The truth has been known for years.
But at first it doesn’t get much coverage because its impact maybe seems far off or hypothetical. When it does get covered, it gets framed as a partisan debate, with both sides given equal weight.
Then, boom, suddenly we’re staring an existential threat in the face. This is the cycle we went through with climate change for years before the media pushed its way out of false equivalence. It stopped giving doubters’ claims equal weight to scientific evidence. Climate change started getting covered as a real thing, not something that’s up for political debate.
Today we’re somewhere near the beginning of this stage with voting rights. Since Barack Obama’s election in 2008, Republican legislatures across the country have passed sweeping restrictions that often make it harder for black and brown voters to exercise their franchise. And they’ve done it based on a made-up threat: voter fraud.
Stacks and stacks of research show that widespread voter fraud hasn’t been a problem in American elections. But the specter gets raised time and time again, often with racist undertones, as states make it more difficult to vote. And the coverage too often frames it as a “Republicans say, Democrats say” issue.
It’s an issue that’s going to take on even more significance in the 2020 election. Now, the coverage is beginning to shift. This will be the year it accelerates.
More and more journalists will understand this isn’t an issue you can ignore, or an issue you can frame as a debate. Yes, we’re an independent and nonpartisan press. We don’t choose sides. But we do traffic in facts. And we do call out lies.
People often ask the question whether any of these voter restrictions have actually swung an election. Now, that is up for debate, and a difficult question to answer. But it might not be the right question to ask.
Voter suppression doesn’t have to overturn an election to have an impact. Denying someone the right to vote is denying them power and participation in society. Not that long ago, black people were killed and beaten for trying to vote.
And, as we suddenly deal with the ravaging consequences of a warming planet, we won’t wait until voter suppression does actually alter the trajectory of our democracy to take it seriously.
Andrew Donohue is the managing editor of Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting.
Ernst-Jan Pfauth Readers are only getting started
Ben Werdmuller The platform tide is turning
Libby Bawcombe Haikus of the news
Peter Cunliffe-Jones The focus of misinformation debates shifts south
Rebecca Lee Sanchez We are all actors in the running rampant of political theater
Kristen Muller Local news fails — in a good way
Jonathan Stray More algorithmic accountability reporting, and a lot of it will be meh
Millie Tran There is no magic — you’ve got this
Ben Smith The pendulum starts to swing back
Kyra Darnton A shift to depth in video
Frank Chimero Leave the phone at home and put news on your wrist
Bill Grueskin Toward a symphony model for local news
Johannes Klingebiel We all grow hooves
Bill Adair Another year fighting Trump’s falsehoods
Errin Haines Say it with me: Racism
Simon Galperin After capitalism’s fire, journalism’s secondary succession
Nicholas Jackson More transparency around newsroom decisions
Brian Moritz The subscription-pocalypse is about to hit
Jesse Brown Canada’s subsidy for news backfires
Sarah Stonbely Mapping the local news ecosystem — with scale but detail
Kate Myers Journalism continues to be bad for democracy
Michael Rain The year of the culturally relevant curator
Elizabeth Dunbar Local reporters reflect on what’s not important
Francesco Zaffarano Towards a rethinking of journalism on social media
Nathalie Malinarich Video — yes, video
Seema Yasmin We will create our own spaces
Joe Amditis Give the audience a seat at the table
Greg Emerson Power to the user
Celeste LeCompte Local news needs local conversation to survive
P. Kim Bui The misfits become the bosses
Rick Berke The year of loyalty
Thomas Hanitzsch The rise of tribal journalism
Kjerstin Thorson Time to get mad about information inequality (again)
Rebecca Searles From silos to Swiss Army knife teams
Geetika Rudra The year of actionable (local) journalism
Mike Isaac The old exit doors for digital media companies are closing
Rachel Glickhouse Newsrooms will prioritize audience needs
Sarah Marshall A return to destination journalism
Gabriel Snyder Journalism doesn’t fit well in a funnel
Mandy Velez Putting the social back in social media
Jonas Kaiser Catching up with “Neuland”
Pablo Boczkowski Reimagining the media for post-institutional times
Matt Karolian Publishers come to terms with being Facebook’s enablers
Victor Pickard We will finally confront systemic market failure
Betsy O'Donovan and Melody Kramer The most beautiful sentence in 2019 is “No.”
