing Media Landscape.”
Gibbs, who as editor-in-chief of Time built the largest audience in the magazine’s history, reaching more than 65 million readers across the United States, Europe and Asia, argued that we are experiencing an “information emergency.” This situation is due not only to dis- and misinformation, but also to the way audiences consume news today, the emergence of AI, and the mistrust of public institutions. And the pace of change is happening in real time, within a single generation.
The power of the creator economy
One of the most striking features of the current moment is how radically different people’s information environments have become in a short time.
“Across generations, political ideologies, regions, and even households, individuals are effectively living in separate information universes,” noted Gibbs.
Young people consume information in ways that are almost unrecognizable to older generations. “When I suggest to my students that they watch the evening news, this is a foreign concept to them until they go searching for it on YouTube.”
This fragmentation has profound consequences. Shared points of reference are disappearing, making it harder for societies to agree not just on solutions, but even on basic facts.
And then there is the fight for attention. “Our attention is finite,” said Gibbs, “yet the competition for it makes communicating much more challenging.” Everything is “breaking news” designed to grab shrinking attention spans.
Recent Pew Research Center data shows a decline since 2019 in adults who follow the news across all ages, but most significantly in the 30-39 age group. In response to the question about which media sources are used, social media use is at an all-time high with 61% and print newspapers is in decline.
Traditional gatekeepers have lost much of their authority. In their place, independent creators, influencers, podcasters, and subject-matter experts are building massive audiences. Some are former mainstream journalists who brought their followers with them; others are “digital natives” who have never worked in traditional media.
Gibbs noted that TikTokers with more than 150 million followers now rival, and often surpass, the reach of legacy news organizations. Social media creators are on track to overtake traditional media in advertising revenue, with the “creator economy” projected to reach half a trillion dollars by 2027.
Friends and family have also become central conduits of information, with recent surveys finding they are the number one source for trusted information.
“Your cousin may be more powerful than the editor of the New York Times,” said Gibbs.
While media fragmentation and the battle for shrinking attention spans play an important role in how news outlets operate, Gibbs emphasized that they are only part of a much broader problem.
She referred to a “crisis of authority” in which institutions from higher education to the Supreme Court are experiencing declining public support and approval. Meanwhile, the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence is introducing new challenges. The very notion of reality, said Gibbs, is being disrupted by emerging technologies. Relevancy is another crisis facing mainstream media outlets. “The idea that attention becomes a form of power is something that researchers in my field are paying a lot of attention to,” said Gibbs.
“Information and attention are the battlefields of this century.”
In politics, that shift has fundamentally altered how power operates. (A Vanity Fair article from five years ago captured the change with this headline: “If you aren’t making news, you aren’t governing.”)
“In the past, leaders governed first and received coverage afterward”, said Gibbs. “Today, capturing attention itself has become a form of governance.” Attention, she said, functions as currency and power, shaping political influence, and public perception.
“These are all symptoms of the same underlying shift,” Gibbs said. “Information and attention are the battlefields of this century.”
The decline of local news
The collapse of the traditional business model that supported journalism and other information institutions throughout the 20th century has also transformed our media landscape, Gibbs said. “Advertising revenue once made newspapers and broadcast networks enormously profitable. That market has now fallen off a cliff.”
She noted that between 1950 and 2020, advertising sustained a robust news ecosystem. With the rise of digital platforms, that revenue eroded rapidly.
“Today, Amazon alone earns more advertising revenue than all newspapers worldwide combined,” said Gibbs.
"Local news is dying in many parts of the world, and newspapers, cable news, and linear television are in decline. Platforms that dominate attention and revenue increasingly deprioritize news, distancing original reporting even further from audiences,” said Gibbs.
“The money, the attention, and the influence are flowing in one direction,” she said, “even as creators and influencers remain dependent on journalists, researchers, and experts who generate reliable information.”
At the same time, growing numbers of people are actively avoiding news altogether. Across all age groups and demographics, attention to news is declining, but the gap between older and younger adults is especially stark.
“Younger people are far more likely to encounter news incidentally rather than seek it out,” said Gibbs. “About 70% of young adults say they stumble upon political news, compared with just 30% who actively look for it. Television remains dominant for people over 50, but there is a 40-point gap in TV news consumption between the oldest and youngest adults.”
When asked why they avoid news, people frequently cite emotional reasons: it makes them feel anxious, helpless, worn out, or depressed. Gibbs connected this to what cultural critics have called the rise of “dopamine culture,” in which constant digital stimulation trains the brain to seek distraction and quick rewards.
“We are running a massive social engineering experiment on ourselves,” Gibbs said.
Trust and credibility
In an environment where access to information has been radically democratized, Gibbs said leaders need a more sophisticated understanding not just of the supply of information, but of the demand for it—how people decide whom to trust and what to believe.
Curiosity, she said, is a superpower. “Research by my colleague Julia Minson shows that expressions of genuine curiosity can reduce conflict and polarization, even among people who strongly disagree.”
Storytelling—creating a strong and coherent narrative—is equally important, as is a deep understanding of audiences and the tools used to reach them.
As societies continue to grapple with this historic transformation, Gibbs made clear that the stakes extend far beyond media or technology. At issue is how communities understand reality, resolve conflict, and work together in an age where attention itself has become the most valuable resource of all.
But, she says, the downsides and the upsides are intertwined.
“There has never in all of history been a time when you could reach more people with powerful storytelling tools than now,” said Gibbs. “You don’t have to own a movie studio to make a film that moves people. You don’t need a printing press or publishing house to have your words reach millions of people.”
Registration is now open for “Leading through the Changing Media Landscape,” which runs from January 26 through February 6. This Harvard Kennedy School Executive Education course explores the evolution of the media landscape and how to manage communication in a polarized environment with conflicting press information. It examines the role of technology, including the rise of artificial intelligence, in shaping public discourse and public affairs. Participants will learn how to use practical tools and insights from the latest research to craft clear, impactful messages and navigate complex media dynamics.
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Banner photo credit: Donald Bowers/Getty Images for Samsung
Faculty photo credit: Martha Stewart