This moment is the epitome of uncertainty. Like many such moments of transition — when a phase change is possible — the political and media environment is highly energized, and it’s difficult if not impossible to discern exactly what the future holds. Many of us see mixed signals, where hopes for a rebirth of journalism exist side by side with seemingly unsurmountable challenges.
The context into which journalists will publish their journalism in the United States in 2020 will be extremely challenging. The truths they seek to impart to the public will be swept into a roiling ocean of information on social media platforms conducive to propaganda and falsehoods, polluted and disrupted by others seeking partisan advantage through fair means and foul.
Journalists will face a vicious cycle. Public critiques of accurate news that don’t fit audience members’ political views run headlong into politicians who exacerbate distrust by leaning into conspiracy theories and ignoring facts. Yet reporters’ work is ever more important. Their stories must truly hold the powerful accountable — whether monopolistic companies or politicians inclined towards autocracy.
That said, nothing is set; moments of transition are pregnant with possibility. Outcomes we may fear — where journalism is overwhelmed — are no less possible than those where journalism emerges newly vibrant and powerful.
The groundwork is being laid. The journalists of 2020 are newly prepared. They’re exploring approaches that involve and energize readers and ensure the topics they cover reflect reader priorities. The engaged elections movement — which reorients election coverage around the curiosity and concerns of communities — is marking the way.
Curiously, while the economic weakness of commercial outlets is undesirable, it allows the fast-growing nonprofit news sector to increasingly reflect the makeup of the American public. Projects such as the Racial Equity in Journalism Fund — alongside a renewed commitment to equity and inclusion in newsrooms — could transform the field.
Once a dirty word, collaboration is now openly embraced by news outlets where it provides value. Electionland in 2016 and 2018 involved many. State-based efforts such as Votingbloc in New Jersey will likely be replicated across other states. First Draft News, which seeks to address misinformation head on, is at its core a collaboration. Initially global, the project is now forging new relationships at the local level in the United States. Many other collaborations are being documented by the Center for Cooperative Media.
Younger journalists are ever more ready to leverage capabilities that marry data, audio, and video, and they are keen to take on the challenge of truth-telling.
It’s unclear how these new outlets and their journalists will navigate what feels akin to the storm of the century. However, I have hopes that the rising reader-engaged, disaggregated, collaborative ecosystem of reporters and newish outlets will benefit from this moment. Ideally, they’ll draw from it a newly sharpened mission and related support. Doing so will help us all undertake the hard work in years ahead of developing policies to support new forms and institutions of public interest media that can meet and master our rocky media seas.
Tom Glaisyer is managing director of the Public Square Program of the Democracy Fund.
This moment is the epitome of uncertainty. Like many such moments of transition — when a phase change is possible — the political and media environment is highly energized, and it’s difficult if not impossible to discern exactly what the future holds. Many of us see mixed signals, where hopes for a rebirth of journalism exist side by side with seemingly unsurmountable challenges.
The context into which journalists will publish their journalism in the United States in 2020 will be extremely challenging. The truths they seek to impart to the public will be swept into a roiling ocean of information on social media platforms conducive to propaganda and falsehoods, polluted and disrupted by others seeking partisan advantage through fair means and foul.
Journalists will face a vicious cycle. Public critiques of accurate news that don’t fit audience members’ political views run headlong into politicians who exacerbate distrust by leaning into conspiracy theories and ignoring facts. Yet reporters’ work is ever more important. Their stories must truly hold the powerful accountable — whether monopolistic companies or politicians inclined towards autocracy.
That said, nothing is set; moments of transition are pregnant with possibility. Outcomes we may fear — where journalism is overwhelmed — are no less possible than those where journalism emerges newly vibrant and powerful.
The groundwork is being laid. The journalists of 2020 are newly prepared. They’re exploring approaches that involve and energize readers and ensure the topics they cover reflect reader priorities. The engaged elections movement — which reorients election coverage around the curiosity and concerns of communities — is marking the way.
Curiously, while the economic weakness of commercial outlets is undesirable, it allows the fast-growing nonprofit news sector to increasingly reflect the makeup of the American public. Projects such as the Racial Equity in Journalism Fund — alongside a renewed commitment to equity and inclusion in newsrooms — could transform the field.
Once a dirty word, collaboration is now openly embraced by news outlets where it provides value. Electionland in 2016 and 2018 involved many. State-based efforts such as Votingbloc in New Jersey will likely be replicated across other states. First Draft News, which seeks to address misinformation head on, is at its core a collaboration. Initially global, the project is now forging new relationships at the local level in the United States. Many other collaborations are being documented by the Center for Cooperative Media.
Younger journalists are ever more ready to leverage capabilities that marry data, audio, and video, and they are keen to take on the challenge of truth-telling.
It’s unclear how these new outlets and their journalists will navigate what feels akin to the storm of the century. However, I have hopes that the rising reader-engaged, disaggregated, collaborative ecosystem of reporters and newish outlets will benefit from this moment. Ideally, they’ll draw from it a newly sharpened mission and related support. Doing so will help us all undertake the hard work in years ahead of developing policies to support new forms and institutions of public interest media that can meet and master our rocky media seas.
Tom Glaisyer is managing director of the Public Square Program of the Democracy Fund.
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Peter Bale Lies get further normalized
Tamar Charney From broadcast to bespoke
Jeremy Gilbert and Jarrod Dicker A call for collaboration between storytelling and tech
Fiona Spruill The climate crisis gets the coverage it deserves
Alana Levinson Brand-backed media gets another look
Ernie Smith The death of the industry fad
Margarita Noriega The platforms try to figure out what to do with single-subject newsrooms
Carrie Brown-Smith Engaged journalism: It’s finally happening
Rick Berke Incoming fire from both left and right
Joanne McNeil A return to blogs (finally? sort of?)
Linda Solomon Wood Everyone in your organization, moving toward a common goal
Lauren Duca The rise of the journalistic influencer
Sarah Marshall The year to learn about news moments
Nico Gendron Make better products if you want to reach Gen Z
Ståle Grut OSINT journalism goes mainstream
Mary Walter-Brown and Tristan Loper Power to the people (on your audience team)
Beena Raghavendran The year of the local engagement reporter
Mario García Think small (screen)
Juleyka Lantigua A changing industry amps up podcasters’ ambitions
Craig Newmark Formalizing newsrooms’ battle against disinformation
Cindy Royal Prepare media students for skills, not job titles
Jake Shapiro Podcasting gets listener relationship management
Sara K. Baranowski A big year for little newspapers
Geneva Overholser Death to bothsidesism
Don Day Respect the non-paying audience
Stefanie Murray Charitable giving goes collaborative
Heidi Tworek The year of positive pushback
Logan Molyneux and Shannon McGregor Think twice before turning to Twitter
S. Mitra Kalita The race to 2021
Gordon Crovitz Fighting misinformation requires journalism, not secret algorithms
Brenda P. Salinas Treating MP3 files like text
Bill Adair A Nobel Prize, a Brad Pitt film, and a Taylor Swift song
Jennifer Brandel A love letter from the year 2073
Moreno Cruz Osório In Brazil, collaboration in a time of state attacks
Masuma Ahuja Slower, quieter, more measured and thoughtful
Sarah Alvarez I’m ready for post-news
Candis Callison Taking a cue from Indigenous journalists on climate change
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Logan Jaffe You don’t need fancy tools to listen
Jakob Moll A slow-moving tech backlash among young people
John Garrett It’s the best time in a century to start a local news organization
Joshua P. Darr All that campaign cash will make the media’s problems worse
Monica Drake A renewed focus on misinformation
Michael W. Wagner Increasingly fractured, but little bit deliberative
Meredith Artley Stronger solidarity among news organizations
Richard Tofel A constraint of the reader-revenue model emerges
Simon Galperin Journalism becomes more democratic
Pablo Boczkowski The day after November 4
Alice Antheaume Trade “politics” for “power”
Rachel Schallom The value of push alerts goes beyond open rates
Sue Robinson Campaign coverage as test bed for engagement experiments
Jasmine McNealy A call for context
