In this heightened time of disinformation, fake news and press attacks, accountability reporting has never been more important.
It is a critical public service that informs and illuminates citizens so that they can make educated decisions and lead productive lives. The ripple effect: healthier communities, better services, and a stronger democracy.
In 2018, after years of shrinking resources and budget constraints, look for a reinvestment of time, talent, and dollars into investigative journalism by news organizations large and small.
We will see increased efforts to dig deeper into local issues that impact communities and particularly underserved populations.
New programs — such as the Abrams Nieman Fellowship — that provide training, funding, and research support will multiply.
Unique partnerships and collaborative reporting across organizations — involving nonprofits, public media, startups, legacy outlets, universities, and regular citizens — will also flourish, giving local newsrooms the necessary resources to hold leaders and institutions accountable. The ProPublica Local Reporting Network is just one example, supporting investigative journalists in cities with populations below 1 million.
What will be exciting to see in 2018 is how watchdog projects will be done.
How will journalists tell and present their stories in novel ways? How will they engage the community around their findings? What would make their results most powerful, more accessible?
Readers, listeners, viewers are counting on local watchdog journalists to look out for their interests. The new year holds great promise for transformative work.
Mira Lowe is director of the Innovation News Center at the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications.
Michelle Garcia Navigating journalistic transparency
Monika Bauerlein The firehose of falsehood
Kyle Ellis Let’s build our way out of this
Joanne Lipman Journalists inventing revenue streams
Mira Lowe The year of the local watchdog
Mariana Moura Santos Think local, act global
Mario García Storytelling finally adapts to mobile
Rubina Madan Fillion Unlocking the potential of AI
Francesco Marconi The year of machine-to-machine journalism
Bill Keller A growing turn to philanthropy
Rick Berke Value is the watchword
Manoush Zomorodi Self-help as a publishing strategy
Rodney Benson Better, less read, and less trusted
Matt Boggie The intellectual equivalent of the Dead Sea
Jim Moroney Newspapers have to be good enough for readers to pay for
Kinsey Wilson Facebook and Google: Help out or pay up
Corey Ford The empire strikes back
Dan Shanoff You down with OTT? (Yeah, DTC)
Kim Fox Audience teams diversify their approach
Umbreen Bhatti The trust problem isn’t new
Alan Soon The rise of start of psychographic, micro-targeted media
Justin Kosslyn The year journalists become digital security experts
Eric Ulken The year local publishers get smart(er) about change
Emily Goligoski Looking beyond news for inspiration
Ray Soto VR reaches the next level
Molly de Aguiar Good journalism won’t be enough
Tanya Cordrey Finally, the seeds of radical reinvention
Matt DeRienzo A recession, then a collapse
Joyce Barnathan It will be harder to bury the news
An Xiao Mina Memes and visuals come to the fore
Mi-Ai Parrish Blockchain and trust
Cindy Royal Your journalism curriculum is obsolete
Alice Antheaume Are you fluent in AI?
Millie Tran and Stine Bauer Dahlberg (Hint: It’s about your brand)
Steve Grove The midterms are an opportunity
Tim Carmody Watch out for Spotify
Jacqui Cheng Retailers move into content
Nikki Usher The year of The Washington Post
Jennifer Brandel and Mónica Guzmán The editorial meeting of the future
Michael Kuntz The only pivot that might work
Nicholas Diakopoulos Fortifying social media from automated inauthenticity
Vivian Schiller Pivot to tomorrow
Andrew Losowsky The year of resilience
Alexios Mantzarlis Moving fake news research out of the lab
Eric Nuzum Beyond the narrative arc
Aron Pilhofer We can’t leave the business to the business side any more
Kathleen McElroy Building a news video experience native to mobile
Brian Lam Sketchy ethics around product reviews
Monique Judge Letting black women tell their own stories
Sarah Marshall Loyalty as the key performance indicator
Emma Carew Grovum Newsroom culture becomes a priority
Mary Meehan Real lives are at stake in rural areas
Trushar Barot The Jio-fication of India
Matt Thompson Here come the attention managers
Julia B. Chan Looking for loyalty in all the right places
Raju Narisetti Mirror, mirror on the wall
Mary Walter-Brown Show a little vulnerability
Raney Aronson-Rath Transparency is the antidote to fake news
Cristina Wilson The year of the Instagram Story
Richard J. Tofel The platforms’ power demands more reporters’ attention
José Zamora Revenue-first journalism
Carlos Martínez de la Serna The new journalism commons
