ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Lara Setrakian - Journalist
Lara Setrakian is building innovative news platforms that stand ready to engage and explain the complexity of our world.

Why you should listen

Lara Setrakian is the co-founder and CEO of News Deeply, a startup that creates news platforms and builds passionate communities centered on the most pressing issues of our time. Her team's inaugural site, Syria Deeply, launched in 2012 and won the 2013 Excellence in Online Journalism Award from the National Press Foundation. The team went on to launch Ebola DeeplyWater DeeplyArctic DeeplyRefugees Deeply and the Women & Girls Hub; the model is expanding to cover new topics in environment, public health, geopolitics and social impact. Each site is staffed by beat reporters and editors with substantial experience of the subjects they cover and augmented by a network of contributors, commentators and area experts who share their perspectives.

A hard-edged optimist, Lara believes in building innovative news platforms that are rooted in public service, that stand ready to engage and explain the complexity of our world. She also believes that there are successful media business models to be built -- ones that capturing the value of specialized information and the power of targeted reader communities. By fusing news and community, journalism and product design, she is developing a way to sustain in-depth and continuous coverage of vital issues. In light of that work Inc Magazine called her one of "8 Women Who Could Own the Future," while Fast Company named her one of the "Most Creative People in Business." 

Before starting News Deeply, Setrakian was Middle East correspondent for ABC News and Bloomberg Television. She grew up in New Jersey, the daughter of hard-working Armenian-Americans who raised her to value grit, resilience, and resolve. To document News Deeply's journey and lessons from other great startups in the trenche she coauthored a study of single-subject news models as part of a fellowship at Columbia University's Tow Center for Digital Journalism. Her work at News Deeply has been featured in Fast CompanyMashableInc, TechCrunch, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, ABC News, NPR and CNN.

