Newsrooms Bet on Prediction Markets: $55M Traded on Polymarket Alone
Your favorite news outlet might be betting on your story
TL;DR
News organizations like Fox News and The Associated Press are partnering with prediction market platforms Kalshi and Polymarket. This raises questions about the impact on journalism ethics and the value of news.
Prediction market evangelists claim their odds are more trustworthy than polls, but journalists are caught in the crosshairs: what they report now has a dollar amount attached to it. ProPublica updated its code of ethics to explicitly mention restrictions on staff using prediction markets. The policy applies not just to editorial staff but also to business-side employees. Kalshi's bulk trading volume is on sports, but prediction markets complicate what's a 'news event' and what isn't.
Key Points
$55 million of trading volume went into the question of who would be named Time's 2025 Person of the Year on Polymarket
ProPublica updated its code of ethics to explicitly mention restrictions on staff using prediction markets
Kalshi and Polymarket allow users to monetize news, raising questions about journalism ethics
Why It Matters
If you're a journalist or work in media, this changes the way you think about reporting on sensitive topics. Prediction markets complicate what's a 'news event' and what isn't.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does this matter?
If you're a journalist or work in media, this changes the way you think about reporting on sensitive topics. Prediction markets complicate what's a 'news event' and what isn't.
What happened?
News organizations like Fox News and The Associated Press are partnering with prediction market platforms Kalshi and Polymarket. This raises questions about the impact on journalism ethics and the value of news.
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