It’s late in the evening of November 4, 2020. The networks have called it: Donald Trump has just won re-election and will remain in office for another four years.
That scenario might or might not happen. I am neither political scientist nor futurologist; I don’t have the expertise to make a credible prediction about this matter. But what I can predict with confidence is that if President Trump wins, November 4, 2020 will be a day of reckoning not only for the Democratic Party, but also for leading mainstream media.
Since Trump’s election, these news outlets have devoted vast resources to make news about the administration. The resulting coverage has been mostly negative. The economic outcomes for the leading media, however, has been quite positive — at least in some cases. The New York Times Co., for instance, has seen its stock price triple since November 8, 2016, from $11.10 to $33.07 today. That’s almost six times the performance of the S&P 500 during the same period.
But what about the media’s political, not economic, power? What might a re-election of Donald Trump say about the limits of journalistic organizations to influence public opinion in the contemporary polity?
Finally, what about media theory? What would this scenario say about the vitality of notions such as the power of the media to set the agenda, the existence of minimal effects, and the like, that have been at the foundation of communication scholarship for generations?
These notions of media theory are premised on an information-centric view of the power of communication. But how much of it is tenable at a time when it seems people increasingly make sense of the news with their hearts first and their minds second?
So will November 4, 2020, be a day of reckoning for the Democratic Party, mainstream journalism, and media theory? Perhaps we shouldn’t wait that long to start answering the question. Perhaps the very fact that this scenario is at present plausible should give us a time to pause, reflect, and start coming up with answers now. Better early than late.
Pablo J. Boczkowski is a professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Northwestern University.
It’s late in the evening of November 4, 2020. The networks have called it: Donald Trump has just won re-election and will remain in office for another four years.
That scenario might or might not happen. I am neither political scientist nor futurologist; I don’t have the expertise to make a credible prediction about this matter. But what I can predict with confidence is that if President Trump wins, November 4, 2020 will be a day of reckoning not only for the Democratic Party, but also for leading mainstream media.
Since Trump’s election, these news outlets have devoted vast resources to make news about the administration. The resulting coverage has been mostly negative. The economic outcomes for the leading media, however, has been quite positive — at least in some cases. The New York Times Co., for instance, has seen its stock price triple since November 8, 2016, from $11.10 to $33.07 today. That’s almost six times the performance of the S&P 500 during the same period.
But what about the media’s political, not economic, power? What might a re-election of Donald Trump say about the limits of journalistic organizations to influence public opinion in the contemporary polity?
Finally, what about media theory? What would this scenario say about the vitality of notions such as the power of the media to set the agenda, the existence of minimal effects, and the like, that have been at the foundation of communication scholarship for generations?
These notions of media theory are premised on an information-centric view of the power of communication. But how much of it is tenable at a time when it seems people increasingly make sense of the news with their hearts first and their minds second?
So will November 4, 2020, be a day of reckoning for the Democratic Party, mainstream journalism, and media theory? Perhaps we shouldn’t wait that long to start answering the question. Perhaps the very fact that this scenario is at present plausible should give us a time to pause, reflect, and start coming up with answers now. Better early than late.
Pablo J. Boczkowski is a professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Northwestern University.
Steve Henn The dawning audio web
Mariana Moura Santos The future of journalism is collaborative
Candis Callison Taking a cue from Indigenous journalists on climate change
Matt DeRienzo Local broadcasters begin to fill the gaps left by newspapers
Jake Shapiro Podcasting gets listener relationship management
Cristina Kim Public media stops trying to serve “everybody”
Helen Havlak Platforms shine a light on original reporting
Elizabeth Dunbar Frank talk, and then action
Greg Emerson News apps fall further behind
Nicholas Jackson What’s left of local gets comfortable with reader support
Fiona Spruill The climate crisis gets the coverage it deserves
Simon Galperin Journalism becomes more democratic
Catalina Albeanu Rebuilding journalism, together
Moreno Cruz Osório In Brazil, collaboration in a time of state attacks
Rachel Glickhouse Journalists get left behind in the industry’s decline
Jeremy Olshan All journalism should be service journalism
Imaeyen Ibanga Let’s take it slow
Bill Grueskin Our ethics codes get an overhaul
John Keefe Journalism gets hacked
Colleen Shalby Journalists become media literacy teachers
Cory Haik We’re already consuming the future of news — now we have to produce it
Beena Raghavendran The year of the local engagement reporter
Monica Drake A renewed focus on misinformation
Christa Scharfenberg It’s time to make journalism a field that supports and respects women
Juleyka Lantigua A changing industry amps up podcasters’ ambitions