More profile about the speaker
Lara Setrakian | Speaker | TED.com
TEDNYC

Lara Setrakian: 3 ways to fix a broken news industry

Lara Setrakian: Três maneiras de reparar a indústria jornalística

Filmed:
1,252,226 views

Algo está muito errado com a indústria jornalística. A confiança nos meios de comunicação atingiu um recorde negativo; nós somos inundados com notícias sensacionalistas, e reportagens consistentes de alta qualidade são raras, diz a jornalista e empresária Lara Setrakian. Ela compartilha três maneiras de podemos corrigir o noticiário e tornar os assuntos complexos da atualidade mais fáceis de compreender.
- Journalist
Lara Setrakian is building innovative news platforms that stand ready to engage and explain the complexity of our world. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:12
Five years ago, I had my dream job.
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Há cinco anos eu tinha
meu emprego dos sonhos.
00:16
I was a foreign correspondent
in the Middle East
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Eu era uma correspondente internacional
no Oriente Médio pela ABC.
00:19
reporting for ABC News.
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00:21
But there was a crack in the wall,
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Mas havia uma fissura interna,
00:23
a problem with our industry,
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um problema com nossa indústria,
00:25
that I felt we needed to fix.
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o qual senti que precisava consertar.
00:28
You see, I got to the Middle East
right around the end of 2007,
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Cheguei no Oriente Médio no fim de 2007,
00:32
which was just around the midpoint
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que foi, aproximadamente,
o meio da Guerra do Iraque.
00:35
of the Iraq War.
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Mas quando cheguei lá,
já era quase impossível
00:36
But by the time I got there,
it was already nearly impossible
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00:40
to find stories about Iraq on air.
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encontrar histórias sobre o Iraque no ar.
00:43
Coverage had dropped across the board,
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A cobertura havia
desaparecido das emissoras.
00:45
across networks.
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E das histórias que foram ao ar,
00:47
And of the stories that did make it,
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00:49
more than 80 percent
of them were about us.
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mais de 80% eram sobre nós.
00:52
We were missing the stories about Iraq,
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Nós estávamos perdendo
as histórias sobre o Iraque,
00:55
the people who live there,
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das pessoas que lá vivem,
00:57
and what was happening to them
under the weight of the war.
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e o que estava acontecendo
a elas sob o peso da guerra.
01:01
Afghanistan had already
fallen off the agenda.
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O Afeganistão já havia saído de pauta.
01:04
There were less than one percent
of all news stories in 2008
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Menos de 1% de todas
as reportagens em 2008
01:08
that went to the war in Afghanistan.
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foram sobre a Guerra do Afeganistão.
01:10
It was the longest war in US history,
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Era a mais longa guerra
na história dos EUA,
01:13
but information was so scarce
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mas a informação era tão rara,
01:15
that schoolteachers we spoke to
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que professores com os quais conversamos,
01:17
told us they had trouble
explaining to their students
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nos disseram que tinham problemas
para explicar aos alunos
01:21
what we were doing there,
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o que estávamos fazendo lá,
enquanto esses alunos tinham pais
01:22
when those students had parents
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01:24
who were fighting
and sometimes dying overseas.
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que estavam lutando,
e às vezes morrendo no exterior.
01:29
We had drawn a blank,
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Nós falhamos,
01:30
and it wasn't just Iraq and Afghanistan.
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e não foi somente com o Iraque
e o com Afeganistão.
01:33
From conflict zones to climate change
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De zonas de conflito à mudança climática
01:36
to all sorts of issues
around crises in public health,
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e a todo tipo de problemas
sobre crises na saúde pública,
01:40
we were missing what I call
the species-level issues,
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estávamos abandonando o que chamo
de problemas em termos de espécie,
01:44
because as a species,
they could actually sink us.
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porque, enquanto espécie,
eles poderiam nos afundar.
01:47
And by failing to understand
the complex issues of our time,
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E por falhar em entender os problemas
complexos da atualidade,
01:52
we were facing certain
practical implications.
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estávamos enfrentando
certas implicações práticas.
01:55
How were we going to solve problems
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Como iríamos resolver problemas,
01:57
that we didn't fundamentally understand,
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que fundamentalmente não compreendíamos,
01:59
that we couldn't track in real time,
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que não conseguíamos
acompanhar em tempo real,
02:02
and where the people working on the issues
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e as pessoas que trabalhavam
com os problemas
02:04
were invisible to us
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eram invisíveis para nós
e às vezes invisíveis para as outras?
02:05
and sometimes invisible to each other?
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02:09
When you look back on Iraq,
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Quando nos recordamos do Iraque,
02:11
those years when we
were missing the story,
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aqueles anos nos quais
perdíamos as notícias,
02:15
were the years when the society
was falling apart,
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eram os anos nos quais a sociedade
estava desmoronando,
02:17
when we were setting the conditions
for what would become the rise of ISIS,
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quando estávamos criando as condições
para o que se tornaria a ascensão do ISIS,
02:21
the ISIS takeover of Mosul
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a tomada de Mossul pelo ISIS
02:24
and terrorist violence that would spread
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e a violência terrorista que se espalharia
02:26
beyond Iraq's borders
to the rest of the world.
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além das fronteiras iraquianas
para o resto do mundo.
02:29
Just around that time
where I was making that observation,
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Naquela época em que estava
fazendo essa observação,
02:33
I looked across the border of Iraq
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olhei através da fronteira do Iraque
02:34
and noticed there was another
story we were missing:
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e notei que havia outra narrativa
que estávamos deixando passar:
a guerra na Síria.
02:38
the war in Syria.
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02:39
If you were a Middle-East specialist,
you knew that Syria was that important
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Se fosse uma especialista
em Oriente Médio,
saberia da importância
a Síria desde o início.
02:44
from the start.
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02:45
But it ended up being, really,
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Mas acabou sendo, realmente,
02:47
one of the forgotten stories
of the Arab Spring.
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uma das histórias esquecidas
da Primavera Árabe.
02:50
I saw the implications up front.
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Vi as implicações antecipadamente.
02:54
Syria is intimately tied
to regional security,
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A Síria é intimamente ligada
à segurança regional,
02:57
to global stability.
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à estabilidade global.
02:59
I felt like we couldn't let that become
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Senti que não poderia deixar se tornar
03:01
another one of the stories we left behind.
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mais uma notícia que deixamos para trás.
03:04
So I left my big TV job to start
a website, called "Syria Deeply."
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Então deixei meu trabalho na TV para
começar um website chamado "Syria Deeply".
03:10
It was designed to be a news
and information source
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Foi concebido para ser uma fonte
de notícias e informações
03:13
that made it easier to understand
a complex issue,
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que tornasse mais fácil a compreensão
de um assunto complexo,
03:16
and for the past four years,
it's been a resource
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e nos últimos quatro anos
tem sido um recurso
03:18
for policymakers and professionals
working on the conflict in Syria.
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para políticos e profissionais
trabalhando no conflito na Síria.
Construímos um modelo de negócio
03:23
We built a business model
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03:25
based on consistent,
high-quality information,
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baseado em informações
consistentes e de alta qualidade,
03:28
and convening the top minds on the issue.
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convocando as melhores mentes no assunto.
03:32
And we found it was a model that scaled.
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E obtivemos sucesso.
03:35
We got passionate requests
to do other things "Deeply."
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Recebemos pedidos fervorosos de fazer
outros assuntos "Deeply".
03:39
So we started to work our way
down the list.
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Então começamos a trabalhar nisso.
03:43
I'm just one of many entrepreneurs,
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Sou apenas uma de muitas empresárias,
03:46
and we are just one of many start-ups
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e somos apenas uma de muitas "start-ups"
03:48
trying to fix what's wrong with news.
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tentando consertar o que há
de errado com os noticiários.
03:51
All of us in the trenches know
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Todos nós na linha de frente sabemos
03:53
that something is wrong
with the news industry.
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que há algo de errado
com a indústria de notícias.
03:56
It's broken.
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Está quebrada.
03:58
Trust in the media
has hit an all-time low.
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A confiança nos meios de comunicação
atingiu o mínimo histórico.
04:01
And the statistic you're seeing up there
is from September --
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E os dados que estão vendo ali
são de setembro,
04:05
it's arguably gotten worse.
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tendo possivelmente piorado.
04:08
But we can fix this.
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Mas podemos melhorar isso.
04:09
We can fix the news.
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Podemos melhorar os noticiários.
04:12
I know that that's true.
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Sei que é verdade.
04:14
You can call me an idealist;
I call myself an industrious optimist.
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Podem me chamar de idealista;
eu me considero uma otimista diligente.
04:19
And I know there are
a lot of us out there.
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E sei que há muitos de nos lá fora.
04:21
We have ideas for how
to make things better,
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Temos ideias de como melhorar as coisas,
04:24
and I want to share three of them
that we've picked up in our own work.
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e quero compartilhar três delas
que descobrimos em nosso trabalho.
04:28
Idea number one:
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Ideia número um:
04:30
we need news that's built
on deep-domain knowledge.
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precisamos de notícias construídas
sob conhecimento especializado.
04:34
Given the waves and waves of layoffs
at newsrooms across the country,
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Dadas as seguidas ondas de demissões
nas redações no país,
04:38
we've lost the art of specialization.
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nós perdemos a arte da especialização.
04:40
Beat reporting is an endangered thing.
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A reportagem de nicho está em extinção.
04:43
When it comes to foreign news,
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Quando se trata de notícias estrangeiras,
04:45
the way we can fix that
is by working with more local journalists,
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a forma de consertar isso é
trabalhar com mais jornalistas locais,
04:48
treating them like our partners
and collaborators,
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tratando-os como nossos
parceiros e colaboradores
04:51
not just fixers who fetch us
phone numbers and sound bites.
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não apenas ajudantes que nos fornecem
números de telefones e frases de impacto.
04:54
Our local reporters in Syria
and across Africa and across Asia
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Nossos jornalistas locais na Síria
e através da África e Ásia
04:59
bring us stories that we certainly
would not have found on our own.
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nos trazem notícias que certamente
não encontraríamos por nós mesmos.
05:03
Like this one from the suburbs
of Damascus, about a wheelchair race
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Como esta dos subúrbios de Damasco,
sobre uma corrida de cadeira de rodas
05:07
that gave hope
to those wounded in the war.
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que deu esperança
para aqueles feridos na guerra.
05:10
Or this one from Sierra Leone,
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Ou essa de Serra Leoa,
05:12
about a local chief
who curbed the spread of Ebola
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sobre um chefe local
que freou o avanço do Ebola
05:15
by self-organizing
a quarantine in his district.
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organizando uma quarentena
em seu distrito.
05:19
Or this one from the border of Pakistan,
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Ou essa da fronteira do Paquistão,
05:21
about Afghan refugees being forced
to return home before they are ready,
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sobre refugiados afegãos serem forçados
a retornar antes de estarem prontos,
05:25
under the threat of police intimidation.
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sobre ameaça de intimidação policial.
05:28
Our local journalists are our mentors.
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Nossos jornalistas locais
são nossos mentores.
05:30
They teach us something new every day,
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Eles nos ensinam algo novo a cada dia,
05:32
and they bring us stories
that are important for all of us to know.
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e nos trazem histórias que são
importantes para todos nós.
05:37
Idea number two:
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Ideia número dois:
05:39
we need a kind of Hippocratic oath
for the news industry,
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precisamos de um tipo de Juramento
de Hipócrates na indústria jornalística,
05:43
a pledge to first do no harm.
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um juramento de não causar mal.
05:46
