Google Bulletin: News by the people, for the people

The tech Giant Google is testing a tool they call Google bulletin promoting hyper local crowd sourced "Citizen Journalism". The app is being tested and is available in Nashville, Tennessee and Oakland, California, however the threats to the authenticity of the news are undeniable.

Credits: Google

Can Google handle the threats to authenticity of news in this era rife with misinformation?

After the 2016 overflow of fake stories about the elections,  Facebook Civic Engagement Product Manager Samidh Chakrabarti wrote earlier this month, 

“I wish I could guarantee that the positives are destined to outweigh the negatives" ,“But I can’t.” he added.

And as a consequence C.E.O. Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook would overhaul its news feed, de-emphasizing news stories altogether.

Now, when, Facebook has pulled out of this crowd sourced news turmoil google is apparently sliding in.

Google has already received a major backlash from world leaders, lawmakers, billionaire investors, and early employees alike, for elevating fake-news stories thanks to its algorithm, which does not distinguish between accurate-news stories, and outlets of misinformation. This new venture could attract an ire of criticism, if the stories start surfacing in google searches without authenticity.

A google Spokesperson added at a launch event in Nashville that, Bulletin is an attempt to help local news find stories and publish them giving the writer the credit for the story.

Would this application be of use, who is google bulletins direct competition?

Bulletins bare-bones Website describes it as “an app for contributing hyperlocal stories about your community, for your community, right from your phone,” an “effortless” way to tell “the stories that aren’t being told” in other news media. In a statement, Google Bulletin Product Manager James Morehead elaborated:

"Bulletin is an experimental app that gives people an easy way to tell stories about what is going on around them—ranging from local bookstore readings to high-school sporting events to information about local street closures,” he said. “We are excited to see how people use the app during this pilot phase."

Who is Google Bulletin's competition??

Google will be neck to neck with Twitter, if one witnesses a mishappening like a police chase, a fire or something more distressing in nature they stat a live stream or start to tweet. Whereas if someone wants to promote a book reading or something that means business or is casual in nature, then Facebook's business page does it for them, as there the stories are more targeted towards the correct people.

And if google aims at competing with local news outlets and online publishers its a mammoth task as well, as the local news is really difficult to monetize and to make money from it .The already established local news sources it are mostly household names and those who are already following them would not be interested in shifting elsewhere.