Reinventing the Wheel: When the press stops, the pigs get a kick out of it

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Some people swear they saw a pig riding a bicycle. I have never had that unlikely luck. I have never seen one pedaling, nor enjoying free press. Pigs prefer mud. They like shifting ground, where everything gets buried and hidden, without anyone guessing the true depth of the deception. Even when it seems to be a low-level trick, the deception goes deeper and deeper, in a pedaling that no one seems able to stop.

The bicycle, our companion on our first steps and falls, gathered dust at the exact moment our father gave us the green light to get our motorcycle license, spent decades forgotten in Portuguese garages and storage rooms. It was the property of a boy with a skinned knee or a neighbor with a worn-out face and worn-out clothes, with no money for a pass. It was a symbol with a double meaning: on the one hand, it celebrated the freedom of the kids, and on the other, the imprisonment of some older people, left to their financial misfortune. But the world, like spoked wheels, turns many times.

Between clogged arteries – not by fat deposits, but by cars –, the stubborn blockage of the discharge that gives life to the urban hustle and bustle, gyms dripping with tears of sweat like someone crying over a catalogue body on the beach, and the climate crisis burning calories of worry, the old bike has reappeared, now slimmed down and with electrifying modernism.

Just like the bicycle, the press has also been pushed to the side of the road. Overtaken by infortainment, honked at and insulted with clickbait, watching ever wider avenues of misinformation pass by, where lies enter races like those of Vasco da Gama, with the legal impunity of social networks. For many, journalism has become a respectable nuisance, for others an unbearable irritation, and for increasingly fewer an indispensable necessity. It is a rhyme that unnerves and discourages. It is like cycling with your eyes closed and thinking that you will not end up bumping into deception, scams and deepfakes. Unfortunately, in this new paradigm of (mis)information, the bullshit has the legs of Joaquim Agostinho and pedals much faster than the truth.

Now think about your parents and grandparents, who still call you to ask about the HDMI input on the living room television, and who helped them create their first social media accounts. Imagine their disorientation when they are bombarded with an endless scroll of new hyper-realistic videos, images and voices triggered by artificial intelligence, capable of fooling even the most trained professional eye, the most suspicious cynic or the troll who has already been testing the trick. If a few months ago they were dazzled by images of the African boy making impossible sculptures with Coca-Cola cans, today they are exposed to a simple fake WhatsApp share that changes their vote. “Seeing is believing” is already a nonsense that is out of step with the unreality that we all experience, every day, on our cell phones. If yesterday they were showing acne on Sérgio’s face, tomorrow they are showing an immigrant groping a girl on the subway. If yesterday they had Marcelo singing “A Cabritinha”, tomorrow they will have a deputy plotting a coup d’état.

The stage is against the clock. Reality is becoming so riddled with holes in the universality of social networks that it may be too late for the real press to hold on tight to the handlebars and not let us fall into the trap. Just as the bicycle has regained importance, this time in its electric version, the press will also have to continue to leave paper behind, adapt to the new technological framework and gain new momentum. And forget about sites with paywalls and the abbreviated handouts on Facebook, Instagram or X, which have already shown that they do not know how to use or enhance.

What I propose is simple, but urgent. Instead of getting into trouble with the tools that are being used to manipulate us, we should use them to our advantage. Imagine this: a new European social network, created by a consortium of press and technology companies from the old continent. A kind of Spotify for news, but where the “artists” are well paid, because if precariousness is to be maintained, it is better to leave everything as it is. In this well-organized network, nothing enters through the back door. Exclusively fed by news, there is no room for creators, only information professionals. Accredited journalists and duly recognized media outlets would be the only ones to publish in this system. The remaining users can share, comment and even “follow and like”. Only verified content, with cryptographic metadata that tells us when and where it happened, who wrote or edited it, is allowed. No dodgy screenshots, no videos that seem trustworthy without a proven origin. Just like in science, this digital social exchange would have permanent peer review. Fact-checkers from other publications would work like fellow scientists: they would monitor, dispute, confront or correct any news item that becomes a publication. Access would be universal and the democratic principle non-negotiable, with journalists from Portugal to Palestine, from Israel to Iran, from the USA to Russia. The criteria would be professional credentials and never nationality, skin colour or political leanings. This information oasis could also be supervised by a new entity created by the United Nations or, in the first phase, closer to home, by the European Union.

The good thing about an opinion column written by someone who is not a journalist is the freedom to come across ideas that, although not specialized, can

perhaps inspire others that are more grounded by those who make a living from this. I'm just planting seeds. Maybe one of these suggestions will one day germinate and bear fruit.

Journalism is not fueled by goodwill and talent alone, just as a degree in social communication was not designed solely for the financial success of press officers. This new digital platform would not have to be just a huge news museum, but could become a key turning point for rescuing and capitalizing on a struggling sector. On this digital bike tour, each visit would allow users to take a peek at the landscape that each publication offers on its profile, with the possibility of live streams, some operating 24 hours a day. For users who wanted a more personalized service, all they had to do was adjust the change, subscribing to tailored news models, where each topic – from politics to culture, from sports to science – would be curated by specialized journalists. This service could even accept the cross-referencing of several publications, with independent journalists making this choice and performing this task. The most generous users could drop a coin in the virtual tip box, in the form of “likes” paid to journalists and editorial teams, valuing and encouraging their work. For those in a hurry, there would be no helmets, but rather summaries and highlights of the day or week, adjusted to each user's interests, like a kind of news playlist for the trip. And why not adapt the success of crowdfunding to investigative journalism, incorporating it into the same social network, with reports requested and financed by the readers themselves, while maintaining complete transparency and independence? Each journalist or newspaper profile would also have carte blanche to manage the revenue from the ads that appear in banners and similar on their page. Basically, it would be a new paradigm to fight against the precariousness of the sector, with new sources of income, anchored in a format that the new generations can no longer do without, without going through the funnel of the current American algorithm. The growth in popularity of this innovative network could help to exorcise the ghost of a career made only of sacrifices and false promises of visibility, which insists on scaring away professional value with miserable salaries of one thousand euros, like those practiced in Portugal.

I would like to stress once again that this is not just a platform for consulting news. This proposal involves the creation of a true social network, designed using the formats that already work on existing networks, but exclusively for publishing professional journalism. Here, there would be real interaction between journalists and users, with commented sharing, personalized playlists and interest lists, direct remuneration and ongoing review of all content. This is a democratic response that opposes the chaos of current networks and the increasingly precariousness of the information sector. News consumers are no longer mere spectators and become active part of the solution to a problem that already affects us all.

If the bicycle has returned to help us save the health of the planet, the press must try to find a new way to get us pedaling forward. As the old saying goes: those who learn never forget. And we urgently need to remember that truth is the priority balance of any democracy, and that when it stops, no one can stay standing for long. Disinformation will certainly continue to circulate, because the path of deceit tends to take priority, but it will have a vigilant radar in this network, ready to take photos that reflect the verified reality of the facts. In this tendentially armored cycle path, only journalism will be allowed to pass, always with signs on the side of the road to warn of the danger of some pig who remembers to cross the road, with or without a bicycle.

Note: A very special thanks to the incredibly talented artist Ivan Veliz Villalobos, who, from Chile, was kind enough to create and send me the brilliant illustration that accompanies this article.

The texts in this section reflect the personal opinions of the authors. They do not represent VISÃO nor do they reflect its editorial position.