While the social media giants are battling to solve the Fake News epidemic, Google is hoping to insert a little good news into our daily lives. Google Assistant’s latest feature enables users to say “Hey Google, tell me something good” and receive a digest of uplifting news each day.
However, it won’t be “and finally…” good news like ‘cat rescued from tree’ or ‘dog makes friends with rattlesnake’. Google says the summary will be about people “who are solving problems for communities and our world.”
Here’s the type of thing Google says we can expect from the new feature: “This is good news like how Georgia State University coupled empathy with data to double its graduation rate and eliminate achievement gaps between white and black students, how backyard beekeepers in East Detroit are bringing back the dwindling bee population while boosting the local economy, and how Iceland curbed teen drinking with nightly curfews and coupons for kids to enroll in extracurricular activities.”
Google says it is entrusting the curation of the feature to the Solutions Journalism Network – a nonprofit which aims to spread the word about how problems are solvable.
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Google says solutions journalism can help to combat negative news fatigue and help to establish a more “balanced news diet.” The company says it is exploring how to build the tool into the main Google News service.
“Tell me something good” will work on any Assistant-enabled phone, Home speaker or Smart Display. Google says it “isn’t meant to be a magic solution. But it’s an experiment worth trying because it’s good info about good work that may bring some good to your day.”
Does your day need a little dose of good news? Drop us a line with your thoughts on the new feature @TrustedReviews on Twitter.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
