We Brazilian journalists have to admit that we can do more to contribute to the public debate. Every post published by a newspaper in its social networks triggers comments that are examples of how Brazilian society is divided and, worse, intolerant. The polarization we saw in 2014 is increasing even more as we enter 2018 — not by chance, yet another year of general elections.
Of course, it’s not all journalism’s fault. We are immersed in the same tangle of networks that, according to psychoanalyst Christian Dunker, affects our systems of identification and demand, inflates our egos, diminishes our empathy, and creates hatred in the digital world. At the same time that groups close themselves up in filter bubbles with a false sense of consensus, they also attack whoever puts their beliefs in jeopardy.
Far from feeling sorry and pointing fingers, the goal of this second edition of O jornalismo no Brasil (Journalism in Brazil), a partnership between Farol Jornalismo and the Associação Brasileira de Jornalismo Investigativo (Abraji, the Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism), is to forecast the conditions we’ll see in 2018 and to propose alternatives, in order to write a different story for the year ahead.
The filter bubbles on social networks will not disappear, nor will the lies spread as if they were news. And it’s not only the public that will be affected by these phenomena; good journalism will also be subject to the effects of a society divided and made up of voracious consumers of social media, as shown by researchers Gabriela Zago and Pablo Ortellado. Brazilian journalists should resist the pressure to reduce editorial standards in order to answer a polarized public that demands content for campaigning to share in their social media profiles. But there are ways to win some of these battles. First of all, we must understand how networks work and help our audience do the same.
“Bursting” these bubbles is also possible — using even the very same weapons that trap us inside them. Against fake news bots, for example, researcher Daniel Magalhães foresees “checking bots,” as well as collaboration between newsrooms and media labs as efforts that will help media outlets use algorithms to their advantage.
In this belligerent atmosphere, it will take a lot of skill from reporters to cover the election. Our series points out two themes that will be highlighted in the political debate: public safety and the environment. The former has great appeal to voters and, to escape from “he said, she said” journalism and the “miraculous proposals and magic solutions” that will surely emerge, professor and former police reporter Francisco Amorim bets on data-driven journalism and notions of statistics. His text is also full of practical tips for anyone who will cover the theme in 2018.
Accused of using environmental issues as a bargaining chip, the federal government is expected to conduct more discussions in this area in the first half of next year, predicts journalist Thiago Medaglia, founder of Ambiental Media. Once again, the path of collaboration seems promising, and journalists should be closer to scholars in order to fight misinterpretations of scientific facts.
Improving our products are an important way to confront the industry’s revenue crisis, according to professor and journalist Rafael Sbarai. In 2018, multidisciplinary positions are expected to gain space in journalistic organizations, especially in digital businesses, from where the most innovative services and products in the Brazilian market should emerge.
According to Nina Weingrill and Simone Cunha, from Énois Escola de Jornalismo, the financial health of media outlets is also linked to their credibility recovery. Although the confidence of the Brazilians in the press is still high, these numbers have been falling, following a tendency seen in newspapers abroad and caused mainly by the discrediting on social networks. Partnerships between big outlets and new initiatives, some from the periphery, are expected to increase in the coming year and may help reverse the situation in Brazil. This strategy is a cost-effective alternative in times of increasingly lean newsrooms.
But the most important outcome of this collaboration is the possibility of increasing the public’s trust by diversifying the ways we looks for new stories and the teams that produce them, which are not very representative, a warning note we sounded in last year’s as well. In this issue, we specifically draw attention to the need for newsrooms to reflect on gender inequality in their newsrooms. Veronica Toste, a Ph.D. in sociology, is the one who approaches the subject and presents unpublished numbers recently raised by Abraji and Gênero & Número in the research Mulheres no Jornalismo (Women in Journalism).
Even though politics promises to take up most of the Brazilian news in 2018, there will be, as in every year of presidential elections, a pause in party debates when we’ll turn our eyes to the World Cup in Russia. The huge event will give journalists opportunities to be creative and explore immersive narratives, according to researchers Suzana Barbosa and Adalton dos Anjos Fonseca.
Despite the fact that the prognoses are generally not optimistic, signs of efforts defending the ethical use of technology in elections can already be seen. A public letter was issued this month in order to preserve freedom of speech and access to quality information and to repudiate the dishonest use of false profiles and the propagation of lies masked as news. Among the signatories are journalistic initiatives such as Agência Lupa and Aos Fatos. Focused on the general public, from citizens and candidates to news outlets and civil society organizations, the #NãoValeTudo (#NotAnythingGoes) campaign could well motivate the work of Brazilian journalists and content producers. Let’s make this pact for 2018.
Marcela Donini is cofounder of Farol Jornalismo. Thiago Herdy is a reporter at O Globo and president of Abraji.
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Mary Meehan Real lives are at stake in rural areas
Umbreen Bhatti The trust problem isn’t new
Cory Haik Suffering from realness, pivoting to impact
Amy King Let’s amplify visual voice
Hossein Derakhshan Television has won
Jennifer Coogan The future is female
Carrie Brown-Smith Transparency finally takes off
Ruth Palmer Risks will grow for news subjects — especially minorities
Claire Wardle Disinformation gets worse
Monika Bauerlein The firehose of falsehood
Jim Moroney Newspapers have to be good enough for readers to pay for
Ståle Grut Reclaiming audience interaction from social networks
Rodney Gibbs Tech workers turn to journalism
Eric Ulken The year local publishers get smart(er) about change
Jamie Mottram From pageviews to t-shirts
Adam Thomas Sharing is caring: The year of the mentor
Steve Grove The midterms are an opportunity
Corey Johnson The pro-fact resistance
Sarah Marshall Loyalty as the key performance indicator
Emily Goligoski Looking beyond news for inspiration
Imaeyen Ibanga Longform video leads the way
Kyle Ellis Let’s build our way out of this
Jarrod Dicker Honesty in advertising
Jacqui Cheng Retailers move into content
Tanya Cordrey Finally, the seeds of radical reinvention
Tim Carmody Watch out for Spotify
Borja Echevarría TV goes digital, digital goes TV
Cristina Wilson The year of the Instagram Story
Hannah Cassius The year of the echo-chamber escapists
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Sally Lehrman Trust comes first
Mi-Ai Parrish Blockchain and trust
Kinsey Wilson Facebook and Google: Help out or pay up
Justin Kosslyn The year journalists become digital security experts
Manoush Zomorodi Self-help as a publishing strategy
Marcela Donini and Thiago Herdy Collaboration is the way forward for Brazilian journalism
Millie Tran and Stine Bauer Dahlberg (Hint: It’s about your brand)
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Luke O'Neil The end is already here
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Felix Salmon Covering bitcoin while owning bitcoin
Mario García Storytelling finally adapts to mobile
Raju Narisetti Mirror, mirror on the wall
C.W. Anderson The social media apocalypse
Joanne McNeil Gatekeeping the gatekeepers
Taylor Lorenz Social and media will split
Mike Caulfield Refactoring media literacy for the networked age
Sam Sanders Shine the light on ourselves
Andrew Ramsammy The year ownership mattered
Michelle Ferrier The year of the great reckoning
Niketa Patel Live journalism comes of age
Caitria O'Neill The new court of public opinion
Mary Walter-Brown Show a little vulnerability
Sara M. Watson Feeds will open up to new user-determined filters
Rodney Benson Better, less read, and less trusted
Joanne Lipman Journalists inventing revenue streams
Evie Nagy Pivot to mobile video frustration
Kawandeep Virdee Zines had it right all along
Kim Fox Audience teams diversify their approach
Dannagal G. Young Stop covering politics as a game
Pia Frey Address users as individuals
Lam Thuy Vo Breaking free from the tyranny of the loudest
Carlos Martínez de la Serna The new journalism commons
Julia Beizer A longer view on the pivot
Caitlin Thompson Podcasting models mature and diversify
Brian Lam Sketchy ethics around product reviews
Tanzina Vega It’s time for media companies to #PassTheMic
José Zamora Revenue-first journalism
Renée Kaplan The year of quiet adjustments (shhh)
Pablo Boczkowski The rise of skeptical reading
Emma Carew Grovum Newsroom culture becomes a priority
