Proposals
On this page, we present proposals that put forward new ideas and fresh perspectives. These proposals are intended to challenge conventional thinking and introduce approaches that have the potential to influence, shape, and transform the fields they address. Collectively, they reflect a commitment to innovation and to advancing meaningful progress through thoughtful, forward-looking concepts.
A Proposal for Our Media Friends…
Transformational News Values for a New World
Journalists decide, define and write the news primarily according to a set of “news values” they learned in journalism school. Our culture is impacted by the decisions they make and the news they write based on these “news values.” What if, we added a new set of values to help define the news, values that are characterized by universal, holistic, transformational values. How would expanding the set of news values to include more holistic values positively impact the world?
If journalism is, in effect, a cultural circulatory system—pumping information, meaning, and narrative through society—then “news values” are the rules that determine what gets carried through that system. Traditional news values—conflict, timeliness, proximity, prominence, novelty, and impact—were designed to capture attention, ensure relevance, and maintain public accountability. But they also create a perceptual bias: the world appears more divided, more dangerous, and more chaotic than it actually is because the stories that embody those qualities are the ones most frequently selected.
Introducing a new set of “holistic, universal, and transformational” news values would not replace traditional ones; rather, it would “rebalance” the lens through which reality is presented. In doing so, journalism could evolve into an instrument of cultural coherence, human development, and collective problem-solving—without losing its essential role as a watchdog.