Sam Ford The year of investing in processes
Yvonne Leow The rise of video messaging
Jennifer Coogan The future is female
Jassim Ahmad Thriving on change
Corey Johnson The pro-fact resistance
Amy Webb Listen to weak signals
Sally Lehrman Trust comes first
Damon Krukowski Reviving the alt-weekly soul
Lanre Akinola Making noise is not a strategy
Sydette Harry Listen to your corner and watch for the hook
Mariano Blejman News games rule
Matt Carlson Attacks on the press will get worse
Will Sommer The year local media gets conservative
Julia Beizer A longer view on the pivot
Evie Nagy Pivot to mobile video frustration
Tracie Powell The muting of underserved voices
Juleyka Lantigua-Williams Women of color will reclaim and monetize our time
C.W. Anderson The social media apocalypse
Jesse Holcomb Information disorder, coming to a congressional district near you
Craig Newmark Working together toward sustainable solutions
Helen Havlak Keywords, not publishers, power the world’s biggest feeds
Hossein Derakhshan Television has won
Jennifer Choi Standing up for us and for each other
Felix Salmon Covering bitcoin while owning bitcoin
P. Kim Bui The reckoning is only beginning
Elizabeth Jensen Show your work
Amie Ferris-Rotman More female reporters abroad (please)
Jared Newman Venture funding and digital news don’t mix
Pia Frey Address users as individuals
Betsy O'Donovan and Melody Kramer Skepticism and narcissism
Jarrod Dicker Honesty in advertising
Andrew Ramsammy The year ownership mattered
Edward Roussel Eyes, ears, and brains
S. Mitra Kalita The arc of news and audience
Zizi Papacharissi Women come back
Caitria O'Neill The new court of public opinion
Kristen Muller The year of the voter
Lam Thuy Vo Breaking free from the tyranny of the loudest
Federica Cherubini The rise of bridge roles in news organizations
Ruth Palmer Risks will grow for news subjects — especially minorities
Amy King Let’s amplify visual voice
Nicholas Quah Stop talking trash about young people
Rachel Schallom Better design helps differentiate opinion and news
Alastair Coote The year of self-improvement
Laura E. Davis Writing answers before you know the question
Jessica Parker Gilbert Design connects storytelling and strategy
Heather Bryant Building the ecosystems for collaboration
Sara M. Watson Feeds will open up to new user-determined filters
Sam Sanders Shine the light on ourselves
Hannah Cassius The year of the echo-chamber escapists
Claire Wardle Disinformation gets worse
Alfred Hermida Going beyond mobile-first
Basile Simon We need better career paths for news nerds
Marcela Donini and Thiago Herdy Collaboration is the way forward for Brazilian journalism
Mike Caulfield Refactoring media literacy for the networked age
Marie Gilot No assholes allowed
Jim Brady With the people, not just of the people
Pablo Boczkowski The rise of skeptical reading
Imaeyen Ibanga Longform video leads the way
Taylor Lorenz Social and media will split
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Seeking trust in fragmented spaces
Doris Truong Computer vision vs. the Internet vigilantes
Joanne McNeil Gatekeeping the gatekeepers
Juliette De Maeyer A responsible press criticism
Luke O'Neil The end is already here
Michelle Ferrier The year of the great reckoning
Renée Kaplan The year of quiet adjustments (shhh)
Charo Henríquez Training is an investment, not an expense
Frédéric Filloux External forces
Rodney Gibbs Tech workers turn to journalism
Susie Banikarim R.I.P. Pivot to Video (2017–2017)
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen The Snapchat scenario and the risk of more closed platforms
Dheerja Kaur Fun with subscription products
Daniel Trielli The rich get richer, the poor scramble
Pete Brown Push alerts, personalized
Tanzina Vega It’s time for media companies to #PassTheMic
Cory Haik Suffering from realness, pivoting to impact
Ernst-Jan Pfauth Publishing less to give readers more
Andrew Haeg The year journalists become relationship builders
Carrie Brown-Smith Transparency finally takes off
Mandy Velez texting is lit rn, fam
Ståle Grut Reclaiming audience interaction from social networks
Caitlin Thompson Podcasting models mature and diversify
Borja Echevarría TV goes digital, digital goes TV
Nushin Rashidian Publishers seek ad dollar alternatives
Jamie Mottram From pageviews to t-shirts
Christopher Meighan Passive partnership is in the rearview
Adam Thomas Sharing is caring: The year of the mentor
Niketa Patel Live journalism comes of age
Tamar Charney We get serious about algorithms
Miguel Castro The arrival of the impact producer
Errin Haines At the ballot, it’s time to count black women
Kawandeep Virdee Zines had it right all along
David Skok Finding an information-life balance
L. Gordon Crovitz Serving readers over advertisers
Debra Adams Simmons And a woman shall lead them
Rachel Davis Mersey AI, with real smarts
Feli Sánchez The year for guerrilla user research