GetNews

By Tristan Briseno

Hello, my name is Tristan Briseno I am a 20-year-old undergraduate attending make school University. I was recently given the assignment to choose three areas of interest, or domains if you will. I chose these interests based on my likes and concerns. For me, this was pretty easy as I was constantly surrounded by these things and everyday life I felt like it was a no-brainer of what my three interests were. I chose to focus on politics, entertainment, and education.

Now, even though entertainment and education are important for everyday life I felt more drawn to focus on political interest. Which is funny, due to my original idea being more focused on education. But I found myself more attracted to the idea of how our world shares political information. I’ve had many encounters where two people are talking about the same subject but are both telling different stories. But how could this really be, if there is only one true story of what happened then why are there so many misconceptions of what the truth was?

You can always argue that two people reading the same thing will understand it a different way, and as that may be true I can’t 100% agree that this is the main reason in this case. If two people were to read To Kill a Mockingbird and then discuss with each other what it was that they read, I believe that there would be little to no friction on what really happened and what was the truth. So why is it so hard for people to agree on what really happened? I found that it is because a book is only portraying one person‘s perspective and is only giving you one narrative, but there are multiple narratives when covering news or events that happened in the world. Everybody has a perspective in which an everyday person is expected to choose to listen or follow one of the perspectives that were given or presented to them.

I’ve come to the conclusion that the news industry is the biggest problem in our lives today. Right now more than ever, it is important to have a reliable resource on all current events. Every person and news source has a political or economic standpoint, agenda, or objective. And right now it is important for each person to be educated in politics and economics as the election is slowly but surely approaching and the fluctuations in the economic industry are unpredictable. Right now it is perfect to implement a solution into the lives of everyday people who are subjected to the biases of social media influencers and news outlets.

We can never and should never stop subjective writing but I think it’s important to give people as much information on a subject matter so that they can make a decision based on their own knowledge instead of someone else’s. It is important to have a country that is full of people who can think for themselves instead of just being controlled by who they are watching on TV and other social media platforms. I’m not saying that we should create a website or app that is 100% objective, as that is nearly impossible. But instead, one that pulls from other websites and social media platforms and puts together arguments from each point of view. So that you, the viewer may make your own educated decision and opinions.

Of course, none of this really matters if I don’t have people who agree with me or are on the same page. So my next step was to conduct user interviews from amongst my colleagues, friends, and relatives. My first set of questions consisted of me trying to get a better understanding of whether they agree or disagree with my concept and idea. I needed to know that people were actually wanting these things to happen or were also saying that a change needed to be made. Thus I created a set of questions that were unbiased. I found that just like me, most people were discontent with our current sources and the way that they convey and share information.

This is a great sign, knowing that I have an audience that shares the same ideas means that I have an audience to pitch to. Of course, not everybody’s going to agree with my ideas, and I feel like that’s perfectly fine. Not everybody has to be on board for it to be a good product, not every good idea is gonna be something that everybody agrees with. So I prioritized formulating my ideas and coming up with something that appeals to the audience I’m speaking to.

So my next step is to go straight into mind mapping. First off, when you’re mind-mapping you need to know what is the “thing” that you’re really thinking about. You need to know what it is that you’re going to think about before you actually start mind mapping. You don't use mind mapping to find what you are going to be talking about. If you just start thinking without knowing what your main idea or central point is, you will just end up rambling in your own head, not really knowing how or where your thoughts fit in. That’s where it gets difficult for most people. You see, people’s thoughts are not linear, they’re more like explosions. Pieces fly off of the original thought and fragment around the idea. Most people try to force themselves to think linearly as it seems like the more organized way to think but it is actually unnatural. That is why it’s difficult for you to mind map if you don’t really know what your central ideas are.

So with my main topic being news, obviously that is going to be my “thing”. Now that I have my “thing” I can start thinking about it more clearly. Now I have to record what first comes to mind when I think about news in general. There are many different types of news, there’s political news, sports news, economic news, weather, and there’s also the categories whether I’ll be posting breaking news, basic hard news, features, lifestyle/entertainment articles, and even investigative news. These are some of the many ideas that I had to sort through while conducting my mind map. With me focusing on my thing I was able to make my ideas more concise and closer to my overall goal.

I called this the GetNews project. Get news is designed to help the everyday Americans formulate their own educated decisions and opinions through being provided with multiple different points of view with every political party in mind.

I feel like this would not only help people come to a more educated decision on where they stand politically, but also would help with the understanding of the party with opposing views. A lot of people think that whenever people disagree with their own personal and moral views that they’re being challenged on their moral integrity. This causes people to have anger and distrust in others as they feel that they’ve been attacked or criticized. So I would like to use this as an opportunity to bridge the gap between people of opposing views. People of my generation find it very uncomfortable to have their ideas and thoughts attacked or questioned.

I want to provide a place that can facilitate all forms of thought. And as we know, in order to make an idea or thought stronger it needs to be challenged. Just how you temper steel, you need to temper your thoughts, otherwise, they will be flimsy and hard for you to defend. That’s why I feel like it’s important to have arguments or debates which test people on what they think and what they believe. You need to be able to prove that what you’re saying is valid and holds value. Otherwise, you won’t be able to have people join you in your way of thinking.

My user journey is as follows. First, the user finds or hears of the website/app. Then after downloading my app they decide to browse the different subjects and categories in some of the featured news articles. now they’re finding themselves regularly looking through the different articles and stories of both political parties. This person becomes more intrigued by the different articles that they have read so far. They then stumble upon an argument forum and decide to challenge some of the ideas and thoughts they have seen. They argue back and forth and are able to strengthen their own ideas, learn something else, or even have their mind changed. Now they are regularly challenging ideas and thoughts, participating in educational arguments.