Billionaires, Algorithms and the Fight for Black Voices

(AURN News) — As artificial intelligence, algorithms and billionaire-owned media platforms reshape how Americans consume information, author Sarah J. Jackson says the future of Black voices may depend on who controls the nation’s media institutions.

Jackson explores those concerns in her new book, “A Second Sight,” which examines the historic role Black media makers have played in challenging power and expanding democracy.

“There are so many concerning dynamics in our current media system from billionaires and trillionaires owning major platforms and major newspapers and then restricting sort of the editorial vision of those spaces and whose voices matter,” Jackson said during an interview with AURN News.

Jackson also pushed back on the growing belief that artificial intelligence can replace journalists, creators and storytellers.

“There’s nothing that can replace the collective second sight of African American storytelling,” she said.

While many view artificial intelligence as inevitable, Jackson argues that consumers still have choices about which institutions they support and whose voices they value.

“AI is not inevitable. You don’t have to use it, you don’t have to accept it,” she said.

Jackson also called for greater investment in public media and minority-owned media outlets, arguing that ownership and editorial control remain central issues in the fight for representation.

“We need to be thinking about more just media policy where we start to break up some of the conglomeration. We start to invest more in public media, in media with minority ownership,” she said.

For readers concerned about the future of journalism, democracy and the role of Black voices in both, “A Second Sight” offers a warning, a history lesson and a roadmap for what comes next.

Click play to listen to the AURN News report from Jamie Jackson:

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