The candidates. Their families. His tweets. Her emails. Inaccurate polling and fake news. This was an unprecedented presidential election, and it seemed to have had it all: humor, horror, scandal, and a dramatic, trust-shaking plot twist of an ending. But in the media’s collective post-election mea culpa — one thing stood out. Much of the coverage had overlooked a key factor. One that was so simple, and so available. As The New York Times (speaking for so many) confessed: “[We missed] talking to different kinds of people.”
We get most of our “hard news” from TV hosts, talking heads, analysts, experts, and spokespeople. But as administrations and policies change, one thing is for certain: the effects will be felt not only by institutions and industries, but by people. Everyday Americans whose work lives, family lives, and quality of life will be affected — for the better or for the worse. The media has a responsibility to cover these “small” stories. They illuminate, deepen, give heart and soul to the “big” stories.
As an aural medium, public radio — and now the exploding podcasting arena — champions people’s voices. With regional specificity and personal flair, individual stories and authentic voices have the power to create empathy, connection and understanding. Programs like This American Life, StoryCorps, Radiolab, 2 Dope Queens, and so many others are doing this to great effect.
I predict that in 2017, more news outlets will listen more deeply to the people of this country with genuine curiosity and without preconception. To find common strands and common solutions. To bridge a chasm that is wider than we realized. Authentic voices — not fake news. In 2017, the media will let the people have their say.
Laura Walker is the President and CEO of New York Public Radio.
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Juan Luis Sánchez Your predictions are our present
Peter Sterne A dangerous anti-press mix
Ryan McCarthy Platforms grow up or grow more toxic
Doris Truong Connecting with diverse perspectives
Maria Bustillos “It’s true — I saw it on Facebook”
Tanya Cordrey The resurgence of reach
Megan H. Chan Cultural reporting goes mainstream
Renée Kaplan Pure reach has reached its limit
Erin Pettigrew A year of reflection in tech
Tressie McMillan Cottom A path through the media’s coming legitimacy crisis
Katie Zhu The year of minority media
Dhiya Kuriakose The year of digital detoxing
Almar Latour Thanks, #fakenews
Carla Zanoni Prioritizing emotional health
Rubina Madan Fillion Snapchat grows up
S.P. Sullivan Baking transparency into our routines
Tracie Powell Building reader relationships
Emi Kolawole From empathy to community
Keren Goldshlager Defining a focus, and then saying no
Libby Bawcombe Kids board the podcast train
Matt Waite The people running the media are the problem
Jeremy Barr A terrible year for Tiers B through D
Caitlin Thompson High touch, high value
Ashley C. Woods Local journalism will fight a new fight
Kawandeep Virdee Moving deeper than the machine of clicks
Pablo Boczkowski Fake news and the future of journalism
Amy O'Leary Not just covering communities, reaching them
Andrea Silenzi Podcasts dive into breaking news analysis
Ernst-Jan Pfauth Earn trust by working for (and with) readers
Ariane Bernard Better data about your users
Matt Karolian AI improves publishing
Reyhan Harmanci Bear witness — but then what?
Mario García Virtual reality on mobile leaps forward
Swati Sharma Failing diversity is failing journalism
Scott Dodd Nonprofits team up for impact
Ken Schwencke Disaggregation and collection
Dan Colarusso Let’s make live video we can love
Laura Walker Authentic voices, not fake news
Sara M. Watson There is no neutral interface
Alexis Lloyd Public trust for private realities
Helen Havlak Chasing mobile search results
Umbreen Bhatti A sense of journalists’ humanity
Zizi Papacharissi Distracted journalism looks in the mirror
Mira Lowe News literacy, bias, and “Hamilton”
Annemarie Dooling UGC as a path out of the bubble
Cory Haik Navigating power in Trump’s America
Adam Thomas The coming collaboration across Europe
Cindy Royal Preparing the digital educator-scholar hybrid
P. Kim Bui The year journalism teaches again
Nushin Rashidian A rise in high-price, high-value subscriptions
Ray Soto VR moves from experiments to immersion
Ole Reißmann Un-faking the news
Liz Danzico The triumph of the small
Jim Friedlich A banner year for venture philanthropy
Claire Wardle Verification takes center stage
Erin Millar The bottom falls out of Canadian media
Juliette De Maeyer and Dominique Trudel A rebirth of populist journalism
Jonathan Hunt Measurement companies get with the times
Sarah Marshall Focusing on the why of the click
David Weigel A test for online speech
Priya Ganapati Mobile websites are ready for reinvention
Millie Tran International expansion without colonial overtones
Tim Herrera The safe space of service journalism
Richard Tofel The country doesn’t trust us — but they do believe us
Eric Nuzum Podcasting stratifies into hard layers
Mary Meehan Feeling blue in a red state
Andrew Haeg The year of listening
Liz McMillen The year of deep insights
Alice Antheaume A new test for French media
Nathalie Malinarich Making it easy
Rebekah Monson Journalism is community-as-a-service
Molly de Aguiar Philanthropists galvanize around news
Joanne Lipman The year of the drone, really
Mathew Ingram The Faustian Facebook dance continues
Amie Ferris-Rotman Вслед за Россией
Melody Kramer Radically rethinking design
Ståle Grut The battle for high-quality VR
Guy Raz Inspiration and hope will matter more than ever
Dan Gillmor Fix the demand side of news too
Jon Slade Trusted news, at a premium
Anita Zielina The sales funnel reaches (and changes) the newsroom
Vivian Schiller Tested like never before
Emily Goligoski Incorporating audience feedback at scale
Hillary Frey Forests need to burn to regrow
Sarah Wolozin Virtual reality on the open web
Andrew Ramsammy Rise of the rebel journalist
Alberto Cairo Communicating uncertainty to our readers
Margarita Noriega From pinning tweets to tweeting pins
Carrie Brown-Smith We won’t do enough
Lee Glendinning A call for great editing
Corey Ford The year of the rebelpreneur
Aja Bogdanoff Comments start pulling their weight
David Skok What lies beyond paywalls
Mike Ragsdale A smarter information diet
Bill Keller A healthy skepticism about data
Christopher Meighan Unlocking a deeper mobile experience
Samantha Barry Messaging apps go mainstream
Tim Griggs The year we stop taking sides
Geetika Rudra Journalism is community
Nicholas Quah Podcasting’s coming class war
Lam Thuy Vo The primary source in the age of mechanical multiplication
Mary Walter-Brown Getting comfortable asking for money
Dannagal G. Young The return of the gatekeepers
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen News after advertising may look like news before advertising
Sydette Harry Facing journalism’s history
Sam Ford The year we talk about our awful metrics
Errin Haines Chaos or community?
Javaun Moradi What can we own?
Steve Henn The next revolution is voice
Rachel Sklar Women are going to get loud
Elizabeth Jensen Trust depends on the details
Jonathan Stray A boom in responsible conservative media
Michael Oreskes Reversing the erosion of democracy
Andy Rossback The year of the user
Taylor Lorenz “Selfie journalism” becomes a thing
Asma Khalid The year of the newsy podcast
Moreno Cruz Osório The year of transparency in Brazilian journalism
Mandy Velez The audience is the source and the story
AX Mina 2017 is for the attention innovators
Amy Webb Journalism as a service
David Chavern Fake news gets solved
Rachel Schallom Stop flying over the flyover states
Andrew Losowsky Building our own communities
Michael Kuntz Trust is the new click
Francesco Marconi The year of augmented writing
Julia Beizer Building a coherent core identity
M. Scott Havens Quality advertising to pair with quality content
Bill Adair The year of the fact-checking bot
Sue Schardt Objectivity, fairness, balance, and love