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The rise of AI will lead to a new content format in journalism: fractal stories.
The first thing we learn in journalism school is how to write in the inverted pyramid style. However, I believe that aspiring journalists will soon need to master an entirely new approach. Much like the introduction of the telegraph led to the creation of the inverted pyramid structure, AI will shape how news is produced and presented.
Before the mid-19th century, journalistic writing was chronological. However, a significant, yet gradual, shift occurred with the invention of the inverted pyramid structure, largely due to the telegraph. This approach prioritized the most crucial information first — the who, what, when, where, why, and how — and revolutionized news reporting. It was a practical adaptation to the constraints of the telegraphic era, where brevity was essential due to costs and reliability issues.
This change wasn't just stylistic. The way information is presented affects how we perceive the world; the order, emphasis, and how context is presented significantly shape our perception of its importance and relevance. The inverted pyramid style, designed to captivate audiences with dramatic openings, story hooks, and leads, can fragment our understanding and obscure nuanced details vital for thorough analysis. Social media exacerbates this by spreading story snippets with emotional appeal, leading to misconceptions.
Our current reliance on storytelling for immediate impact sacrifices in-depth comprehension and analytical insight, highlighting an overemphasis on narrative appeal at the expense of a more substantive understanding.
Today, AI is democratizing storytelling, allowing the average writer to excel, saturating the market, and commoditizing stories. There will be a much higher value placed on facts.
We need new formats for news that are concise yet complete in themselves: News Atoms, the smallest meaningful unit of a sentence. However, these atoms are not the final form. Instead, they will aggregate into a "fractal structure," indicating a complex, yet organized assembly of information. (A similar concept was introduced in a 2008 anthropological study of news consumption by Jim Kennedy at the Associated Press. See in comments)
The transition to fractal content structures, inspired by natural efficiency seen in patterns such as tree branches and snowflakes, provides a model for developing digital information systems that are compact, durable, and scalable. This method improves complex information distribution by emulating nature's effectiveness.
However, this advancement poses a dilemma for traditional media, which relies on monetizing engagement, contrasting with the efficiency and emotional neutrality of fractal-based news dissemination. Addressing this requires the creation of new business models compatible with this new approach to information.
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