I’m fixated on the morning after Election Day. And I think more newsrooms should be, too.
In 2020, a lot of journalists will do a lot of journalism about polls and candidates, debates, and conventions. My hope (and my commitment) is to go deeper into the lives of Americans on the issues they care about: schools, climate, racism, aging, the price of medicine, how to stay married, how to retire earlier, how to live longer…
My prediction: In 2020, audiences will force media to diversify content and make it more useful and accessible — a natural outgrowth of the waning “Trump Bump.” Regardless of who wins, the issues that brought us to such deep division will remain. We must prepare for this now.
Journalism has long had the power to serve as the glue of a community. We ceded ground, though, to platforms and their tendency to favor partisan takes and content. To be sure, the formats of traditional journalism don’t help, with a focus on “two sides” of a story versus embracing and explaining nuance.
How journalists can start setting us up for 2021:
Mitra Kalita is CNN Digital’s senior vice president of news, opinion, and programming.
I’m fixated on the morning after Election Day. And I think more newsrooms should be, too.
In 2020, a lot of journalists will do a lot of journalism about polls and candidates, debates, and conventions. My hope (and my commitment) is to go deeper into the lives of Americans on the issues they care about: schools, climate, racism, aging, the price of medicine, how to stay married, how to retire earlier, how to live longer…
My prediction: In 2020, audiences will force media to diversify content and make it more useful and accessible — a natural outgrowth of the waning “Trump Bump.” Regardless of who wins, the issues that brought us to such deep division will remain. We must prepare for this now.
Journalism has long had the power to serve as the glue of a community. We ceded ground, though, to platforms and their tendency to favor partisan takes and content. To be sure, the formats of traditional journalism don’t help, with a focus on “two sides” of a story versus embracing and explaining nuance.
How journalists can start setting us up for 2021:
Mitra Kalita is CNN Digital’s senior vice president of news, opinion, and programming.
Elizabeth Dunbar Frank talk, and then action
Sue Robinson Campaign coverage as test bed for engagement experiments
Cristina Kim Public media stops trying to serve “everybody”
Ben Werdmuller Use the tools of journalism to save it
Michael W. Wagner Increasingly fractured, but little bit deliberative
Zizi Papacharissi A president leads, the press follows, reality fades
Kerri Hoffman Opening closed systems
Christa Scharfenberg It’s time to make journalism a field that supports and respects women
Hossein Derakhshan AI can’t conjure up an Errol Morris
Heather Bryant Some kinds of journalism aren’t worth saving
Kourtney Bitterly Transparency isn’t just a desire, it’s an expectation
Jeremy Gilbert and Jarrod Dicker A call for collaboration between storytelling and tech
Seth C. Lewis 20 questions for 2020
Mike Caulfield Native verification tools for the blue checkmark crowd
Meg Marco Everything happens somewhere
Mira Lowe The year of student-powered journalism
Lucas Graves A smarter conversation about how (and why) fact-checking matters
Bill Grueskin Our ethics codes get an overhaul
Beena Raghavendran The year of the local engagement reporter
Kevin D. Grant The free press stands against authoritarians’ attacks on truth
Annie Rudd The expanded ambiguity of the news photograph
Rick Berke Incoming fire from both left and right
A.J. Bauer A fork in the road for conservative media
Rachel Schallom The value of push alerts goes beyond open rates
Jonas Kaiser Russian bots are just today’s slacktivists
Matthew Pressman News consumers divide into haves and have-nots
Knight Foundation Five generations of journalists, learning from each other
Alice Antheaume Trade “politics” for “power”
Jeremy Olshan All journalism should be service journalism
Monica Drake A renewed focus on misinformation
Jake Shapiro Podcasting gets listener relationship management
Jakob Moll A slow-moving tech backlash among young people
Colleen Shalby Journalists become media literacy teachers
S. Mitra Kalita The race to 2021
Richard Tofel A constraint of the reader-revenue model emerges
Stefanie Murray Charitable giving goes collaborative
Bill Adair A Nobel Prize, a Brad Pitt film, and a Taylor Swift song
Jasmine McNealy A call for context
Sarah Stonbely More people start caring about news inequality
Greg Emerson News apps fall further behind
Craig Newmark Formalizing newsrooms’ battle against disinformation
Josh Schwartz Publishers move beyond the metered paywall
Jim Brady We’ll complain about other people living in bubbles while ignoring our own
Rachel Davis Mersey The business of local TV news will enter its downward slide
