Interview, Fireside Chat
Kelsey Piper on the room for important advocacy within journalism
- Future Perfect plans to create content for effective altruists that advances movement conversations or reaches wider audiences, covering mission-related issues even when not top priorities, with a specific near-term piece on bio risk and gain-of-function research.
- Kelsey Piper anticipates that while provocative political takes drive page views, a long-term market exists for nuance and complexity, though she notes digital media is becoming a low-margin industry where content she values requires direct funding to survive.
- Effective altruism risks becoming associated with center-left politics due to the issues addressed, potentially limiting branding flexibility, while policymakers and conservatives may remain underserved if pitches are too demanding or fail to appeal to their specific values.
- Journalism in the US faces structural headwinds including halved numbers over 15 years, low viability for careers, and a scarcity of grant funding, yet a niche for grant-funded journalism remains promising for high-public-good work that cannot rely on subscriptions.
- Forecasting is expected to remain challenging for journalists due to difficulty in accuracy and incentives to prioritize page views, though practicing prediction and revisiting outcomes is seen as valuable even when incorrect, with the potential for a successful forecasting experiment to encourage broader industry adoption.
- Kieran Harris expects that issues like AI safety and nuclear policy may become polarized partisan issues in the US similar to climate change, though he suggests coordinated efforts across the aisle or conservative voices could mitigate this polarization.
- Strategic communication for existential risks should avoid appearing exclusively left-leaning to ensure broad appeal, with the UK's BBC cited as a neutral model that differs from the polarized US media landscape where Republicans may be less supportive of global investment.
- Rob Wiblin argues that global catastrophic risks are a universal concern and should not be framed as liberal issues, noting that alienating political groups over topics like factory farming or foreign aid is counterproductive.
- Grant-funded journalism is viewed as necessary but insufficient to replace subscription models given that only a few percent of donations currently go to journalism, with Universal Basic Income considered a distant utopian possibility that could eventually support reporting.
- The effectiveness of AI safety and other long-termist work relies on recruiting reporters with specific field backgrounds, as stories lacking this expertise often suffer from inaccuracy, while long-form content is deemed essential for grasping complex arguments.
- Career advice suggests that writing quality articles quickly on important issues can lead to diverse roles in research or movement building, and that publishing on forums like the EA forum is a useful exercise for developing these skills.
- Material expectations include the likelihood that a utilitarian news aggregator would struggle for readership, while the BBC Future project is seen as a successful neutral model in the UK that contrasts with American perceptions of the broadcaster.