Donald Trump’s victory left us with an overarching feeling that the media doesn’t really know all of America. While I don’t think more coverage would have completely negated the bad polling, we know we could be better at not only covering major news events in the area between the coasts, but truly understanding the people and culture there. We’ll see a renewed focus on covering the Midwest and South in 2017.
Full disclosure: I am from the Midwest, and I own a “Midwest is Best” tank top. As Nelly and I both say, I’m from the Lou and I’m proud. I’ve been away from home for almost five years, and the difference in news coverage is undeniable. This goes both ways — there are Missouri stories that should be picked up by national outlets, and there are national stories presented differently in the Midwest than they are on the coasts. We cannot deny that the conversations about immigration and health care differ depending on where you live, and we have to do more than publish “how to talk to your family at Thanksgiving” guides. If we want to create a more inclusive, more unified readership, we have to at least speak the same language. As Trump wages a daily battle against the media, it’s crucial we connect to people who have felt disconnected from us. And that cannot be accomplished by sending a national reporter to cover a shooting, deadly tornado, or protest. We have to stop thinking of these people as subjects we cover and relate to them as neighbors, friends, and readers we make journalism for.
This is already in motion in some places. For example, The Washington Post is hiring for an America editor role. Diversity in newsrooms will expand to include the region you call home, and hiring managers will recognize the importance of including voices from across the country (but do not use this as an excuse to distract from hiring people of color from everywhere). We will see more national outlets investing in remote reporters and opening bureaus in Midwestern and Southern cities that aren’t named Chicago or Atlanta. This is a good start, but it presents challenges of its own. We need to make sure these remote workers have the same access to resources and have their voices heard by upper management, especially when they are women and people of color.
Hiring for these roles will be tricky. Most journalists choose where to live based on the best job available to them, but it’s hard to invest your life in a place that doesn’t have many other national news outlets. If you’re based in Kansas City and there are layoffs or you want to move on, you’ll likely be faced with moving your family and starting over. This may be fine for entry-level reporters, but it’s a riskier move the more experienced and established you are, and it’s exacerbated even more for those in management. We will be forced to face this vicious cycle of coastal-congested media if we truly want to cover the country inclusively.
Rachel Schallom is senior manager of interactives for Fusion.
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Asma Khalid The year of the newsy podcast
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Mary Walter-Brown Getting comfortable asking for money
Swati Sharma Failing diversity is failing journalism
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Andrew Ramsammy Rise of the rebel journalist
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Bill Keller A healthy skepticism about data
Rachel Sklar Women are going to get loud
Amy O'Leary Not just covering communities, reaching them
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David Weigel A test for online speech
Ryan McCarthy Platforms grow up or grow more toxic
Mary Meehan Feeling blue in a red state
Rubina Madan Fillion Snapchat grows up
Maria Bustillos “It’s true — I saw it on Facebook”
Kathleen Kingsbury Print as a premium offering
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Juan Luis Sánchez Your predictions are our present
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Scott Dodd Nonprofits team up for impact
Rebekah Monson Journalism is community-as-a-service
Eric Nuzum Podcasting stratifies into hard layers
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Michael Kuntz Trust is the new click
Aja Bogdanoff Comments start pulling their weight
David Skok What lies beyond paywalls
Sara M. Watson There is no neutral interface
Tanya Cordrey The resurgence of reach
Emi Kolawole From empathy to community
Jonathan Stray A boom in responsible conservative media
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Guy Raz Inspiration and hope will matter more than ever
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Rachel Schallom Stop flying over the flyover states
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Michael Oreskes Reversing the erosion of democracy
Libby Bawcombe Kids board the podcast train
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Gabriel Snyder The aberration of 20th-century journalism
Doris Truong Connecting with diverse perspectives
Nathalie Malinarich Making it easy
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Mira Lowe News literacy, bias, and “Hamilton”
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Errin Haines Chaos or community?
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Geetika Rudra Journalism is community
Megan H. Chan Cultural reporting goes mainstream
Ray Soto VR moves from experiments to immersion
Jim Friedlich A banner year for venture philanthropy
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Ariane Bernard Better data about your users
Julia Beizer Building a coherent core identity
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen News after advertising may look like news before advertising
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Alexis Lloyd Public trust for private realities
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Sarah Wolozin Virtual reality on the open web
Sarah Marshall Focusing on the why of the click
Laura Walker Authentic voices, not fake news
Juliette De Maeyer and Dominique Trudel A rebirth of populist journalism
Jonathan Hunt Measurement companies get with the times
Ken Schwencke Disaggregation and collection
Olivia Ma The year collaboration beats competition
S.P. Sullivan Baking transparency into our routines
Liz McMillen The year of deep insights
Sam Ford The year we talk about our awful metrics
David Chavern Fake news gets solved
Claire Wardle Verification takes center stage
Jeremy Barr A terrible year for Tiers B through D
Jon Slade Trusted news, at a premium
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Melody Kramer Radically rethinking design
Bill Adair The year of the fact-checking bot
Keren Goldshlager Defining a focus, and then saying no
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Amy Webb Journalism as a service
Annemarie Dooling UGC as a path out of the bubble
Cindy Royal Preparing the digital educator-scholar hybrid
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Tim Herrera The safe space of service journalism
Hillary Frey Forests need to burn to regrow
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