Masuma Ahuja Slower, quieter, more measured and thoughtful
Meredith Artley Stronger solidarity among news organizations
Gordon Crovitz Fighting misinformation requires journalism, not secret algorithms
Peter Bale Lies get further normalized
Sonali Prasad Climate change storytelling gets multidimensional
Dannagal G. Young Let’s disrupt the logic that’s driving Americans apart
Anthony Nadler Clash of Clans: Election Edition
Brenda P. Salinas Treating MP3 files like text
Carl Bialik Journalists will try running the whole shop
Tamar Charney From broadcast to bespoke
Cindy Royal Prepare media students for skills, not job titles
Alfred Hermida and Mary Lynn Young The promise of nonprofit journalism
Carrie Brown-Smith Engaged journalism: It’s finally happening
Raney Aronson-Rath News deserts will proliferate — but so will new solutions
Mario García Think small (screen)
Nicholas Jackson What’s left of local gets comfortable with reader support
Felix Salmon Spotify launches a news channel
John Garrett It’s the best time in a century to start a local news organization
Rachel Glickhouse Journalists get left behind in the industry’s decline
Jeff Kofman Speed through technology
Joshua P. Darr All that campaign cash will make the media’s problems worse
J. Siguru Wahutu Western journalists, learn from your African peers
Eric Nuzum Podcasting finally creates another mega-hit show
Ståle Grut OSINT journalism goes mainstream
Matt DeRienzo Local broadcasters begin to fill the gaps left by newspapers
Sara K. Baranowski A big year for little newspapers
Kathleen Searles Pay more attention to attention
Linda Solomon Wood Everyone in your organization, moving toward a common goal
Nushin Rashidian Are platforms a bridge or a lifeline?
Mary Walter-Brown and Tristan Loper Power to the people (on your audience team)
Helen Havlak Platforms shine a light on original reporting
Joe Amditis Collaborative journalism takes its rightful place at the table
Errin Haines Race and gender aren’t a 2020 story — they’re the story
Alana Levinson Brand-backed media gets another look
Barbara Gray Join local libraries on the frontlines of civic engagement
Talia Stroud The work of reconnecting starts November 4
Kristen Muller The year we operationalize community engagement
Simon Galperin Journalism becomes more democratic
Joni Deutsch Podcasting unsilences the silent
Monique Judge The year to organize, unionize, and fight
Brian Moritz The end of “stick to sports”
Jennifer Brandel A love letter from the year 2073
Elizabeth Hansen and Jesse Holcomb Local news initiatives run into a capital shortage
Irving Washington Leadership isn’t something you learn on the job
Candis Callison Taking a cue from Indigenous journalists on climate change
Victor Pickard We reclaim a public good
Lauren Duca The rise of the journalistic influencer
Pablo Boczkowski The day after November 4
Whitney Phillips A time to question core beliefs
Imaeyen Ibanga Let’s take it slow
Logan Molyneux and Shannon McGregor Think twice before turning to Twitter
Don Day Respect the non-paying audience
Nico Gendron Make better products if you want to reach Gen Z
Dan Shanoff Sports media enters the Bronny era
Madelyn Sanfilippo and Yafit Lev-Aretz News coverage gets geo-fragmented
Sarah Marshall The year to learn about news moments
Fiona Spruill The climate crisis gets the coverage it deserves
An Xiao Mina The Forum we wanted, the forum we got
Mariana Moura Santos The future of journalism is collaborative
Doris Truong The year of radical salary transparency
Heidi Tworek The year of positive pushback
M. Scott Havens First-party data becomes media’s most important currency
Ernie Smith The death of the industry fad
Tonya Mosley The neutrality vs. objectivity game ends
John Keefe Journalism gets hacked
Nathalie Malinarich Betting on loyalty
Emily Withrow The year we kill the news article
Geneva Overholser Death to bothsidesism
Moreno Cruz Osório In Brazil, collaboration in a time of state attacks
Margarita Noriega The platforms try to figure out what to do with single-subject newsrooms
Julia B. Chan We 👏 take 👏 breaks 👏
Sarah Schmalbach Journalist, quantify thyself
Juleyka Lantigua A changing industry amps up podcasters’ ambitions
Steve Henn The dawning audio web
Joanne McNeil A return to blogs (finally? sort of?)
Logan Jaffe You don’t need fancy tools to listen
Cory Haik We’re already consuming the future of news — now we have to produce it
Tom Glaisyer Journalism can emerge newly vibrant and powerful
Tanya Cordrey Saying no to more good ideas
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen The business we want, not the business we had
Laura E. Davis Know the context your journalism is operating within
Catalina Albeanu Rebuilding journalism, together
Francesco Zaffarano TikTok without generational prejudice
Alexandra Borchardt Get out of the office and talk to people