Once upon a time, journalists conceived of audiences in their own image. That is, members of the audience were seen as interested in matters of the polity at large. Moreover, they were content with being recipients of well-sourced and well-argued information about these matters, and also with processing it somewhat dispassionately. Finally, they were largely trusting of the news they read, watched, and listened to in reputable, mainstream outlets.
But a quick glance at the content, tenor, and dynamics of contemporary practices and conversations related to the news, at least in the United States, reveals a different picture. Audiences appear to be more tribal, expressive, emotional, and skeptical than what they used to be — or at least than what they were assumed to be in the canonical discourse about them in many newsrooms and classrooms across America.
They are tribal because they are motivated more by kinship ties within a collective project, anchored in the affirmation of a particular set of traits and/or issues, than by impersonal ties that bind them to the larger polity through sustaining an abstract greater good — a greater good that has often been upheld at the expense of the erasure of major differences and longstanding inequities.
They are expressive because members of the audience are more interested in communicating about the stories that matter to them and to those in their kinship networks — and socializing about those communicative practices — than about dutifully listening to the reports provided by the news media, despite (or precisely because of) their technical expertise.
They are emotional because current news consumption practices show that interpretation is shaped by the heart as much as by the mind, thus deviating from any notion about the primacy of dispassionate cognition as the central way in which individuals make sense of the news.
They are skeptical because they no longer treat trust in the news as a given but as something that journalists have to earn — trust that takes a long time to develop but can be undone rather quickly.
Audiences that were oriented to the polity, receptive, rational, and trusting were part and parcel of the project of modernity. The current practices of news audiences that gravitate towards kinship, difference, expression, emotion, sociality, and skepticism challenge any lingering dreams that modernity will be eternal. Therefore, in order to thrive, journalism can no longer be a project of modernity and modernization, since that very project has become in question.
To flourish in the third decade of the 21st century, journalism has to stop conceiving of audiences in its own image. For this, it has to meet audiences where they are rather than where it would like them to be. In other words, it has to stop pretending that it can just talk and lead, and instead agree to also listen and be led.
This requires acknowledging differences in lived experience and articulating recognition as the foundational social bond of kinship networks, rather than prioritizing impersonal ideals of a polity that, in the name of particular overarching narratives, have long favored certain communities at the expense of others.
It also entails providing opportunities for expression and then paying attention to what audiences have to say, rather than lecturing at them from a pristine perch enabled by occupational norms and editorial rituals that have gone out of sync with the evolving culture of the social world about which journalists report.
This also means telling stories that appeal to interpretation from the heart as much as from the mind, rather than continuing to provide dispassionate accounts of events simply because that’s the mandate of objectivity in the news.
In addition, it has to report aware of the presence of distrust, providing transparency in the methods of fact-finding and assumptions of story-framing to gradually earn the elusive trust of users, readers, viewers, and listeners.
Ultimately, in this nascent third decade of the century, journalism has to foster social justice because that is the bedrock from which audiences can be re-engaged and trust can be earned again.
The audiences have revolted. Will journalism adapt?
Pablo Boczkowski is the Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Northwestern University.
Once upon a time, journalists conceived of audiences in their own image. That is, members of the audience were seen as interested in matters of the polity at large. Moreover, they were content with being recipients of well-sourced and well-argued information about these matters, and also with processing it somewhat dispassionately. Finally, they were largely trusting of the news they read, watched, and listened to in reputable, mainstream outlets.
But a quick glance at the content, tenor, and dynamics of contemporary practices and conversations related to the news, at least in the United States, reveals a different picture. Audiences appear to be more tribal, expressive, emotional, and skeptical than what they used to be — or at least than what they were assumed to be in the canonical discourse about them in many newsrooms and classrooms across America.
They are tribal because they are motivated more by kinship ties within a collective project, anchored in the affirmation of a particular set of traits and/or issues, than by impersonal ties that bind them to the larger polity through sustaining an abstract greater good — a greater good that has often been upheld at the expense of the erasure of major differences and longstanding inequities.
They are expressive because members of the audience are more interested in communicating about the stories that matter to them and to those in their kinship networks — and socializing about those communicative practices — than about dutifully listening to the reports provided by the news media, despite (or precisely because of) their technical expertise.
They are emotional because current news consumption practices show that interpretation is shaped by the heart as much as by the mind, thus deviating from any notion about the primacy of dispassionate cognition as the central way in which individuals make sense of the news.
They are skeptical because they no longer treat trust in the news as a given but as something that journalists have to earn — trust that takes a long time to develop but can be undone rather quickly.
Audiences that were oriented to the polity, receptive, rational, and trusting were part and parcel of the project of modernity. The current practices of news audiences that gravitate towards kinship, difference, expression, emotion, sociality, and skepticism challenge any lingering dreams that modernity will be eternal. Therefore, in order to thrive, journalism can no longer be a project of modernity and modernization, since that very project has become in question.
