2018 is the year when our skepticism has to be stronger than our narcissism.
You remember Narcissus, right? The hot young Greek who fell so passionately in love with his reflection that he wasted away and died? All that remains of Narcissus is his namesake flower — something strictly ornamental and meant to be cut down.
We all know the old journalism saw: “If your mother says she loves you, check it out.” Our moms aren’t the problem. No, if 2016 and 2017 have taught us anything, it’s that our passion for journalism’s flattering mythology only hurts us.
And yes, we realize that it’s hard to think about self-deception, particularly this year — when the president and his press secretaries have spread lies deliberately and continued to castigate the press in a campaign to undermine the very nature of truth and the institution of journalism.
But that doesn’t excuse us from the work; we can’t demand an honest accounting of anyone else before we give journalism the same examination.
Here are some of the places we expect change:
Myth 1: We respect audiences. “The culture of journalism breeds disdain for the people we’re meant to be serving,” wrote Jenn Brandel and Andrew Haeg in 2016. Journalists are privileged Americans (33 percent of Americans have college degrees, but 90 percent of journalists do, and as Joshua Benton reported in 2016, an outsized share of digital journalism jobs are concentrated in a few big metro areas).
Heather Bryant’s talk at LION17 this past October was brutally honest:
When we look at what is published, what do we see?
Headlines that talk about the effects of policies on “the poor.” As someone who grew up intensely poor, that is not what we called ourselves. And most don’t. Who is that headline for?
We see stories that lump various groups into monolithic blocks like gun-owners, farmers, working-class and play to stereotypes.
And we’ve all experienced the culture, maybe even perpetuated it ourselves, where audiences are talked down to and about, commenters are called idiots and journalists don’t hesitate to tweet 140 character think pieces about how people don’t care about “real” news anymore.
If we’re going to be faithful to the duty of our profession, when economic inequality is greater than ever and issues of race, gender and politics are at the front of everyone’s mind, we have to do better.
Nick Quah also points out that we can be pretty rude when writing about the youngs, which has got to change. And ProPublica’s Ariana Tobin predicts that exhausted news consumers will begin checking out in 2018 because journalists haven’t respected their time, either.
Myth 2: Our hiring and pay scales reward quality. Sometimes, “quality” is just shorthand for “what we already know we like.” That lazy lie turns into shorthand — we hire people who remind us of ourselves, or from journalism “power schools” without examining what they’re actually teaching in these disrupted days. We do it because it makes life easy, but the perpetual motion machine boxes out people whose skills, knowledge bases, and fluencies we need.
Myth 3: Journalism is such a great job that we don’t need work-life balance. Journalism (in big markets and small) still depends on people who will work at unpaid internships or who will pour off-the-clock hours into their jobs — and we burn them out. The ones who survive their early careers to make it to parenthood are adversely affected by the unnecessary inflexibility of the work (as are people who live outside of major metro areas, where most jobs are concentrated.)
Myth 4: He’s a “good guy.” Maybe he’s not a good guy. Maybe he’s just a lucrative guy or a powerful guy. Maybe we shouldn’t protect the crude, vulgar, grabby, toxic, or violent in our own ranks if we want any credibility to address those problems elsewhere.
Myth 5: The stories that matter are the stories that matter to us. If you go by the media’s coverage of #metoo, you’d think that the people most at risk of sexual harassment and assault in America are actresses and journalists, mostly white. Once again, we’re being lazy — when NPR did a content audit of its magazine shows a few years ago, they discovered that the people most likely to be interviewed for stories worked in government, entertainment, media, and academia. Let’s not be surprised that our #metoo coverage has focused on celebrities in precisely those arenas. Again.
Myth 6: We want our newsrooms to be diverse at every level of the newsroom (and not just entry-level jobs.) Why does diversity often stop at the masthead? The masthead doesn’t want to leave their jobs. If we want diverse newsrooms, people currently in power are going to have to willingly accelerate the pace of their own obsolescence. There’s not an ever-expanding slate of top gigs. Someone’s going to have to go.
Myth 7: We can be trusted with user privacy. We ask readers to trust us, and we install trackers that follow them around the Internet — and install third-party applications that collect data and we don’t think about how that data can be sold or breached (hello Disqus) or resold or bundled and then sold. We ask readers to trust us, but we don’t think about ethical consent. And we rely on social platforms for distribution (maybe not for long, Neha Gandhi predicts), but we no longer understand how their complex algorithms work (and neither do they).
Myth 8: We’re objective! Objectivity is only objective and neutrality is only neutral for the status quo — that’s going to look like white people, and men, and Ivy League and traditionally credentialed people. Not those “whose very livelihoods and safety are matters of public debate,” as Lewis Wallace put it last May. Let’s be real skeptics — especially toward the systems that benefit we who already have megaphones and a little power. And let’s trust and support people in the newsroom who have a particular insight about how power structures affect their communities.
