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