Tom Glaisyer Journalism can emerge newly vibrant and powerful
Meg Marco Everything happens somewhere
Kourtney Bitterly Transparency isn’t just a desire, it’s an expectation
Madelyn Sanfilippo and Yafit Lev-Aretz News coverage gets geo-fragmented
Knight Foundation Five generations of journalists, learning from each other
Nicholas Jackson What’s left of local gets comfortable with reader support
Annie Rudd The expanded ambiguity of the news photograph
Victor Pickard We reclaim a public good
Mariana Moura Santos The future of journalism is collaborative
Dannagal G. Young Let’s disrupt the logic that’s driving Americans apart
Bill Grueskin Our ethics codes get an overhaul
Christa Scharfenberg It’s time to make journalism a field that supports and respects women
Emily Withrow The year we kill the news article
Josh Schwartz Publishers move beyond the metered paywall
Mike Caulfield Native verification tools for the blue checkmark crowd
Jonas Kaiser Russian bots are just today’s slacktivists
Brian Moritz The end of “stick to sports”
Colleen Shalby Journalists become media literacy teachers
John Keefe Journalism gets hacked
Heather Bryant Some kinds of journalism aren’t worth saving
Zizi Papacharissi A president leads, the press follows, reality fades
Tonya Mosley The neutrality vs. objectivity game ends
Greg Emerson News apps fall further behind
Eric Nuzum Podcasting finally creates another mega-hit show
J. Siguru Wahutu Western journalists, learn from your African peers
Nathalie Malinarich Betting on loyalty
Doris Truong The year of radical salary transparency
Catalina Albeanu Rebuilding journalism, together
Cristina Kim Public media stops trying to serve “everybody”
Monique Judge The year to organize, unionize, and fight
Kevin D. Grant The free press stands against authoritarians’ attacks on truth
Seth C. Lewis 20 questions for 2020
Sonali Prasad Climate change storytelling gets multidimensional
Sarah Schmalbach Journalist, quantify thyself
Laura E. Davis Know the context your journalism is operating within
Matt DeRienzo Local broadcasters begin to fill the gaps left by newspapers
Irving Washington Leadership isn’t something you learn on the job
Raney Aronson-Rath News deserts will proliferate — but so will new solutions
Cory Haik We’re already consuming the future of news — now we have to produce it
Jeremy Olshan All journalism should be service journalism
Steve Henn The dawning audio web
Jim Brady We’ll complain about other people living in bubbles while ignoring our own
Anthony Nadler Clash of Clans: Election Edition
Julia B. Chan We 👏 take 👏 breaks 👏
Imaeyen Ibanga Let’s take it slow
Kerri Hoffman Opening closed systems
A.J. Bauer A fork in the road for conservative media
Talia Stroud The work of reconnecting starts November 4
Helen Havlak Platforms shine a light on original reporting
Whitney Phillips A time to question core beliefs
Errin Haines Race and gender aren’t a 2020 story — they’re the story
Kathleen Searles Pay more attention to attention
Alexandra Borchardt Get out of the office and talk to people
Hossein Derakhshan AI can’t conjure up an Errol Morris
Joe Amditis Collaborative journalism takes its rightful place at the table
Carl Bialik Journalists will try running the whole shop
Dan Shanoff Sports media enters the Bronny era
Joni Deutsch Podcasting unsilences the silent
Sarah Stonbely More people start caring about news inequality
Elizabeth Dunbar Frank talk, and then action
Rachel Glickhouse Journalists get left behind in the industry’s decline
M. Scott Havens First-party data becomes media’s most important currency
Alfred Hermida and Mary Lynn Young The promise of nonprofit journalism
Barbara Gray Join local libraries on the frontlines of civic engagement
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen The business we want, not the business we had
Rachel Davis Mersey The business of local TV news will enter its downward slide
Nushin Rashidian Are platforms a bridge or a lifeline?
Elizabeth Hansen and Jesse Holcomb Local news initiatives run into a capital shortage
Kristen Muller The year we operationalize community engagement
Tanya Cordrey Saying no to more good ideas
Matthew Pressman News consumers divide into haves and have-nots
Felix Salmon Spotify launches a news channel
Francesco Zaffarano TikTok without generational prejudice
Lucas Graves A smarter conversation about how (and why) fact-checking matters