Hierarchy of Information Needs
Stewards: Sarah Alvarez and Harry Backlund
How might we refresh the original Hierarchy of Information Needs, articulated in our 2018 paper “Is Your Journalism a Luxury or a Necessity?”
There is huge transformative potential in a structural approach to meeting information needs, where fundamental needs are addressed as a public good and higher levels of information preference are met by the market as a luxury good. This framework, created at the first meeting of what would become News Futures, has helped people around the world, but it’s time for a refresh.
To help people create or re-align news and information services to meet current needs, this working group reimagined the hierarchy of information needs — working towards a more nuanced, unified and actionable theory of informed and equipped communities. To share these new frameworks, we developed a living syllabus in Airtable, bringing together suggested resources and reading from our working group and across the broader News Futures community.
Cycle: 2024-2025
What we produced:
Watch Harry describe the Hierarchy of Information Needs Working Group at our February 26 launch event: