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.
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Rodney Gibbs Tech workers turn to journalism
P. Kim Bui The reckoning is only beginning
Jessica Parker Gilbert Design connects storytelling and strategy
Matt Boggie The intellectual equivalent of the Dead Sea
Ruth Palmer Risks will grow for news subjects — especially minorities
Tim Carmody Watch out for Spotify
Nicholas Quah Stop talking trash about young people
Borja Echevarría TV goes digital, digital goes TV
Millie Tran and Stine Bauer Dahlberg (Hint: It’s about your brand)
Sam Sanders Shine the light on ourselves
Jennifer Coogan The future is female
Ray Soto VR reaches the next level
Mariano Blejman News games rule
Amy Webb Listen to weak signals
Tracie Powell The muting of underserved voices
Matt DeRienzo A recession, then a collapse
Andrew Losowsky The year of resilience
Marcela Donini and Thiago Herdy Collaboration is the way forward for Brazilian journalism
Francesco Marconi The year of machine-to-machine journalism
Tanzina Vega It’s time for media companies to #PassTheMic
Sally Lehrman Trust comes first
Joanne McNeil Gatekeeping the gatekeepers
Daniel Trielli The rich get richer, the poor scramble
Cristina Wilson The year of the Instagram Story
Carlos Martínez de la Serna The new journalism commons
Susie Banikarim R.I.P. Pivot to Video (2017–2017)
Edward Roussel Eyes, ears, and brains
Rodney Benson Better, less read, and less trusted
Eric Nuzum Beyond the narrative arc
Niketa Patel Live journalism comes of age
Umbreen Bhatti The trust problem isn’t new
Andrew Haeg The year journalists become relationship builders
Emma Carew Grovum Newsroom culture becomes a priority
Jesse Holcomb Information disorder, coming to a congressional district near you
Corey Ford The empire strikes back
Laura E. Davis Writing answers before you know the question
Helen Havlak Keywords, not publishers, power the world’s biggest feeds
Cindy Royal Your journalism curriculum is obsolete
Sam Ford The year of investing in processes
Rubina Madan Fillion Unlocking the potential of AI
Vivian Schiller Pivot to tomorrow
Eric Ulken The year local publishers get smart(er) about change
Jared Newman Venture funding and digital news don’t mix
Joyce Barnathan It will be harder to bury the news
Mandy Velez texting is lit rn, fam
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Seeking trust in fragmented spaces
Ståle Grut Reclaiming audience interaction from social networks
Zizi Papacharissi Women come back
Doris Truong Computer vision vs. the Internet vigilantes
Mariana Moura Santos Think local, act global
Juleyka Lantigua Women of color will reclaim and monetize our time
An Xiao Mina Memes and visuals come to the fore
Hannah Cassius The year of the echo-chamber escapists
Will Sommer The year local media gets conservative
Lam Thuy Vo Breaking free from the tyranny of the loudest
Dheerja Kaur Fun with subscription products
Cory Haik Suffering from realness, pivoting to impact
Alastair Coote The year of self-improvement
José Zamora Revenue-first journalism
Brian Lam Sketchy ethics around product reviews
Feli Sánchez The year for guerrilla user research
Caitria O'Neill The new court of public opinion
Elizabeth Jensen Show your work
Amy King Let’s amplify visual voice
Sara M. Watson Feeds will open up to new user-determined filters
Aron Pilhofer We can’t leave the business to the business side any more
Jim Moroney Newspapers have to be good enough for readers to pay for
Luke O'Neil The end is already here
Trushar Barot The Jio-fication of India
Alfred Hermida Going beyond mobile-first
Charo Henríquez Training is an investment, not an expense
Nikki Usher The year of The Washington Post
Bill Keller A growing turn to philanthropy
Manoush Zomorodi Self-help as a publishing strategy
Dannagal G. Young Stop covering politics as a game
Raju Narisetti Mirror, mirror on the wall
C.W. Anderson The social media apocalypse
Nushin Rashidian Publishers seek ad dollar alternatives