(Applause)
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(Aplausos)
05:48
Journalists need to be tough.
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Jornalistas precisam ser firmes.
05:49
We need to speak truth to power,
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Precisamos expor a verdade,
05:51
but we also need to be responsible.
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mas também precisamos ser responsáveis.
05:53
We need to live up to our own ideals,
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Precisamos cumprir nossos próprios ideais,
05:56
and we need to recognize
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e precisamos reconhecer
05:58
when what we're doing
could potentially harm society,
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quando o que fazemos pode
potencialmente prejudicar a sociedade,
06:02
where we lose track of journalism
as a public service.
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quando perdemos a noção de jornalismo
como um serviço público.
06:06
I watched us cover the Ebola crisis.
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Assisti a cobertura da crise do Ebola.
06:08
We launched Ebola Deeply. We did our best.
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Nós lançamos o "Ebola Deeply".
Fizemos nosso melhor.
06:10
But what we saw was a public
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Mas o que vimos foi um público
06:12
that was flooded with hysterical
and sensational coverage,
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inundado com uma cobertura
histérica e sensacionalista,
06:16
sometimes inaccurate,
sometimes completely wrong.
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algumas vezes imprecisa,
outras completamente errada.
06:19
Public health experts tell me
that that actually cost us in human lives,
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Especialistas em saúde pública me disseram
que isso pode nos custar vidas humanas,
06:24
because by sparking more panic
and by sometimes getting the facts wrong,
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porque ao criarmos mais pânico
e algumas vezes errarmos os fatos,
06:28
we made it harder for people to resolve
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dificultamos que as pessoas conseguissem
06:31
what was actually happening on the ground.
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entender o que estava
realmente acontecendo.
06:33
All that noise made it harder
to make the right decisions.
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Todo esse barulho dificultou
a tomada das decisões corretas.
06:37
We can do better as an industry,
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Podemos fazer melhor como um setor,
06:39
but it requires us recognizing
how we got it wrong last time,
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mas isso requer que reconheçamos
como erramos na última vez,
06:43
and deciding not to go that way next time.
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e decidindo não fazer
o mesmo da próxima vez.
06:47
It's a choice.
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É uma escolha.
06:48
We have to resist the temptation
to use fear for ratings.
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Temos que resistir a tentação de usar medo
para obter melhor índice de audiência.
06:52
And that decision has to be made
in the individual newsroom
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E a decisão tem de ser feita na redação
06:55
and with the individual news executive.
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e com o executivo daquela redação.
06:57
Because the next deadly virus
that comes around
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Porque o próximo vírus mortal que vier
07:00
could be much worse
and the consequences much higher,
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pode ser muito pior,
e as consequências muito maiores,
07:04
if we do what we did last time;
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se repetirmos o que fizemos na última vez;
07:06
if our reporting isn't responsible
and it isn't right.
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se nossa cobertura não for responsável
e não estiver correta.
07:11
The third idea?
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A terceira ideia?
07:12
We need to embrace complexity
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Precisamos adotar a complexidade
07:14
if we want to make sense
of a complex world.
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se quisermos entender um mundo complexo.
07:18
Embrace complexity --
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Adotar a complexidade --
07:20
(Applause)
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(Aplausos)
07:21
not treat the world simplistically,
because simple isn't accurate.
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não tratar o mundo de forma simplista,
porque simples não é exato.
07:26
We live in a complex world.
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Vivemos em um mundo complexo.
07:29
News is adult education.
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Os noticiários são a educação dos adultos.
07:31
It's our job as journalists
to get elbow deep in complexity
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É nosso trabalho, como jornalistas,
nos aprofundar na complexidade
07:34
and to find new ways to make it easier
for everyone else to understand.
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e encontrar novas formas de facilitar
que todos compreendam.
07:39
If we don't do that,
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Se não fizermos isso,
07:40
if we pretend there are
just simple answers,
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se fingirmos que existem
apenas respostas simples,
07:43
we're leading everyone off a steep cliff.
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estamos levando todos para um precipício.
07:47
Understanding complexity
is the only way to know the real threats
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Entender a complexidade é a única forma
de conhecer as verdadeiras ameaças
07:50
that are around the corner.
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que estão próximas.
07:52
It's our responsibility
to translate those threats
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É nossa responsabilidade
traduzir essas ameaças
07:54
and to help you understand what's real,
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e ajudar a entender o que é real,
07:57
so you can be prepared and know
what it takes to be ready
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para que você possa estar preparado
e saber o que precisa
para estar pronto para o que vem a seguir.
08:00
for what comes next.
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08:03
I am an industrious optimist.
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Sou uma otimista diligente.
08:04
I do believe we can fix what's broken.
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E acredito que podemos consertar
o que está quebrado.
08:07
We all want to.
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1183
Todos queremos isso.
08:08
There are great journalists
out there doing great work --
165
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2784
Existem ótimos jornalistas lá fora
fazendo um ótimo trabalho --
08:11
we just need new formats.
166
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1513
apenas precisamos de novas estruturas.
08:14
I honestly believe
this is a time of reawakening,
167
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3721
Honestamente acredito
que é uma era de acordar,
08:17
reimagining what we can do.
168
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1689
reimaginar o que podemos fazer.
08:20
I believe we can fix what's broken.
169
488079
1966
Acredito que podemos consertar
o que está quebrado.
08:22
I know we can fix the news.
170
490616
1932
Sei que podemos consertar os noticiários.
08:24
I know it's worth trying,
171
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1826
Sei que vale a pena tentar,
08:26
and I truly believe that in the end,
172
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2143
e acredito que no final,
08:28
we're going to get this right.
173
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1618
vamos conseguir.
08:30
Thank you.
174
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1168
Obrigada.
08:31
(Applause)
175
499423
4735
(Aplausos)
Translated by Nicole Kleiber
Reviewed by Wanderley Jesus