Myth 9: We definitely don’t think of community journalism as the minor leagues. This isn’t true everywhere — there are lots of partners and particularly funders who are focused on this space — but a great deal of money tends to stop at the ivory towers that work on the problem of community journalism, or in the production of endless toolkits and white papers and parachuting reporting fellowships. If we care about community journalism, we should pay community journalists in a way that makes it possible to live, work, and stay in their communities. Let’s actively reach out to support their applications and access to the grants, fellowships, and prizes that pour down on the major market news orgs. (Do you know how hard it is for a community journalist to find out about these opportunities? Or to make time and have the money to apply during contest season? If you worked in a small-market newsroom, you probably do. Otherwise, you can’t even imagine both how hard it is, and how much it means.)
Myth 10: We can’t be replaced. Investigative journalism seems safe for now. But those who are doing same-as-it-ever-was stories — and local news — had better figure out how to use bots or start regarding them as competition. (Quartz’s Sarah Kessler has some good news, though — it doesn’t have to be as scary as you think.)
Myth 11: People who criticize journalism are dangerous to journalism. Look, we are not trying to dismantle journalism; we want to practice it well (in almost the exact way that Juliette De Maeyer outlines in her prediction, actually). We don’t want to put arguments in the hands of people who spout democratic values while spray-painting anarchist symbols over the very idea of verifiable facts; we want to derail those arguments by demonstrating that they’re false.
We think you want that, too. And that’s why we think this prediction really could come true.
Betsy O’Donovan and Melody Kramer are coauthors of “F is For Future: How to Think about Public Media’s Next 50 years.”
Michael Kuntz The only pivot that might work
Mira Lowe The year of the local watchdog
L. Gordon Crovitz Serving readers over advertisers
Cristina Wilson The year of the Instagram Story
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Seeking trust in fragmented spaces
Jamie Mottram From pageviews to t-shirts
Jim Brady With the people, not just of the people
Sarah Marshall Loyalty as the key performance indicator
Brian Lam Sketchy ethics around product reviews
Emma Carew Grovum Newsroom culture becomes a priority
Kinsey Wilson Facebook and Google: Help out or pay up
Justin Kosslyn The year journalists become digital security experts
Will Sommer The year local media gets conservative
Tanzina Vega It’s time for media companies to #PassTheMic
Carrie Brown-Smith Transparency finally takes off
Sally Lehrman Trust comes first
Basile Simon We need better career paths for news nerds
Sydette Harry Listen to your corner and watch for the hook
Lucas Graves From algorithms to institutions
Mariana Moura Santos Think local, act global
Matt DeRienzo A recession, then a collapse
Alice Antheaume Are you fluent in AI?
Alfred Hermida Going beyond mobile-first
S. Mitra Kalita The arc of news and audience
Pablo Boczkowski The rise of skeptical reading
Mariano Blejman News games rule
Caitria O'Neill The new court of public opinion
Michelle Garcia Navigating journalistic transparency
Nicholas Quah Stop talking trash about young people
Matt Carlson Attacks on the press will get worse
Ray Soto VR reaches the next level
Eric Nuzum Beyond the narrative arc
Julia Beizer A longer view on the pivot
Michelle Ferrier The year of the great reckoning
Elizabeth Jensen Show your work
Matt Thompson Here come the attention managers
Lanre Akinola Making noise is not a strategy
Richard J. Tofel The platforms’ power demands more reporters’ attention
Alan Soon The rise of start of psychographic, micro-targeted media
Jarrod Dicker Honesty in advertising
Vanessa K. DeLuca Women’s voices take center stage
Amy King Let’s amplify visual voice
Carlos Martínez de la Serna The new journalism commons
Rodney Benson Better, less read, and less trusted
Jennifer Brandel and Mónica Guzmán The editorial meeting of the future
Joanne Lipman Journalists inventing revenue streams
Mary Walter-Brown Show a little vulnerability
Susie Banikarim R.I.P. Pivot to Video (2017–2017)
Evie Nagy Pivot to mobile video frustration
Pia Frey Address users as individuals
Vivian Schiller Pivot to tomorrow
Rachel Schallom Better design helps differentiate opinion and news
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen The Snapchat scenario and the risk of more closed platforms
Andrew Losowsky The year of resilience
Juleyka Lantigua-Williams Women of color will reclaim and monetize our time
Marcela Donini and Thiago Herdy Collaboration is the way forward for Brazilian journalism
Luke O'Neil The end is already here
Manoush Zomorodi Self-help as a publishing strategy
Eric Ulken The year local publishers get smart(er) about change
An Xiao Mina Memes and visuals come to the fore
Alastair Coote The year of self-improvement
Sam Sanders Shine the light on ourselves
Mary Meehan Real lives are at stake in rural areas
Andrew Haeg The year journalists become relationship builders
Dannagal G. Young Stop covering politics as a game
Lam Thuy Vo Breaking free from the tyranny of the loudest
Jennifer Choi Standing up for us and for each other
Sara M. Watson Feeds will open up to new user-determined filters
Kim Fox Audience teams diversify their approach
Tanya Cordrey Finally, the seeds of radical reinvention
Tim Carmody Watch out for Spotify
Bill Keller A growing turn to philanthropy
Julia B. Chan Looking for loyalty in all the right places
David Skok Finding an information-life balance
Renée Kaplan The year of quiet adjustments (shhh)
Andrew Ramsammy The year ownership mattered
Jared Newman Venture funding and digital news don’t mix
Tamar Charney We get serious about algorithms
Feli Sánchez The year for guerrilla user research
Cindy Royal Your journalism curriculum is obsolete
Jim Moroney Newspapers have to be good enough for readers to pay for
Yvonne Leow The rise of video messaging
Hannah Cassius The year of the echo-chamber escapists
Claire Wardle Disinformation gets worse
Mandy Velez texting is lit rn, fam
Miguel Castro The arrival of the impact producer
Federica Cherubini The rise of bridge roles in news organizations
Mario García Storytelling finally adapts to mobile
Rodney Gibbs Tech workers turn to journalism
Jesse Holcomb Information disorder, coming to a congressional district near you
Betsy O'Donovan and Melody Kramer Skepticism and narcissism
Juliette De Maeyer A responsible press criticism
Frédéric Filloux External forces
Monika Bauerlein The firehose of falsehood
Hossein Derakhshan Television has won
Alexios Mantzarlis Moving fake news research out of the lab
Edward Roussel Eyes, ears, and brains
Francesco Marconi The year of machine-to-machine journalism
Christopher Meighan Passive partnership is in the rearview
Corey Ford The empire strikes back
Mike Caulfield Refactoring media literacy for the networked age
Cory Haik Suffering from realness, pivoting to impact
Niketa Patel Live journalism comes of age
Nushin Rashidian Publishers seek ad dollar alternatives
Caitlin Thompson Podcasting models mature and diversify
Tracie Powell The muting of underserved voices
Charo Henríquez Training is an investment, not an expense
Matt Boggie The intellectual equivalent of the Dead Sea
Helen Havlak Keywords, not publishers, power the world’s biggest feeds
Raney Aronson-Rath Transparency is the antidote to fake news
Imaeyen Ibanga Longform video leads the way
Borja Echevarría TV goes digital, digital goes TV
Nikki Usher The year of The Washington Post
Amy Webb Listen to weak signals
Steve Grove The midterms are an opportunity
Dheerja Kaur Fun with subscription products
Ståle Grut Reclaiming audience interaction from social networks
Craig Newmark Working together toward sustainable solutions
Nicholas Diakopoulos Fortifying social media from automated inauthenticity
Ruth Palmer Risks will grow for news subjects — especially minorities
Joanne McNeil Gatekeeping the gatekeepers
Marie Gilot No assholes allowed
Jessica Parker Gilbert Design connects storytelling and strategy
Kawandeep Virdee Zines had it right all along
Amie Ferris-Rotman More female reporters abroad (please)
Trushar Barot The Jio-fication of India
Millie Tran and Stine Bauer Dahlberg (Hint: It’s about your brand)
Kathleen McElroy Building a news video experience native to mobile
Daniel Trielli The rich get richer, the poor scramble
Felix Salmon Covering bitcoin while owning bitcoin
Rachel Davis Mersey AI, with real smarts
Damon Krukowski Reviving the alt-weekly soul
Sam Ford The year of investing in processes
Mi-Ai Parrish Blockchain and trust
Laura E. Davis Writing answers before you know the question
Heather Bryant Building the ecosystems for collaboration
Debra Adams Simmons And a woman shall lead them
Umbreen Bhatti The trust problem isn’t new
Dan Shanoff You down with OTT? (Yeah, DTC)
Adam Thomas Sharing is caring: The year of the mentor
Aron Pilhofer We can’t leave the business to the business side any more
Molly de Aguiar Good journalism won’t be enough
Jassim Ahmad Thriving on change
Taylor Lorenz Social and media will split
Errin Haines At the ballot, it’s time to count black women
Jennifer Coogan The future is female
Rick Berke Value is the watchword
C.W. Anderson The social media apocalypse
Raju Narisetti Mirror, mirror on the wall
Corey Johnson The pro-fact resistance
Kristen Muller The year of the voter
Joyce Barnathan It will be harder to bury the news
Zizi Papacharissi Women come back
Ernst-Jan Pfauth Publishing less to give readers more
P. Kim Bui The reckoning is only beginning
Pete Brown Push alerts, personalized
Kyle Ellis Let’s build our way out of this
Rubina Madan Fillion Unlocking the potential of AI
Doris Truong Computer vision vs. the Internet vigilantes