Dan Shanoff You down with OTT? (Yeah, DTC)
Rick Berke Value is the watchword
Michelle Ferrier The year of the great reckoning
Frédéric Filloux External forces
Evie Nagy Pivot to mobile video frustration
Lucas Graves From algorithms to institutions
Julia B. Chan Looking for loyalty in all the right places
Richard Tofel The platforms’ power demands more reporters’ attention
Lanre Akinola Making noise is not a strategy
Christopher Meighan Passive partnership is in the rearview
Julia Beizer A longer view on the pivot
Emily Goligoski Looking beyond news for inspiration
Basile Simon We need better career paths for news nerds
Tamar Charney We get serious about algorithms
Vanessa K. DeLuca Women’s voices take center stage
Errin Haines At the ballot, it’s time to count black women
Debra Adams Simmons And a woman shall lead them
Hossein Derakhshan Television has won
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen The Snapchat scenario and the risk of more closed platforms
Rachel Schallom Better design helps differentiate opinion and news
Alan Soon The rise of start of psychographic, micro-targeted media
Jennifer Brandel and Mónica Guzmán The editorial meeting of the future
Caitlin Thompson Podcasting models mature and diversify
Damon Krukowski Reviving the alt-weekly soul
Sarah Marshall Loyalty as the key performance indicator
Michelle Garcia Navigating journalistic transparency
Monika Bauerlein The firehose of falsehood
Corey Johnson The pro-fact resistance
Jassim Ahmad Thriving on change
Matt Thompson Here come the attention managers
Pete Brown Push alerts, personalized
Alice Antheaume Are you fluent in AI?
Mario García Storytelling finally adapts to mobile
Pablo Boczkowski The rise of skeptical reading
Claire Wardle Disinformation gets worse
Michael Kuntz The only pivot that might work
Gordon Crovitz Serving readers over advertisers
Mike Caulfield Refactoring media literacy for the networked age
Kim Fox Audience teams diversify their approach
Rachel Davis Mersey AI, with real smarts
Jamie Mottram From pageviews to t-shirts
Imaeyen Ibanga Longform video leads the way
Carrie Brown-Smith Transparency finally takes off
Pia Frey Address users as individuals
Molly de Aguiar Good journalism won’t be enough
Matt Carlson Attacks on the press will get worse
Amie Ferris-Rotman More female reporters abroad (please)
Kawandeep Virdee Zines had it right all along
Jim Brady With the people, not just of the people
Kyle Ellis Let’s build our way out of this
Raney Aronson-Rath Transparency is the antidote to fake news
Craig Newmark Working together toward sustainable solutions
Jennifer Choi Standing up for us and for each other
Ernst-Jan Pfauth Publishing less to give readers more
Jarrod Dicker Honesty in advertising
Mary Meehan Real lives are at stake in rural areas
Kristen Muller The year of the voter
Kathleen McElroy Building a news video experience native to mobile
Alexios Mantzarlis Moving fake news research out of the lab
Juliette De Maeyer A responsible press criticism
Mi-Ai Parrish Blockchain and trust
S. Mitra Kalita The arc of news and audience
Kinsey Wilson Facebook and Google: Help out or pay up
Taylor Lorenz Social and media will split
Betsy O'Donovan and Melody Kramer Skepticism and narcissism
Monique Judge Letting black women tell their own stories
Heather Bryant Building the ecosystems for collaboration
Miguel Castro The arrival of the impact producer
Mira Lowe The year of the local watchdog
Federica Cherubini The rise of bridge roles in news organizations
Justin Kosslyn The year journalists become digital security experts
Jacqui Cheng Retailers move into content
Mary Walter-Brown Show a little vulnerability
Adam Thomas Sharing is caring: The year of the mentor
Steve Grove The midterms are an opportunity
Nicholas Diakopoulos Fortifying social media from automated inauthenticity
Marie Gilot No assholes allowed
Yvonne Leow The rise of video messaging
Renée Kaplan The year of quiet adjustments (shhh)
Sydette Harry Listen to your corner and watch for the hook