The Public Isn't Asking for More News. It's Asking to Understand What's Happening

By Antonis Kaloudis, CEO of Celyphos S.A. Originally published (in Greek) in Naftemporiki.

We have never had more news, and it has never been harder to understand what is really happening. Over the past two decades, the news landscape has expanded explosively.

To newspaper front pages and television bulletins were added news sites, breaking-news alerts on our phones, social media posts, podcasts, newsletters, video, live streams and, now, answers from artificial intelligence applications.

This abundance has created an environment of information overload, where a news item is reproduced, commented on, cut into fragments, and circulated through platforms, algorithms, creators, and AI systems. Citizens have access to more content than in any other era — but not necessarily to more understanding. Information has ceased to be scarce. Understanding has not.

The Media's Credibility Crisis and the Public's Retreat

At the same time, the media's credibility crisis compounds the problem. The Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2025 records that four in ten citizens across the surveyed markets often or sometimes avoid the news — while in Greece that figure reaches 60%.

The same report notes that people under 35 are more likely to find the news difficult to follow or to understand. And the 2026 edition adds that news creators are seen by a large share of the public as more familiar, more direct, and easier to understand than traditional news outlets.

This does not mean the new intermediaries of information are necessarily more reliable. It does mean they answer a basic need: to explain the news in a way that is simple, human, and comprehensible. In other words, the public is not abandoning the news. It is abandoning forms of news that do not offer it enough clarity.

The New Need in News

The critical question, then, is shifting. From "what happened?" we are moving to "what does it mean?".

What does a new crisis in the Middle East mean for energy, prices, and European security? What does artificial intelligence mean for work, education, and business? What does a decision in Brussels mean for the daily life of a citizen in Athens? What does a reform in healthcare, taxation, or pensions mean for the person who has neither the time nor the obligation to follow every technical detail every day?

Somewhere here, a new economy of value is taking shape in communication. After the Attention Economy — the era in which the central challenge was to win the audience's attention — we are gradually entering the Explanation Economy: an era in which the competitive advantage shifts from producing more content to the ability to turn complexity into clarity.

This is not simply about new formats — a video explainer, an infographic, or a short podcast. Those are tools. The essence lies in a different logic of communication, where value is measured not only by how fast you transmit a piece of information, but by how effectively you help the audience understand it.

The Explanation Economy Concerns the Entire Communication Ecosystem

The Explanation Economy does not concern the news media alone. It concerns the entire communication ecosystem.

Companies, institutions, universities, political organizations, and brands are now judged on whether they can convincingly explain why what they announce matters.

It is not enough for a company to present its activities. It is not enough for an institution to publish a decision. It is not enough for a politician to describe a policy.

The real challenge is to connect information with its consequences for people's everyday lives.

The same need shows up in international trust research. The Edelman Trust Barometer, which has long tracked trust in governments, media, business, and NGOs, describes an environment in which authority alone is not enough.

The public places more trust in those who can offer information that is comprehensible, well-documented, and useful. Artificial intelligence makes this shift even more pressing.

The more easily information is produced, the more valuable human judgment becomes: the ability to prioritize it, verify it, place it in context, and turn it into a well-founded narrative. Information will increasingly be produced by machines. Understanding it, however, will remain a human affair.

Because value lies not only in knowing what happened, but in being able to explain why it matters. In the new communication ecosystem, those who produce more information, faster, will not be the ones who stand out. Those who can bring order to the noise, give context to events, and turn information into understanding will be.

Because, in the end, the public is not asking merely to be informed. It is asking to understand. And in an era when everything is becoming faster, more complex, and more uncertain, that understanding may prove to be the most valuable form of trust.