We simply can’t set an editorial agenda without the input of the people we are trying to serve. We need to understand that producing a map of food pantries can be as impactful as an investigation. And we can’t assume the journalism we produce will find its way into the hands of the people most in need of the information.
In 2021, news organizations with public service missions must examine how many of their resources go towards serving “the public” and rapidly reallocate. I say that based on experience and evidence that engaging our audience directly is also a path to building more sustainable news operations.
At KPCC and LAist, we’ve answered more than 6,200 questions from readers since the pandemic began. At first, they asked how safe it was to travel and whether to postpone family events. Then someone asked us how to safely bury a loved one. Now we are being asked how to make ends meet; from accessing unemployment benefits and free food to avoiding eviction.
The questions mirror the progression of the virus and its effects on Angelenos. They have forced us to rethink what our public radio station’s value proposition is to our region.
Many public news media organizations have variations of engaged journalism projects. But this approach must be rapidly scaled across the country if we are to truly deliver on our mission. Engaged journalism needs to be integral to how we report the news, not a side effort we roll out on occasion.
Technology now allows us to speed up this process. By applying natural language processing (AI) to the thousands of questions we received we were able to detect patterns. The questions served as a road map for our reporting and a tool for residents trying to navigate a region that’s been ravaged by COVID 19.
This approach is also good for business. More than 50 percent of the people we’ve responded to have signed up for our daily newsletter, a direct funnel to membership.
As technology advances, and community level information needs soar, there is an opportunity for us to redefine public service journalism in the information age. We must seize it in 2021.
Kristen Muller is chief content officer of Southern California Public Radio.
We simply can’t set an editorial agenda without the input of the people we are trying to serve. We need to understand that producing a map of food pantries can be as impactful as an investigation. And we can’t assume the journalism we produce will find its way into the hands of the people most in need of the information.
In 2021, news organizations with public service missions must examine how many of their resources go towards serving “the public” and rapidly reallocate. I say that based on experience and evidence that engaging our audience directly is also a path to building more sustainable news operations.
At KPCC and LAist, we’ve answered more than 6,200 questions from readers since the pandemic began. At first, they asked how safe it was to travel and whether to postpone family events. Then someone asked us how to safely bury a loved one. Now we are being asked how to make ends meet; from accessing unemployment benefits and free food to avoiding eviction.
The questions mirror the progression of the virus and its effects on Angelenos. They have forced us to rethink what our public radio station’s value proposition is to our region.
Many public news media organizations have variations of engaged journalism projects. But this approach must be rapidly scaled across the country if we are to truly deliver on our mission. Engaged journalism needs to be integral to how we report the news, not a side effort we roll out on occasion.
Technology now allows us to speed up this process. By applying natural language processing (AI) to the thousands of questions we received we were able to detect patterns. The questions served as a road map for our reporting and a tool for residents trying to navigate a region that’s been ravaged by COVID 19.
This approach is also good for business. More than 50 percent of the people we’ve responded to have signed up for our daily newsletter, a direct funnel to membership.
As technology advances, and community level information needs soar, there is an opportunity for us to redefine public service journalism in the information age. We must seize it in 2021.
Kristen Muller is chief content officer of Southern California Public Radio.
J. Siguru Wahutu Journalists still wrongly think the U.S. is different
Robert Hernandez Data and shame
Anthony Nadler Journalism struggles to find a new model of legitimacy
Sara M. Watson Return of the RSS reader
Jennifer Choi What have we done for you lately?
Whitney Phillips Facts are an insufficient response to falsehoods
Sue Cross A global consensus around the kind of news we need to save
Brian Moritz The year sports journalism changes for good
Stefanie Murray and Anthony Advincula Expect to see more translations and non-English content
Errin Haines Let’s normalize women’s leadership
Janet Haven and Sam Hinds Is this an AI newsroom?
