The United States is a fractured democracy. In 2021, some journalism will exacerbate political schisms in destructive ways, while other journalism will play critical roles in helping to re-knit the civic fabric.
Why? Journalists face key challenges related to trust and legitimacy in 2021. My prediction is that we will see sizable (and democratically consequential) variance in how news outlets deal with the competing pressures they face when interpreting the behaviors of our country’s elected officials, organized interests, and citizens.
Journalists face twin pressures: the continuously evolving natures of both how news organizations determine what is legitimate/verifiably true and how they build and keep trust with their audience. Notably, many journalists and news outlets chose to cover the election and its aftermath through the democracy-worthy lens proposed by the Election Coverage and Democracy Network — highlighting the processes and normalcy of electoral democracy, even as the results were baselessly disputed by the president and many of his supporters both in and out of government.
Some news outlets will continue this style of reporting: helping citizens understand some of the more basic machinations of government, when explicit and baseless norm and rule violations occur, and what the verifiable truth is — even when it may require unbalanced, asymmetric reporting.
By doing this, journalists help civic-minded citizens — especially those who are willing to admit what they do not know. These are the people, according to recent research Jianing Li and I published, that react to a fact-check by updating their attitudes to reflect the verifiable truth. But there is a dark side to when this kind of reporting is successful. That is because it can lead to audience beliefs that the news outlets providing contextual, accurate coverage are biased.
Fears of being branded biased, relying upon old patterns of access-oriented approaches to coverage, and rushing to endorse false, but comfortable, claims of bothsidesism will push some news organizations to engage in false equivalence. They will uncritically highlight and amplify unfounded claims made by partisan elites and seek out the most extreme voices for comment. These behaviors are likely to amplify identity over evidence, increase perceptions of division and media bias, and affect news media agendas more generally.
Democracies depend upon having enough information to make reasoned choices and give penalties for lying. Many pockets and corners of journalism showed laudable efforts to provide that information over the past years. But with a new administration taking over in January, and indeed, as Ben Toff already predicted in this series, 2021 will mark a “return to normalcy.” How news outlets define normal will depend, in part, on how they navigate the competing pressures to report the verifiable truth in context and earn their audience’s trust. Now that the election is over, democracy is no longer on the ballot — but it is still at stake.
Michael W. Wagner is a professor of journalism and mass communication at the University of Wisconsin.
The United States is a fractured democracy. In 2021, some journalism will exacerbate political schisms in destructive ways, while other journalism will play critical roles in helping to re-knit the civic fabric.
Why? Journalists face key challenges related to trust and legitimacy in 2021. My prediction is that we will see sizable (and democratically consequential) variance in how news outlets deal with the competing pressures they face when interpreting the behaviors of our country’s elected officials, organized interests, and citizens.
Journalists face twin pressures: the continuously evolving natures of both how news organizations determine what is legitimate/verifiably true and how they build and keep trust with their audience. Notably, many journalists and news outlets chose to cover the election and its aftermath through the democracy-worthy lens proposed by the Election Coverage and Democracy Network — highlighting the processes and normalcy of electoral democracy, even as the results were baselessly disputed by the president and many of his supporters both in and out of government.
Some news outlets will continue this style of reporting: helping citizens understand some of the more basic machinations of government, when explicit and baseless norm and rule violations occur, and what the verifiable truth is — even when it may require unbalanced, asymmetric reporting.
By doing this, journalists help civic-minded citizens — especially those who are willing to admit what they do not know. These are the people, according to recent research Jianing Li and I published, that react to a fact-check by updating their attitudes to reflect the verifiable truth. But there is a dark side to when this kind of reporting is successful. That is because it can lead to audience beliefs that the news outlets providing contextual, accurate coverage are biased.
Fears of being branded biased, relying upon old patterns of access-oriented approaches to coverage, and rushing to endorse false, but comfortable, claims of bothsidesism will push some news organizations to engage in false equivalence. They will uncritically highlight and amplify unfounded claims made by partisan elites and seek out the most extreme voices for comment. These behaviors are likely to amplify identity over evidence, increase perceptions of division and media bias, and affect news media agendas more generally.
Democracies depend upon having enough information to make reasoned choices and give penalties for lying. Many pockets and corners of journalism showed laudable efforts to provide that information over the past years. But with a new administration taking over in January, and indeed, as Ben Toff already predicted in this series, 2021 will mark a “return to normalcy.” How news outlets define normal will depend, in part, on how they navigate the competing pressures to report the verifiable truth in context and earn their audience’s trust. Now that the election is over, democracy is no longer on the ballot — but it is still at stake.