Jessica Parker Gilbert Design connects storytelling and strategy
Juliette De Maeyer A responsible press criticism
Charo Henríquez Training is an investment, not an expense
Trushar Barot The Jio-fication of India
Matt DeRienzo A recession, then a collapse
Laura E. Davis Writing answers before you know the question
Vivian Schiller Pivot to tomorrow
Marie Gilot No assholes allowed
Julia B. Chan Looking for loyalty in all the right places
Alfred Hermida Going beyond mobile-first
Nicholas Diakopoulos Fortifying social media from automated inauthenticity
Corey Ford The empire strikes back
Lanre Akinola Making noise is not a strategy
Rachel Schallom Better design helps differentiate opinion and news
Alastair Coote The year of self-improvement
Francesco Marconi The year of machine-to-machine journalism
Mariana Moura Santos Think local, act global
Dan Shanoff You down with OTT? (Yeah, DTC)
Dheerja Kaur Fun with subscription products
Elizabeth Jensen Show your work
Rachel Davis Mersey AI, with real smarts
Mariano Blejman News games rule
Bill Keller A growing turn to philanthropy
Will Sommer The year local media gets conservative
Jennifer Brandel and Mónica Guzmán The editorial meeting of the future
Frédéric Filloux External forces
Christopher Meighan Passive partnership is in the rearview
Sydette Harry Listen to your corner and watch for the hook
Feli Sánchez The year for guerrilla user research
Jassim Ahmad Thriving on change
Nushin Rashidian Publishers seek ad dollar alternatives
Matt Thompson Here come the attention managers
Jim Brady With the people, not just of the people
Yvonne Leow The rise of video messaging
Mandy Velez texting is lit rn, fam
Michelle Garcia Navigating journalistic transparency
Tamar Charney We get serious about algorithms
Kristen Muller The year of the voter
Jesse Holcomb Information disorder, coming to a congressional district near you
Zizi Papacharissi Women come back
Rubina Madan Fillion Unlocking the potential of AI
Raney Aronson-Rath Transparency is the antidote to fake news
Ernst-Jan Pfauth Publishing less to give readers more
Debra Adams Simmons And a woman shall lead them
Matt Boggie The intellectual equivalent of the Dead Sea
Federica Cherubini The rise of bridge roles in news organizations
Nicholas Quah Stop talking trash about young people
Matt Carlson Attacks on the press will get worse
Joyce Barnathan It will be harder to bury the news
Jared Newman Venture funding and digital news don’t mix
Gordon Crovitz Serving readers over advertisers
Vanessa K. DeLuca Women’s voices take center stage
Ray Soto VR reaches the next level
Aron Pilhofer We can’t leave the business to the business side any more
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Seeking trust in fragmented spaces
Monique Judge Letting black women tell their own stories
Amie Ferris-Rotman More female reporters abroad (please)
Miguel Castro The arrival of the impact producer
Eric Nuzum Beyond the narrative arc
Jennifer Choi Standing up for us and for each other
Rick Berke Value is the watchword
Juleyka Lantigua Women of color will reclaim and monetize our time
Sam Ford The year of investing in processes
Molly de Aguiar Good journalism won’t be enough
Doris Truong Computer vision vs. the Internet vigilantes
Alan Soon The rise of start of psychographic, micro-targeted media
Betsy O'Donovan and Melody Kramer Skepticism and narcissism
Kathleen McElroy Building a news video experience native to mobile
Mira Lowe The year of the local watchdog
Alice Antheaume Are you fluent in AI?
P. Kim Bui The reckoning is only beginning
Amy Webb Listen to weak signals
David Skok Finding an information-life balance
Alexios Mantzarlis Moving fake news research out of the lab
Damon Krukowski Reviving the alt-weekly soul
Edward Roussel Eyes, ears, and brains
Tracie Powell The muting of underserved voices
Andrew Haeg The year journalists become relationship builders
Helen Havlak Keywords, not publishers, power the world’s biggest feeds
Michael Kuntz The only pivot that might work
Richard Tofel The platforms’ power demands more reporters’ attention
Nikki Usher The year of The Washington Post
Susie Banikarim R.I.P. Pivot to Video (2017–2017)
Craig Newmark Working together toward sustainable solutions
Pete Brown Push alerts, personalized
Heather Bryant Building the ecosystems for collaboration