Ariel Zirulnick Participation gets professional
An Xiao Mina The death of consensus, not the death of truth
Zainab Khan Publishers whose products can stand up to social media giants will win
Salem Solomon Correcting our corrections
Jared Newman AI-generated fakes launch a software arms race
Charo Henríquez Pivot to journalism
Alberto Cairo A year of uncertainty and confidence
Nisha Chittal The homepage makes a comeback
Francesco Marconi The year of iterative journalism
Justin Kosslyn Text hits a tipping point
Stefanie Murray Local news wakes up and starts collaborating
Becca Aaronson From bridge roles to product thinkers
Alyssa Zeisler We expand what (and how and who) we serve
John Saroff The pivot to reader revenue’s unintended consequences
Linda Solomon Wood The year of the climate reporter
Catalina Albeanu Being responsible for what we don’t know
Peter Bale Venture capital runs out of patience
Robin Kwong Tech shouldn’t be the only field pollinating “news nerds”
Adam B. Ellick Video forensic reporting goes mainstream — and local
Lauren Katz Community becomes a core newsroom value
Mike Caulfield Ditch the media literacy cynicism and get to work
Kevin D. Grant A year to embrace journalism as public service
John Biewen Podcasts keep getting better
Andrew Ramsammy The great re-pivot to audio
Pia Frey You can’t solve a crisis without treating it as a crisis
Masuma Ahuja Make foreign coverage less foreign
Moreno Cruz Osório Damaged credibility and a new threat in Brazil
Jonathan Gill Publishers build a common tech platform together
Cindy Royal For journalism curriculum to change, its faculty needs disruption
Almar Latour Reported facts, weaponized in service of action
Adam Thomas In Europe, foundations invest in news
Tshepo Tshabalala Ahead of African elections, unlock partnerships with fact-checkers
Josh Schwartz A pullback from platforms and a focus on product
Mike Rispoli and Craig Aaron Government funds local news — and that’s a good thing
Joanne McNeil Building a digital hospice
Seth C. Lewis The gap between journalism and research is too wide
Sue Cross Return of the water cooler
Christa Scharfenberg and Vickie Baranetsky The year of the lawsuit
Zizi Papacharissi Old interface, say hello to the new interface
Annie Rudd A more intimate aesthetic of politics — on Insta
Alexis Lloyd & Matt Boggie The year product leads media
Ruth Palmer and Benjamin Toff From news fatigue to news avoidance
Tim Carmody Unlocking the commons
Jesse Holcomb We’ll get better at making the case for local journalism
John Garrett You can’t raise prices forever
Michael Grant More newsrooms experiment their way to success
Heather Chaplin Agree we’re partisan — for the democratic system
Darryl Holliday Let’s talk about power (yours)
Stephanie Edgerly It’s time to understand the un-audience
Andrew Donohue Voting rights becomes the new climate change
Angilee Shah The year news orgs say “yes” to real leaders
Steve Henn Smart speakers get smarter
Mandy Jenkins Fight the urge to run away from social media
Colleen Shalby Representation becomes more than a talking point
Robert Hernandez Racists and sexists get replaced
Jean Friedman Rudovsky Cross-newsroom collaborations strengthen communities
Jenée Desmond-Harris It finally sinks in that some people aren’t white
Sarah Alvarez Simplify and redistribute
Julia Rubin Meeting people where they are
Reyhan Harmanci Selling more stories to Hollywood
Juleyka Lantigua Podcasting battles East Coast bias
Kawandeep Virdee Media wants to take care of you
Alexandra Borchardt Newsrooms need to build trust with their journalists, not just the audience
Laura E. Davis More access, but not that kind
Craig Newmark The end of “loudspeakers for liars”
Mat Yurow Content competition from the tech companies
Renan Borelli Developing loyalty means developing your talent
Carl Bialik Fatigued news consumers will pay more for less news
Elisabeth Goodridge Yes, they signed up — but our job’s not over
Logan Molyneux Seeing social media for what it is
M. Scott Havens Time to swing for the fences
Shalabh Upadhyay A culture clash on India’s growing Internet
Glyn Mottershead and Martin Chorley When a tech company pulls the plug on your story
Amy King We should listen to the kids (especially on Instagram)
Amy Schmitz Weiss Local news isn’t where you thought it was
Zuzanna Ziomecka News leadership gets an overdue upgrade
Meredith Artley Huge demand for…anything but politics
Rodney Gibbs A bright — and young — year for audio
Borja Bergareche Sainz de los Terreros Entering a more balanced era
Mario García The rise of content “pilots”
Raney Aronson-Rath We learn “digital” doesn’t have to mean “short”
Chase Davis We can acknowledge what we don’t know
Nikki Usher Three ways national media will further undermine trust
Simon Rogers Data journalism becomes a global field
Elite Truong What do we owe the next generation?
