[mikewarot]

Pushing narratives instead of reporting the truth has a corrosive effect on reputation, who knew? ;-)

There are many small teams on YouTube and other places that are building up a community of patrons to sponsor their efforts, both in news and other areas.

It is through these efforts that I see a replacement for the mass media emerging. Their dedicated non-advertiser driven source of support allows them to take risks that are simply not possible otherwise. They can tell the truth without worry of offending corporate overlords, or other institutions.

[t-3]

I agree, but I'm concerned that any internet news reporter can be easily shut down or marginalized with little to no recourse. Payment processers are also able blacklist with impunity. A large organization with multiple channels to get their story out would be much more resistant to such attacks.

[tgv]

At the same time, YouTube has been detrimental to trust, like facebook. It takes paying customers away and at the same time pushes “counter narratives.” I don't see how a bunch of small teams with very limited investigation resources can buck that trend. Even if they’d cooperate, trust in them would depend on the weakest link.

Edit: mobile typos

[morsch]

How do I know which of the many small teams is telling the truth?

[tsimionescu]

Well, the same way you know if the big guys are telling the truth - you listen without trust until you can check enough verifiable claims to make up your mind.

[sofixa]

The difference is that when a big guy lies/misrepesents/is mistaken and gets caught, it causes quite a commotion even if you personally didn't catch that particular wrong fact/report. With the little guy, much less attention is paid so if they are mistaken, or change their ways, or w/e, you can easily miss it.

[lifeisstillgood]

Do you have examples of these teams please?

[mikewarot]

Wow this list got long... sorry

Beau of the Fifth Column has a pretty interesting take on events, a strong interest in community networks, and deep insight into what holds society together - https://www.youtube.com/c/BeauoftheFifthColumn

Breaking Points - Krystal Ball is a liberal, Saagar Enjeti is a conservative, and together they seek to cover the important stories that would otherwise go unnoticed - https://www.youtube.com/c/breakingpoints

Knowing Better is an ex soldier who offers long insightful views on a variety of topics - https://www.youtube.com/c/KnowingBetter

Lex Fridman was born in the Soviet Union, worked at MIT in AI, and does interesting interviews with a wide variety of people - https://www.youtube.com/c/lexfridman

MKBHD reviews technology in a fairly credible way - https://www.youtube.com/c/mkbhd

MrPete222 is the shop teacher you never had - fascinating lessons and stories about machining - https://www.youtube.com/c/mrpete222

Phil DeDranco does a daily rundown of the stories that you might get in the media, with a fairly balanced view - https://www.youtube.com/c/PhilipDeFranco

Practical Engineering is an explainer channel about most things infrastructure - https://www.youtube.com/c/PracticalEngineeringChannel

Rebecca Watson provides a welcome skeptical view and calls out quite a lot of BS related to science - https://www.youtube.com/skepchicks

Rebel Wisdom is a project that is actively trying to figure out collective sense making in the modern era - https://www.youtube.com/c/RebelWisdom

Sabine Hossenfelder is a commenter on all things physics - https://www.youtube.com/c/SabineHossenfelder

Scott Manley provides commentary on all things space and rocket related - https://www.youtube.com/c/szyzyg

Smarter Every Day is an engineer who provides interesting explainers about various subjects. He got permission to film and interview inside an active US nuclear attack sub... pretty cool - https://www.youtube.com/c/smartereveryday

Technology connections does in depth explainers of everyday stuff you didn't realize you wanted to know more about, like how heat pumps or lanterns work. - https://www.youtube.com/c/TechnologyConnections

Veritasium was founded by Derek Muller, who was looking for more effective ways of teaching, when he found that traditional education has almost zero effect at removing misconceptions - https://www.youtube.com/c/veritasium

ZDogg is an MD who gives strong personal opinions on all things medical - https://www.youtube.com/c/ZDoggMD

Update: I've made public my list of channels I subscribe to on Youtube, for better or worse

https://www.youtube.com/user/ka9dgx/channels

[lifeisstillgood]

wow. Thank you

Edit: Walking through a couple of these I would just pass them by had you not mentioned them. A fair few have that awful youtube, block caps, latest news headlines, must have someone's face etc etc.