To flourish in the third decade of the 21st century, journalism has to stop conceiving of audiences in its own image. For this, it has to meet audiences where they are rather than where it would like them to be. In other words, it has to stop pretending that it can just talk and lead, and instead agree to also listen and be led.
This requires acknowledging differences in lived experience and articulating recognition as the foundational social bond of kinship networks, rather than prioritizing impersonal ideals of a polity that, in the name of particular overarching narratives, have long favored certain communities at the expense of others.
It also entails providing opportunities for expression and then paying attention to what audiences have to say, rather than lecturing at them from a pristine perch enabled by occupational norms and editorial rituals that have gone out of sync with the evolving culture of the social world about which journalists report.
This also means telling stories that appeal to interpretation from the heart as much as from the mind, rather than continuing to provide dispassionate accounts of events simply because that’s the mandate of objectivity in the news.
In addition, it has to report aware of the presence of distrust, providing transparency in the methods of fact-finding and assumptions of story-framing to gradually earn the elusive trust of users, readers, viewers, and listeners.
Ultimately, in this nascent third decade of the century, journalism has to foster social justice because that is the bedrock from which audiences can be re-engaged and trust can be earned again.
The audiences have revolted. Will journalism adapt?
Pablo Boczkowski is the Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Northwestern University.
Laura E. Davis The focus turns to newsroom leaders for lasting change
David Chavern Local video finally gets momentum
Marissa Evans Putting community trauma into context
Danielle C. Belton A decimated media rededicates itself to truth
Jesse Holcomb Genre erosion in nonprofit journalism
Sue Cross A global consensus around the kind of news we need to save
Tauhid Chappell and Mike Rispoli Defund the crime beat
Pablo Boczkowski Audiences have revolted. Will newsrooms adapt?
Nonny de la Pena News reaches the third dimension
Ernie Smith Entrepreneurship on rails
Jennifer Choi What have we done for you lately?
Ben Collins We need to learn how to talk to (and about) accidental conspiracists
Cindy Royal J-school grads maintain their optimism and adaptability
An Xiao Mina 2020 isn’t a black swan — it’s a yellow canary
Juleyka Lantigua The download, podcasting’s metric king, gets dethroned
Eric Nuzum Podcasting dodged a bullet in 2020, but 2021 will be harder
Sarah Marshall The year audiences need extra cheer
David Skok A pandemic-prompted wave of consolidation
Jeremy Gilbert Human-centered journalism
Ray Soto The news gets spatial
Renée Kaplan Falling in love with your subscription
Joni Deutsch Local arts and music make journalism more joyous
Marie Shanahan Journalism schools stop perpetuating the status quo
Zainab Khan From understanding to feeling
Benjamin Toff Beltway reporting gets normal again, for better and for worse
Annie Rudd Newsrooms grow less comfortable with the “view from above”
Jennifer Brandel A sneak peak at power mapping, 2073’s top innovation
Natalie Meade Journalism enters rehab
Astead W. Herndon The Trump-sized window of the media caring about race closes again
C.W. Anderson Journalism changed under Trump — will it keep changing under Biden?
Tim Carmody Spotify will make big waves in video
Aaron Foley Diversity gains haven’t shown up in local news
Raney Aronson-Rath To get past information divides, we need to understand them first
Tonya Mosley True equity means ownership
Brian Moritz The year sports journalism changes for good
Colleen Shalby The definition of good journalism shifts
John Garrett A surprisingly good year
Edward Roussel Tech companies get aggressive in local
Matt Skibinski Misinformation won’t stop unless we stop it
Kawandeep Virdee Goodbye, doomscroll
Bo Hee Kim Newsrooms create an intentional and collaborative culture
Samantha Ragland The year of journalists taking initiative
Sarah Stonbely Videoconferencing brings more geographic diversity
Victor Pickard The commercial era for local journalism is over
Beena Raghavendran Journalism gets fused with art
Taylor Lorenz Journalists will learn influencing isn’t easy
Francesco Zaffarano The year we ask the audience what it needs
Tamar Charney Public radio has a midlife crisis
Patrick Butler Covid-19 reporting has prepared us for cross-border collaboration
Garance Franke-Ruta Rebundling content, rebuilding connections
Nisha Chittal The year we stop pivoting
Ashton Lattimore Remote work helps level the playing field in an insular industry
Imaeyen Ibanga Journalism gets unmasked
Zizi Papacharissi The year we rebuild the infrastructure of truth
Jacqué Palmer The rise of the plain-text email newsletter
Mike Ananny Toward better tech journalism
Sumi Aggarwal News literacy programs aren’t child’s play
Jean Friedman-Rudovsky and Cassie Haynes A shift from conversation to action
Don Day Business first, journalism second
Gabe Schneider Another year of empty promises on diversity
Charo Henríquez A new path to leadership
Loretta Chao Open up the profession
Tanya Cordrey Declining trust forces publishers to claim (or disclaim) values
Rachel Schallom The rise of nonprofit journalism continues
Catalina Albeanu Publish less, listen more
Ryan Kellett The bundle gets bundled
Pia Frey Building growth through tastemakers and their communities
Bill Adair The future of fact-checking is all about structured data
J. Siguru Wahutu Journalists still wrongly think the U.S. is different
Delia Cai Subscriptions start working for the middle
Jim Friedlich A newspaper renaissance reached by stopping the presses
Joshua P. Darr Legislatures will tackle the local news crisis
Alyssa Zeisler Holistic medicine for journalism
Amara Aguilar Journalism schools emphasize listening
Ariane Bernard Going solo is still only a path for the few
Joanne McNeil Newsrooms push back against Ivy League cronyism
Steve Henn Has independent podcasting peaked?
