Peter Osnos writes for the Columbia Journalism Review this edition on fair share, fair use and fair compensation in the digital age. He explores the debate involving how creators should be cited, distributed and provided for, but his most interesting words involve a critique of Google.
For all of its strengths and contributions, Google remains an imperfect creature in contending with news. Osnos asserts that its algorithm often ranks the wrong sources, failing to find the originating person or organization. It also hasn't found more than a very slight solution to the issue of financing that content.
He thinks it's the next generation of developers who will face the test.
"Will they help meet society’s fundamental demand for news that supports itself in a way that Google and the rest of the digital generation say they want to do, but have not yet done?"
Moreover, will Google prove to be a source of the solution for newsgathering's crisis?