Taylor Lorenz Personal branding is more powerful than ever
Mariana Moura Santos From pageviews to impact
A.J. Bauer The coming splintering of conservative media
Axie Navas The traffic hunt, CMS battle, and magazine identity crises loom
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen A long, slow slog, with no one coming to the rescue
Alexandra Svokos Good luck convincing us millennials to pay
Tyler Fisher This is journalism’s do-or-die moment
Elizabeth Jensen Going where the Acela can’t take you
Shannon McGregor More bogus embedded tweets in our stories
Ståle Grut A new dawn for 3D tech in journalism
Joshua P. Darr The nationalization of political news will accelerate
Dan Shanoff Bet on sports gambling
Soo Oh Just showing our work isn’t enough
Joel Konopo Influencers become the new liberated power in Africa
Matt Skibinski Quality and reliability are the new currencies for publishers
Kelsey Proud Journalism becomes the escape
Heba Aly The rise of international nonprofit news
Dave Burdick Seeing our blind spots
Cristi Hegranes A year to invest in the security of local journalists
Ole Reißmann The rise of vertical storytelling
Winny de Jong Data journalism goes undercover
Emma Carew Grovum The year of the loyal reader
Julie Posetti The year of the fight back
Jeff Chin We detox from Chartbeat
Gideon Lichfield Goodbye attention economy, we’ll miss you
Matt Waite “I went to Node.js because I wished to live deliberately”
Elizabeth Bramson-Boudreau A more sincere definition of “community”
Matthew Pressman The battle over objectivity intensifies
Cory Bergman Journalism as a technology service
Monique Judge Committing to the truth, calling out lies
Rubina Madan Fillion Fighting the reality of deepfakes
Talia Stroud Engaging people across lines of difference
Rishad Patel A design system for responsible publishing
Patrick Butler Measuring impact will increase audience trust
Umbreen Bhatti The story doesn’t end for the people we quote
J. Siguru Wahutu Think 2018 was bad? Wait until you see 2019
Elva Ramirez News — but make it cinematic
Jim Friedlich Meet Citizen Kane 2.0
Steve Grove A reckoning for tech’s work with news
Angèle Christin Algorithms and the reflexive turn
Eric Ulken The year you actually start to like your CMS
Jake Shapiro Podcasting is media’s slow food movement
Cherian George Fake news wins in Asia
Marie Shanahan Newsrooms take the comments sections back from platforms
Eric Nuzum The year of the DIY podcast network
Claire Wardle Forget deepfakes: Misinformation is showing up in our most personal online spaces
Ernie Smith The year we step back from the platform
Renée Kaplan Our future could lie within our own organizations
Don Day Timewalls and other reader revenue experiments
Rachel Davis Mersey Local news goes minimalist
Hossein Derakhshan The news is dying, but journalism will not — and should not
Knight Foundation A year of local collaboration
Tushar Banerjee Interactive ads will be the new face of display advertising
Tamar Charney Seriously: What do you do for people?
Candis Callison Learn from Indigenous journalists on covering climate change
Heather Bryant We are responsible for how we use our power
Dheerja Kaur A focus on problems, not platforms
Jeremy Gilbert AI finally becomes helpful
Sue Robinson Reporters go on the offensive
Steve Myers From trying to cover it all to covering what matters
Adam Smith Platforms will have to help rebuild trust in news
Jack Riley Facebook refugees, from ad revenue to news habits
Andrea Faye Hart Doing less harm, not just more good
Jennifer Dargan You don’t build diversity through one-off training sessions
Whitney Phillips Our information systems aren’t broken — they’re working as intended
Nico Gendron Reaching Generation Z beyond the coasts
Manoush Zomorodi Tech will do for information overload what it did for mindfulness
Carrie Brown-Smith Advocating a healthy civic life is no journalistic crime
Carolina Guerrero Spanish-language audio blows up
Efrat Nechushtai Journalism wants to be your friend, not your teacher
Kainaz Amaria We consider who’s behind the camera
Callie Schweitzer The rise of the conveners
Frank Mungeam Tonight at 11: News, sports, and climate change