Mariano Blejman It’s time to challenge autocompleted journalism
Jonas Kaiser Toward a wehrhafte journalism
Nicholas Jackson Blogging is back, but better
Sara M. Watson Return of the RSS reader
Ariel Zirulnick Local newsrooms question their paywalls
Michael W. Wagner Fractured democracy, fractured journalism
Jer Thorp Fewer pixels, more cardboard
Mark Stenberg The rise of the journalist-influencer
Julia B. Chan and Kim Bui Millennials are ready to run things
Doris Truong Indigenous issues get long-overdue mainstream coverage
Whitney Phillips Facts are an insufficient response to falsehoods
Alfred Hermida and Oscar Westlund The virus ups data journalism’s game
Robert Hernandez Data and shame
Rodney Gibbs Zooming beyond talking heads
Nikki Usher Don’t expect an antitrust dividend for the media
Gordon Crovitz Common law will finally apply to the Internet
Anthony Nadler Journalism struggles to find a new model of legitimacy
Andrew Ramsammy Stop being polite and start getting real
Anna Nirmala Local news orgs grasp the urgency of community roots
Ståle Grut Network analysis enters the journalism toolbox
Jessica Clark News becomes plural
Nabiha Syed Newsrooms quit their toxic relationships
Megan McCarthy Readers embrace a low-information diet
Brandy Zadrozny Misinformation fatigue sets in
M. Scott Havens Traditional pay TV will embrace the disruption
Mandy Jenkins You build trust by helping your readers
José Zamora Walking the talk on diversity
Kevin D. Grant Parachute journalism goes away for good
John Saroff Covid sparks the growth of independent local news sites
Matt DeRienzo Citizen truth brigades steer us back toward reality
Francesca Tripodi Don’t expect breaking up Google and Facebook to solve our information woes
Ben Werdmuller The web blooms again
María Sánchez Díez Traffic will plummet — and it’ll be ok
Linda Solomon Wood Canada steps up for journalism
Heidi Tworek A year of news mocktails
A.J. Bauer The year of MAGAcal thinking
Cherian George Enter the lamb warriors
Alicia Bell and Simon Galperin Media reparations now
Kristen Muller Engaged journalism scales
Christoph Mergerson Black Americans will demand more from journalism
Shaydanay Urbani and Nancy Watzman Local collaboration is key to slowing misinformation
Gonzalo del Peon Collaborations expand from newsrooms to the business side
Sam Ford We’ll find better ways to archive our work
Cory Bergman The year after a thousand earthquakes
Marcus Mabry News orgs adapt to a post-Trump world (with Trump still in it)
Mike Caulfield 2021’s misinformation will look a lot like 2020’s (and 2019’s, and…)
Rishad Patel From direct-to-consumer to direct-to-believers
Talmon Joseph Smith The media rejects deficit hawkery
Chicas Poderosas More voices mean better information
Meredith D. Clark The year journalism starts paying reparations
Parker Molloy The press will risk elevating a Shadow President Trump
Andrew Donohue The rise of the democracy beat
Hadjar Benmiloud Get representative, or die trying
Stefanie Murray and Anthony Advincula Expect to see more translations and non-English content
Hossein Derakhshan Mass personalization of truth
Nico Gendron Ask your readers to help build your products
Logan Jaffe History as a reporting tool
Moreno Cruz Osório In Brazil, a push for pluralism
Errin Haines Let’s normalize women’s leadership
Chase Davis The year we look beyond The Story
John Davidow Reflect and repent
Janet Haven and Sam Hinds Is this an AI newsroom?
Kerri Hoffman Protecting podcasting’s open ecosystem
Richard Tofel Less on politics, more on how government works (or doesn’t)
Sonali Prasad Making disaster journalism that cuts through the noise
John Ketchum More journalists of color become newsroom founders
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen Stop pretending publishers are a united front
Burt Herman Journalists build post-Facebook digital communities
Rachel Glickhouse Journalists will be kinder to each other — and to themselves
Jody Brannon People won’t renew
Celeste Headlee The rise of radical newsroom transparency
Kate Myers My son will join every Zoom call in our industry
Candis Callison Calling it a crisis isn’t enough (if it ever was)
Mark S. Luckie Newsrooms and streaming services get cozy
Rick Berke Virtual events are here to stay