Solving the Fake News Problem With Comedy and Community

Dern says Fake News depends upon a climate of intellectual laziness. While outcries for individuals and organizations to become more responsible are often well-intentioned, they do not make for a sustainable solution long term. The key is to turn individuals from passive news consumers into active participants with a vested interest in accuracy and outcomes.

KnewQ.com believes they are a solution by offering an unusual tool -- a game of predictions. This private app allows users to predict the future, follow the predictions of others, and to have those predictions scored as the facts unfold. To facilitate all this, KnewQ logs and scores everyone's predictions. Over time, meaningful track records for individuals can be generated, helping separate the signal from the noise in today's social media, where too often opinion drowns out wisdom and good judgement.

KnewQ is all about credentialing those who think and predict well because some people are better at seeing patterns and trends in the world than others and their voices should be heard.

Besides being interactive, KnewQ focuses on a comedic approach to changing the news. Comedy is central to their strategy, and Dern is actively recruiting some of the funniest people from all across the web to join the platform.

Dern notes, "We recognized early on that the content has to be sufficiently engaging if we're ever going to acquire the scale to meaningfully address the problem. But it's not only comedians. We're signing up pundits from every domain including former White House officials, professional athletes, authors, tv commentators, and more."

KnewQ.com allows users to post their predictions right alongside those of celebrities and see how their scores compare. As one early user put it, "It's like getting to be in the same Fantasy Football league as Bill Belichick! But in addition to Football, it's Politics, Entertainment... EVERYTHING!"

KnewQ is currently still in their beta stage and they are focusing on improving the experience. They believe that if the experience is good the numbers will come. For those motivated to help solve the Fake News problem or just motivated to show off their expertise, KnewQ is currently accepting a small number of individuals to participate in the private beta. It's a rewarding way for like-minded enthusiasts to have an outlet for their energy and gusto before the app goes public. Space is highly limited but will be gradually increased on a rolling basis. And as a thank you, all early users will be specially recognized when the public app opens.

"We're focused primarily on improving the experience rather than growing the numbers, but we quickly realized that there is a community of like minded enthusiasts out there motivated by these same problems. We wanted to provide some outlet for them to get involved and share their energy," Dern said.

The Newseum in D.C. states, "There's more to every story." And now, KnewQ gives users a chance to not only understand what more there is to each story but to share their own side of it.

To request access to the private beta, simply sign up at www.KnewQ.com. Interested commentators can also send Dern funny predictions via Twitter @NateDern.

About Nate Dern

Nate Dern is an actor, writer, and editor. A jack of all trades and master of comedy, this Former Artistic Director of Upright Citizens Brigade and Senior Writer at Funny or Die is now the Director of Content at KnewQ. He is thoroughly enjoying working on this new challenge of solving the fake news problem.

Dern just released his first book: Not Quite A Genius, which unfortunately he was not allowed to review on Amazon as "Amazon thinks that [his] relationship with [him]self is biased."

A native of Colorado, Dern now resides with his fiancé and their cat in Brooklyn.

Nate Dern and Jon Norman-Finkel
KnewQ.com 
www.natedern.com 
[email protected] 
914-469-4633

SOURCE KnewQ.com

Related Links

http://www.KnewQ.com