Hear that thud? That’s the public’s trust in the media hitting rock bottom. Fake news plastered on social sites; partisan commentators billing themselves as reporters; billionaires with who-knows-what agenda buying newspapers: Is anyone in media land telling it like it is?

Perhaps readers and viewers themselves can be the checks and balances on bias in the news. Some new interactive media are going further than providing a place to comment and giving end consumers a say in content creation. The trend will likely spread throughout media in years to come, according to Mario Armstrong, NBC “Today Show” on-air contributor and creator of the interactive online talk show “Never Settle.”

“I think it’s going to become something where the end reader, the end viewer, has more control,” Armstrong said.

Armstrong spoke with Dave Vellante and Stu Miniman, co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the LiveWorx 18 event in Boston. They discussed turmoil in the media and how to use technology to light creative and entrepreneurial fires. (* Disclosure below.)

YouTube 2.0

Gatekeeper media sources, like newspapers, are up against the decentralized online world of citizen participation and content creation, Armstrong pointed out. People will have the choice to walk away from a narrative they feel is too tightly controlled.

“They vote with their eyeballs; they vote with their engagement; they vote with their interactivity,” he said.

“Never Settle’s” unconventional methods of corralling viewers into production earned it an Emmy award for interactivity. Armstrong holds real-time conversations with viewers and even has them pick topics on the spot. “I’ll put up a screen of three options, and people can vote right then and there on what topic we will talk about next,” he said.

Topics generally center around mixing and matching ideas and formulas to create something new and valuable and how technology can accelerate the process. Viewers are encouraged to take notes and ask questions to get the most from the show’s interactive model, Armstrong said.

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the LiveWorx 18 event. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the LiveWorx event. Neither PTC Inc., the event sponsor, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE