I worked with a newspaper editor earlier in my career, a lovely person who occasionally caused me to sigh deeply. I would work for days or weeks on a story, getting every fact confirmed. Just when I seemingly had reached the home stretch, I’d draw her in the editor pool and the tortuous process would begin.
Did I really mean this word? Or would another word be more precise? Had I considered this nuance? Could I please rewrite this thought to make sure there was no doubt in what I was trying to say? Over and over the copy we’d go, with deadline looming, every sentence seemingly requiring an answer to one of her queries. In my mind, I was focused on the big picture and the work she wanted me to do felt nitpicky.
In the 20 years since, my editor’s kind of careful attention to detail has slowly become less prevalent in daily (can we use that phrase anymore?) journalism. Real-time reporting drives much of our business now: the scoop, the hot take, the analysis, and the next-day speculation. Who has time to parse words in between reporting and tweeting and Facebook Live-ing?
Actually, listeners and readers and viewers do. They are paying attention, perhaps closer attention than ever before to the journalism we are all working as such fast pace to produce. Yes, many news consumers just read the headlines. But they are parsing every word in them, too. When they notice something sloppy, they tell you so, publicly. And when pollsters come around to ask whether mainstream, nonpartisan journalism is trustworthy, they tell them, too.
“Denier” vs. “skeptic.” “Lie” vs. “unfounded.” “Alt-Right” v. “white nationalist.” I sometimes tire of today’s finger-pointing over language and the focus on the labels, which can detract from the big picture, the underlying facts and nuance that will help us, the news consumers, understand the full scope of a story. And yet, those nitpicky words are really at the heart of what the audience wants: precise journalism where every detail has been carefully thought through and held up to a standard.
It’s not terribly sexy, but I hope 2017 is the year when journalism, as it seeks to rebuild trust with some in the audience, puts a renewed emphasis on the fundamentals, despite all the time pressures. When facts will be double-checked. When deep reporting (and openness to new narratives) will wrest back some of the prominence placed on analysis. When news analysts will “show their work,” explaining how they came to their conclusions. When needed corrections will be posted quickly and prominently. When ethics policies and internal standards will be adhered to in every story and interview. When transparency will flourish. And yes, when each and every word will be parsed, as painful as that process might be.
Elizabeth Jensen is NPR’s ombudsman.
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Katie Zhu The year of minority media
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Sam Ford The year we talk about our awful metrics
Laura Walker Authentic voices, not fake news
Swati Sharma Failing diversity is failing journalism
Anita Zielina The sales funnel reaches (and changes) the newsroom
Tressie McMillan Cottom A path through the media’s coming legitimacy crisis
Andrew Haeg The year of listening
Bill Keller A healthy skepticism about data
Erin Millar The bottom falls out of Canadian media
Olivia Ma The year collaboration beats competition
Keren Goldshlager Defining a focus, and then saying no
Ray Soto VR moves from experiments to immersion
Zizi Papacharissi Distracted journalism looks in the mirror
Amie Ferris-Rotman Вслед за Россией
Dan Gillmor Fix the demand side of news too
P. Kim Bui The year journalism teaches again
Doris Truong Connecting with diverse perspectives
Mary Walter-Brown Getting comfortable asking for money
Ariane Bernard Better data about your users
Michael Kuntz Trust is the new click
Cory Haik Navigating power in Trump’s America
Jonathan Hunt Measurement companies get with the times
Libby Bawcombe Kids board the podcast train
Dannagal G. Young The return of the gatekeepers
Matt Waite The people running the media are the problem
Andrew Ramsammy Rise of the rebel journalist
Ryan McCarthy Platforms grow up or grow more toxic
Emi Kolawole From empathy to community
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Ole Reißmann Un-faking the news
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Francesco Marconi The year of augmented writing
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Tanya Cordrey The resurgence of reach
Mary Meehan Feeling blue in a red state
Liz Danzico The triumph of the small
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Renée Kaplan Pure reach has reached its limit
Nicholas Quah Podcasting’s coming class war
Guy Raz Inspiration and hope will matter more than ever
Alice Antheaume A new test for French media
Sara M. Watson There is no neutral interface
Dhiya Kuriakose The year of digital detoxing
Scott Dodd Nonprofits team up for impact
Eric Nuzum Podcasting stratifies into hard layers
Adam Thomas The coming collaboration across Europe
Tim Herrera The safe space of service journalism
Priya Ganapati Mobile websites are ready for reinvention
Sarah Marshall Focusing on the why of the click
Richard Tofel The country doesn’t trust us — but they do believe us
Matt Karolian AI improves publishing
Taylor Lorenz “Selfie journalism” becomes a thing
Mathew Ingram The Faustian Facebook dance continues
Javaun Moradi What can we own?
Ashley C. Woods Local journalism will fight a new fight
Annemarie Dooling UGC as a path out of the bubble
Robert Hernandez History will exclude you, again
Mike Ragsdale A smarter information diet
Burt Herman Local news gets interesting
Andrew Losowsky Building our own communities
Helen Havlak Chasing mobile search results
Ernst-Jan Pfauth Earn trust by working for (and with) readers
Dan Colarusso Let’s make live video we can love
Alexis Lloyd Public trust for private realities
Ståle Grut The battle for high-quality VR
Michael Oreskes Reversing the erosion of democracy
Nushin Rashidian A rise in high-price, high-value subscriptions
Steve Henn The next revolution is voice
Emily Goligoski Incorporating audience feedback at scale
Melody Kramer Radically rethinking design
Kawandeep Virdee Moving deeper than the machine of clicks
Nathalie Malinarich Making it easy
Claire Wardle Verification takes center stage
David Chavern Fake news gets solved
Gabriel Snyder The aberration of 20th-century journalism
Alberto Cairo Communicating uncertainty to our readers
Andy Rossback The year of the user
Jonathan Stray A boom in responsible conservative media
Megan H. Chan Cultural reporting goes mainstream
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Truthiness in private spaces
Carla Zanoni Prioritizing emotional health
Juliette De Maeyer and Dominique Trudel A rebirth of populist journalism
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen News after advertising may look like news before advertising
David Weigel A test for online speech
Caitlin Thompson High touch, high value
Joanne Lipman The year of the drone, really
Elizabeth Jensen Trust depends on the details
Jeremy Barr A terrible year for Tiers B through D
Aja Bogdanoff Comments start pulling their weight
Mario García Virtual reality on mobile leaps forward
Mira Lowe News literacy, bias, and “Hamilton”
Margarita Noriega From pinning tweets to tweeting pins
Amy O'Leary Not just covering communities, reaching them
Pablo Boczkowski Fake news and the future of journalism
Geetika Rudra Journalism is community
Juan Luis Sánchez Your predictions are our present
Christopher Meighan Unlocking a deeper mobile experience
Samantha Barry Messaging apps go mainstream
Asma Khalid The year of the newsy podcast
Sue Schardt Objectivity, fairness, balance, and love
Lee Glendinning A call for great editing
Maria Bustillos “It’s true — I saw it on Facebook”
Erin Pettigrew A year of reflection in tech
Amy Webb Journalism as a service
David Skok What lies beyond paywalls
Errin Haines Chaos or community?
Carrie Brown-Smith We won’t do enough
Moreno Cruz Osório The year of transparency in Brazilian journalism
Sarah Wolozin Virtual reality on the open web
Jim Friedlich A banner year for venture philanthropy
Millie Tran International expansion without colonial overtones
Umbreen Bhatti A sense of journalists’ humanity
Kathleen Kingsbury Print as a premium offering
Tim Griggs The year we stop taking sides
Bill Adair The year of the fact-checking bot
Ken Schwencke Disaggregation and collection
Rebekah Monson Journalism is community-as-a-service
M. Scott Havens Quality advertising to pair with quality content
Sydette Harry Facing journalism’s history
Hillary Frey Forests need to burn to regrow