Ernie Smith The death of the industry fad
Irving Washington Leadership isn’t something you learn on the job
Sonali Prasad Climate change storytelling gets multidimensional
Zizi Papacharissi A president leads, the press follows, reality fades
Sarah Schmalbach Journalist, quantify thyself
Annie Rudd The expanded ambiguity of the news photograph
Jennifer Brandel A love letter from the year 2073
Sarah Alvarez I’m ready for post-news
John Garrett It’s the best time in a century to start a local news organization
Heidi Tworek The year of positive pushback
Kathleen Searles Pay more attention to attention
Stefanie Murray Charitable giving goes collaborative
Joni Deutsch Podcasting unsilences the silent
Sarah Marshall The year to learn about news moments
Alice Antheaume Trade “politics” for “power”
Sarah Stonbely More people start caring about news inequality
Ben Werdmuller Use the tools of journalism to save it
Tonya Mosley The neutrality vs. objectivity game ends
M. Scott Havens First-party data becomes media’s most important currency
Tamar Charney From broadcast to bespoke
Errin Haines Race and gender aren’t a 2020 story — they’re the story
Sara K. Baranowski A big year for little newspapers
Mary Walter-Brown and Tristan Loper Power to the people (on your audience team)
Joshua P. Darr All that campaign cash will make the media’s problems worse
Kevin D. Grant The free press stands against authoritarians’ attacks on truth
Alexandra Borchardt Get out of the office and talk to people
Talia Stroud The work of reconnecting starts November 4
Craig Newmark Formalizing newsrooms’ battle against disinformation
Linda Solomon Wood Everyone in your organization, moving toward a common goal
J. Siguru Wahutu Western journalists, learn from your African peers
Kourtney Bitterly Transparency isn’t just a desire, it’s an expectation
Michael W. Wagner Increasingly fractured, but little bit deliberative
Kristen Muller The year we operationalize community engagement
Madelyn Sanfilippo and Yafit Lev-Aretz News coverage gets geo-fragmented
Carrie Brown-Smith Engaged journalism: It’s finally happening
Jim Brady We’ll complain about other people living in bubbles while ignoring our own
Mike Caulfield Native verification tools for the blue checkmark crowd
Jeremy Gilbert and Jarrod Dicker A call for collaboration between storytelling and tech
Joe Amditis Collaborative journalism takes its rightful place at the table
Tom Glaisyer Journalism can emerge newly vibrant and powerful
Laura E. Davis Know the context your journalism is operating within
Eric Nuzum Podcasting finally creates another mega-hit show
Josh Schwartz Publishers move beyond the metered paywall
Logan Jaffe You don’t need fancy tools to listen
Mario García Think small (screen)
Alana Levinson Brand-backed media gets another look
Meredith Artley Stronger solidarity among news organizations
Lucas Graves A smarter conversation about how (and why) fact-checking matters
Matthew Pressman News consumers divide into haves and have-nots
Margarita Noriega The platforms try to figure out what to do with single-subject newsrooms
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen The business we want, not the business we had
Rick Berke Incoming fire from both left and right
Hossein Derakhshan AI can’t conjure up an Errol Morris
Elizabeth Hansen and Jesse Holcomb Local news initiatives run into a capital shortage
An Xiao Mina The Forum we wanted, the forum we got
Doris Truong The year of radical salary transparency
Mira Lowe The year of student-powered journalism
Jasmine McNealy A call for context
Jeff Kofman Speed through technology
Brian Moritz The end of “stick to sports”
Sue Robinson Campaign coverage as test bed for engagement experiments
A.J. Bauer A fork in the road for conservative media
Nico Gendron Make better products if you want to reach Gen Z
Nushin Rashidian Are platforms a bridge or a lifeline?
Felix Salmon Spotify launches a news channel
Rachel Davis Mersey The business of local TV news will enter its downward slide
Meg Marco Everything happens somewhere
Whitney Phillips A time to question core beliefs
Dan Shanoff Sports media enters the Bronny era
Tanya Cordrey Saying no to more good ideas
Rachel Schallom The value of push alerts goes beyond open rates
Alfred Hermida and Mary Lynn Young The promise of nonprofit journalism
Peter Bale Lies get further normalized
Monique Judge The year to organize, unionize, and fight
Lauren Duca The rise of the journalistic influencer
Carl Bialik Journalists will try running the whole shop
Seth C. Lewis 20 questions for 2020
Francesco Zaffarano TikTok without generational prejudice
Kerri Hoffman Opening closed systems
Gordon Crovitz Fighting misinformation requires journalism, not secret algorithms
Joanne McNeil A return to blogs (finally? sort of?)
Ståle Grut OSINT journalism goes mainstream
Geneva Overholser Death to bothsidesism
Julia B. Chan We 👏 take 👏 breaks 👏
Anthony Nadler Clash of Clans: Election Edition
Nathalie Malinarich Betting on loyalty
Cindy Royal Prepare media students for skills, not job titles
Raney Aronson-Rath News deserts will proliferate — but so will new solutions
Logan Molyneux and Shannon McGregor Think twice before turning to Twitter
S. Mitra Kalita The race to 2021
Barbara Gray Join local libraries on the frontlines of civic engagement
Victor Pickard We reclaim a public good
Bill Adair A Nobel Prize, a Brad Pitt film, and a Taylor Swift song
Don Day Respect the non-paying audience
Richard Tofel A constraint of the reader-revenue model emerges
Heather Bryant Some kinds of journalism aren’t worth saving
Jakob Moll A slow-moving tech backlash among young people
Emily Withrow The year we kill the news article
Dannagal G. Young Let’s disrupt the logic that’s driving Americans apart
Knight Foundation Five generations of journalists, learning from each other