Jack Brewster
CEO and Founder, Newsreel

The Great Information Devolution:  How Cellphones, Social Media , and AI Shape Politics and Us - A multimedia program. We have more access to information than ever before, but are we truly better informed or better at engaging in meaningful conversations? As Marshall McLuhan famously said, “The medium is the message.” Jack Brewster, CEO of Newsreel, an app designed to make news accessible for young people and the digitally exhausted, explores how the internet and social media are reshaping the way we interact and consume news, and the profound impact this has on our politics.

Jack will delve into the latest research, including his work as a Fulbright scholar, on how social media, AI, and the internet are changing the way we think — or at the very least, act — and how they can bring out the worst versions of ourselves. He will offer insights on how we can navigate this new landscape responsibly in and discuss the rise of news avoidance, where many are turned off by negativity and extremism in the news, and overwhelmed by the sheer influx of information online.

Jack will also present possible solutions to these challenges, highlighting creative ways to fix the pipelines we use to stay informed. He will discuss improvements to how we consume news and how platforms like Instagram and TikTok can be used more effectively. Understand how we can all contribute to a healthier democracy by staying informed and engaged in the age of the internet, social media, and AI.

Prior to Newsreel, Jack Brewster was a politics reporter at Forbes magazine, where he covered politics and online extremism. He has also written for The Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, VICE, Fortune, and Newsweek. Jack’s reporting and research have been covered by The New York Times, Bloomberg, CNN, and The Washington Post. In 2021, Jack was a Fulbright scholar in Germany, where he conducted research on the news consumption habits of young people and how journalists can respond.