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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Lara Setrakian - Journalist
Lara Setrakian is building innovative news platforms that stand ready to engage and explain the complexity of our world.

Why you should listen

Lara Setrakian is the co-founder and CEO of News Deeply, a startup that creates news platforms and builds passionate communities centered on the most pressing issues of our time. Her team's inaugural site, Syria Deeply, launched in 2012 and won the 2013 Excellence in Online Journalism Award from the National Press Foundation. The team went on to launch Ebola DeeplyWater DeeplyArctic DeeplyRefugees Deeply and the Women & Girls Hub; the model is expanding to cover new topics in environment, public health, geopolitics and social impact. Each site is staffed by beat reporters and editors with substantial experience of the subjects they cover and augmented by a network of contributors, commentators and area experts who share their perspectives.

A hard-edged optimist, Lara believes in building innovative news platforms that are rooted in public service, that stand ready to engage and explain the complexity of our world. She also believes that there are successful media business models to be built -- ones that capturing the value of specialized information and the power of targeted reader communities. By fusing news and community, journalism and product design, she is developing a way to sustain in-depth and continuous coverage of vital issues. In light of that work Inc Magazine called her one of "8 Women Who Could Own the Future," while Fast Company named her one of the "Most Creative People in Business." 

Before starting News Deeply, Setrakian was Middle East correspondent for ABC News and Bloomberg Television. She grew up in New Jersey, the daughter of hard-working Armenian-Americans who raised her to value grit, resilience, and resolve. To document News Deeply's journey and lessons from other great startups in the trenche she coauthored a study of single-subject news models as part of a fellowship at Columbia University's Tow Center for Digital Journalism. Her work at News Deeply has been featured in Fast CompanyMashableInc, TechCrunch, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, ABC News, NPR and CNN.

More profile about the speaker
Lara Setrakian | Speaker | TED.com