Colleen Shalby The definition of good journalism shifts
Garance Franke-Ruta Rebundling content, rebuilding connections
Matt DeRienzo Citizen truth brigades steer us back toward reality
Kevin D. Grant Parachute journalism goes away for good
Shaydanay Urbani and Nancy Watzman Local collaboration is key to slowing misinformation
Andrew Ramsammy Stop being polite and start getting real
Mariano Blejman It’s time to challenge autocompleted journalism
Kate Myers My son will join every Zoom call in our industry
Bill Adair The future of fact-checking is all about structured data
Nonny de la Pena News reaches the third dimension
Marissa Evans Putting community trauma into context
Jody Brannon People won’t renew
Gabe Schneider Another year of empty promises on diversity
Jeremy Gilbert Human-centered journalism
Tanya Cordrey Declining trust forces publishers to claim (or disclaim) values
Talmon Joseph Smith The media rejects deficit hawkery
David Chavern Local video finally gets momentum
Meredith D. Clark The year journalism starts paying reparations
Delia Cai Subscriptions start working for the middle
Logan Jaffe History as a reporting tool
Joni Deutsch Local arts and music make journalism more joyous
María Sánchez Díez Traffic will plummet — and it’ll be ok
John Saroff Covid sparks the growth of independent local news sites
Hadjar Benmiloud Get representative, or die trying
Christoph Mergerson Black Americans will demand more from journalism
Heidi Tworek A year of news mocktails
Tauhid Chappell and Mike Rispoli Defund the crime beat
Sarah Stonbely Videoconferencing brings more geographic diversity
Kawandeep Virdee Goodbye, doomscroll
Julia Angwin Show your (computational) work
Cindy Royal J-school grads maintain their optimism and adaptability
Cherian George Enter the lamb warriors
Zizi Papacharissi The year we rebuild the infrastructure of truth
Chicas Poderosas More voices mean better information
Chase Davis The year we look beyond The Story
Astead W. Herndon The Trump-sized window of the media caring about race closes again
Alicia Bell and Simon Galperin Media reparations now
Steve Henn Has independent podcasting peaked?
Don Day Business first, journalism second
Jonas Kaiser Toward a wehrhafte journalism
Megan McCarthy Readers embrace a low-information diet
Nisha Chittal The year we stop pivoting
Charo Henríquez A new path to leadership
Rodney Gibbs Zooming beyond talking heads
Danielle C. Belton A decimated media rededicates itself to truth
Jim Friedlich A newspaper renaissance reached by stopping the presses
Candis Callison Calling it a crisis isn’t enough (if it ever was)
Celeste Headlee The rise of radical newsroom transparency
Catalina Albeanu Publish less, listen more
Ray Soto The news gets spatial
Jessica Clark News becomes plural
Renée Kaplan Falling in love with your subscription
Rishad Patel From direct-to-consumer to direct-to-believers
Rachel Glickhouse Journalists will be kinder to each other — and to themselves
M. Scott Havens Traditional pay TV will embrace the disruption
Kristen Muller Engaged journalism scales
John Ketchum More journalists of color become newsroom founders
Cory Bergman The year after a thousand earthquakes
Ariel Zirulnick Local newsrooms question their paywalls
Joanne McNeil Newsrooms push back against Ivy League cronyism
Sumi Aggarwal News literacy programs aren’t child’s play
Ben Werdmuller The web blooms again
Mark S. Luckie Newsrooms and streaming services get cozy
Patrick Butler Covid-19 reporting has prepared us for cross-border collaboration
Burt Herman Journalists build post-Facebook digital communities
Zainab Khan From understanding to feeling
Gonzalo del Peon Collaborations expand from newsrooms to the business side
Joshua P. Darr Legislatures will tackle the local news crisis
Doris Truong Indigenous issues get long-overdue mainstream coverage
Raney Aronson-Rath To get past information divides, we need to understand them first
Andrew Donohue The rise of the democracy beat
José Zamora Walking the talk on diversity
Ernie Smith Entrepreneurship on rails
Amara Aguilar Journalism schools emphasize listening
Imaeyen Ibanga Journalism gets unmasked
Pablo Boczkowski Audiences have revolted. Will newsrooms adapt?
