Check out highlights from Upworthy co-founder Peter Koechley’s Changing Media Summit session.
The site, perhaps most famous for its “curiosity gap” style headlines (“What happened next will make you cry…”) has, to date, logged more than 1.5bn minutes of reader attention and attracts 50-60m visitors a month.
I think there’s a third, very important, role for media in society. That is: I think media can be a powerful force for nurturing empathy in society. Empathy is a soft word [for hard-hitting journalists]. Without it, society has a really hard time making progress.
Luckily, we all know how to care. We all care innately for our families. It’s pretty easy to care for people you know but it’s harder when they’re outside your point of view. Extending your circles of compassion outside your [field of view – that makes society work]. That’s really necessary when you’re trying to get good public policy passed. The way we do this is by sharing powerful stories.
Watch the full session, and all other 2015 Changing Media Summit sessions, at our live stream archive here.
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