Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa delivered a stark warning to global executives at YPO EDGE in Sydney. The information ecosystem shaping business, governance and society is under unprecedented strain.
“What we collectively do in the next six months will determine whether journalism and democracy survive,” she urges. “It’s a critical moment.”
Her message reframes leadership for an era defined by the attention economy, where traditional loyalty is being dismantled by algorithmic amplification, manufactured hype and viral outrage.
The battle for truth
For Ressa, the Co-founder and CEO of Rappler, the Philippines’ leading digital media company, and former lead reporter in Southeast Asia for CNN, the fight for truth is a career-long mission.
“I’m a journalist; I’m not an activist, but when it is a battle for facts, journalism is activism,” Ressa asserts, whose efforts to protect freedom of expression are chronicled in her book, “How to Stand Up to a Dictator: The Fight for Our Future.”
Today’s broader fight for democracy and journalism is a narrative warfare.
“You have a digital battlefield that rewards emotions and monetizes outrage,” she explains. “It has become an economic model that monetizes attention.”
By prioritizing fear, anger and identity conflict over factual debate, social media ecosystems have weakened the gatekeepers of truth – media, courts and experts – and replaced discourse with emotional polarization.
The challenge is compounded by generative artificial intelligence (AI). “The commercial tech that we are using has, what they call hallucinations, I call error rates, of anywhere from 16% at best to 79% at worst,” Ressa notes.
An altered information ecosystem
According to Ressa, paid independent creators are responsible for 66% of all online engagement. This influencer-driven reality is reshaping the flow of information and replacing traditional legitimate sources.
“Please never call a journalist an influencer,” she cautions. “Standards and ethics and values matter.”
With social media penetration exceeding 85% in most developed countries, influencers now wield more power over public perception than traditional institutions. As a result, society has a fragmented shared reality that is weakening democratic institutions around the globe.
— Maria Ressa, Co-founder and CEO of Rappler share
The breakdown in trust is not simply a political issue. Businesses now operate in environments where misinformation spreads faster than truth, and that can quickly erode consumer trust.
Companies are expected to speak out against untruths and injustices. In this new reality, silence is no longer neutral. “If you don’t speak, silence is complicity,” Ressa warns.
The civic response to federal immigration practices in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, is an example of how leaders can stand by their values. “700 businesses in Minneapolis stood up,” she says. “They shut down for a day, which meant they lost business.”
An approach to rebuilding trust
The good news is that change is possible through collective action. Trust can be rebuilt through a whole-of-society approach that mobilizes technology, journalism and community, Ressa explains.
First, it’s important to invest in public-interest technology so that public opinion is reflected in government policies. Deliberative technologies can help engage the public and support democratic participatory processes.
At this time, “not much has been written about a public interest tech stack, because America has given it to Silicon Valley,” Ressa says. Her advice: “Let’s build tech that will protect us, that won’t manipulate us.”
Second, it’s important to strengthen independent journalism through global funding mechanisms. The funding of factual reporting can safeguard information integrity.
For example, the International Fund for Public Interest Media founded in 2019 provides grants to media outlets to ensure the integrity of information. “We went to democratic governments and asked them for their overseas development assistance funds, 0.2%,” she says, noting they had raised USD60 million by 2022 to combat narrative warfare in low- and middle-income markets.
“You cannot have rule of law if you don’t have facts,” Ressa emphasizes.
Lastly, community networks can help disseminate fact-based content. “If you’re organizing communities in the physical world, you’ve got to organize them in the virtual world, because that’s the only place we have right now,” Ressa emphasizes.
For example, Rappler partnered with approximately 150 groups including Facebook, YouTube and TikTok to provide fact-checking and debunk election-related misinformation in the Philippines.
“People are worth trusting,” she says. “Inspiration spreads as fast as anger.”
Becoming more resilient
Ultimately, survival in this fragmented reality requires personal and organizational integrity. Leaders must define their boundaries before they are tested.
“You have to know what you stand for,” Ressa emphasizes. “You can’t become a monster to fight a monster. Values are not transferable.”
Vulnerability and relationships remain powerful counterforces to digital polarization. “In a world that is so cynical and full of toxic sludge, I’ve found that lowering your shields allows you to have real connections,” she says.
In this era where hype and outrage command attention, leadership must be anchored in transparency, values and courage. “If you draw the line, then you hold the line,” Ressa advises.
YPO members, tune in to The Source to listen to excerpts of Ressa’s session from YPO EDGE: Maria Ressa: Attention Economy – What Leadership Looks Like When Loyalty has been Replaced by Hype and Outrage.