Tonya Mosley True equity means ownership
Nico Gendron Ask your readers to help build your products
Victor Pickard The commercial era for local journalism is over
Nicholas Jackson Blogging is back, but better
Linda Solomon Wood Canada steps up for journalism
Brandy Zadrozny Misinformation fatigue sets in
Ståle Grut Network analysis enters the journalism toolbox
David Skok A pandemic-prompted wave of consolidation
Pia Frey Building growth through tastemakers and their communities
Jennifer Brandel A sneak peak at power mapping, 2073’s top innovation
Francesca Tripodi Don’t expect breaking up Google and Facebook to solve our information woes
Nikki Usher Don’t expect an antitrust dividend for the media
Ariane Bernard Going solo is still only a path for the few
Richard Tofel Less on politics, more on how government works (or doesn’t)
Mandy Jenkins You build trust by helping your readers
Sam Ford We’ll find better ways to archive our work
Edward Roussel Tech companies get aggressive in local
Mike Ananny Toward better tech journalism
Tamar Charney Public radio has a midlife crisis
C.W. Anderson Journalism changed under Trump — will it keep changing under Biden?
Rachel Schallom The rise of nonprofit journalism continues
Jacqué Palmer The rise of the plain-text email newsletter
Matt Skibinski Misinformation won’t stop unless we stop it
Mark Stenberg The rise of the journalist-influencer
A.J. Bauer The year of MAGAcal thinking
Benjamin Toff Beltway reporting gets normal again, for better and for worse
Masuma Ahuja We’ll remember how interconnected our world is
Jer Thorp Fewer pixels, more cardboard
Tim Carmody Spotify will make big waves in video
Juleyka Lantigua The download, podcasting’s metric king, gets dethroned
Beena Raghavendran Journalism gets fused with art
Ashton Lattimore Remote work helps level the playing field in an insular industry
Parker Molloy The press will risk elevating a Shadow President Trump
Alyssa Zeisler Holistic medicine for journalism
Aaron Foley Diversity gains haven’t shown up in local news
AX Mina 2020 isn’t a black swan — it’s a yellow canary
Jean Friedman-Rudovsky and Cassie Haynes A shift from conversation to action
Samantha Ragland The year of journalists taking initiative
Nabiha Syed Newsrooms quit their toxic relationships
John Davidow Reflect and repent
Alfred Hermida and Oscar Westlund The virus ups data journalism’s game
Kerri Hoffman Protecting podcasting’s open ecosystem
Annie Rudd Newsrooms grow less comfortable with the “view from above”
Mike Caulfield 2021’s misinformation will look a lot like 2020’s (and 2019’s, and…)
Francesco Zaffarano The year we ask the audience what it needs
Rick Berke Virtual events are here to stay
Ryan Kellett The bundle gets bundled
Marcus Mabry News orgs adapt to a post-Trump world (with Trump still in it)
Laura E. Davis The focus turns to newsroom leaders for lasting change
Anna Nirmala Local news orgs grasp the urgency of community roots
Natalie Meade Journalism enters rehab
Michael W. Wagner Fractured democracy, fractured journalism
John Garrett A surprisingly good year
Marie Shanahan Journalism schools stop perpetuating the status quo
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen Stop pretending publishers are a united front
Gordon Crovitz Common law will finally apply to the Internet
Ben Collins We need to learn how to talk to (and about) accidental conspiracists
Sarah Marshall The year audiences need extra cheer
Jesse Holcomb Genre erosion in nonprofit journalism
Loretta Chao Open up the profession
Julia B. Chan and Kim Bui Millennials are ready to run things
Taylor Lorenz Journalists will learn influencing isn’t easy
Bo Hee Kim Newsrooms create an intentional and collaborative culture
Sonali Prasad Making disaster journalism that cuts through the noise
Hossein Derakhshan Mass personalization of truth
Moreno Cruz Osório In Brazil, a push for pluralism
Eric Nuzum Podcasting dodged a bullet in 2020, but 2021 will be harder