Michael W. Wagner is a professor of journalism and mass communication at the University of Wisconsin.
Imaeyen Ibanga Journalism gets unmasked
Rishad Patel From direct-to-consumer to direct-to-believers
Anna Nirmala Local news orgs grasp the urgency of community roots
Hadjar Benmiloud Get representative, or die trying
Jesse Holcomb Genre erosion in nonprofit journalism
Jeremy Gilbert Human-centered journalism
José Zamora Walking the talk on diversity
Francesca Tripodi Don’t expect breaking up Google and Facebook to solve our information woes
Bo Hee Kim Newsrooms create an intentional and collaborative culture
Nabiha Syed Newsrooms quit their toxic relationships
John Davidow Reflect and repent
Benjamin Toff Beltway reporting gets normal again, for better and for worse
Laura E. Davis The focus turns to newsroom leaders for lasting change
Kerri Hoffman Protecting podcasting’s open ecosystem
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen Stop pretending publishers are a united front
Loretta Chao Open up the profession
Talmon Joseph Smith The media rejects deficit hawkery
Jennifer Brandel A sneak peak at power mapping, 2073’s top innovation
Chicas Poderosas More voices mean better information
Moreno Cruz Osório In Brazil, a push for pluralism
Ariel Zirulnick Local newsrooms question their paywalls
Charo Henríquez A new path to leadership
Pablo Boczkowski Audiences have revolted. Will newsrooms adapt?
Alyssa Zeisler Holistic medicine for journalism
Jonas Kaiser Toward a wehrhafte journalism
Brian Moritz The year sports journalism changes for good
Sonali Prasad Making disaster journalism that cuts through the noise
Jean Friedman-Rudovsky and Cassie Haynes A shift from conversation to action
Juleyka Lantigua The download, podcasting’s metric king, gets dethroned
María Sánchez Díez Traffic will plummet — and it’ll be ok
Tanya Cordrey Declining trust forces publishers to claim (or disclaim) values
Marcus Mabry News orgs adapt to a post-Trump world (with Trump still in it)
Annie Rudd Newsrooms grow less comfortable with the “view from above”
John Ketchum More journalists of color become newsroom founders
Mark Stenberg The rise of the journalist-influencer
Gabe Schneider Another year of empty promises on diversity
Michael W. Wagner Fractured democracy, fractured journalism
Janet Haven and Sam Hinds Is this an AI newsroom?
Celeste Headlee The rise of radical newsroom transparency
Burt Herman Journalists build post-Facebook digital communities
Masuma Ahuja We’ll remember how interconnected our world is
Renée Kaplan Falling in love with your subscription
Parker Molloy The press will risk elevating a Shadow President Trump
Joni Deutsch Local arts and music make journalism more joyous
Mike Caulfield 2021’s misinformation will look a lot like 2020’s (and 2019’s, and…)
Ariane Bernard Going solo is still only a path for the few
Kevin D. Grant Parachute journalism goes away for good
Candis Callison Calling it a crisis isn’t enough (if it ever was)
Richard Tofel Less on politics, more on how government works (or doesn’t)
Colleen Shalby The definition of good journalism shifts
Sara M. Watson Return of the RSS reader
Joanne McNeil Newsrooms push back against Ivy League cronyism
Jennifer Choi What have we done for you lately?
Rachel Glickhouse Journalists will be kinder to each other — and to themselves
Jacqué Palmer The rise of the plain-text email newsletter
Ryan Kellett The bundle gets bundled
Ståle Grut Network analysis enters the journalism toolbox
Nikki Usher Don’t expect an antitrust dividend for the media
Gordon Crovitz Common law will finally apply to the Internet
Stefanie Murray and Anthony Advincula Expect to see more translations and non-English content
Victor Pickard The commercial era for local journalism is over
Danielle C. Belton A decimated media rededicates itself to truth
Sam Ford We’ll find better ways to archive our work
Kawandeep Virdee Goodbye, doomscroll
Sarah Stonbely Videoconferencing brings more geographic diversity
Cherian George Enter the lamb warriors
Ben Werdmuller The web blooms again
Chase Davis The year we look beyond The Story
Julia Angwin Show your (computational) work
Jody Brannon People won’t renew
Garance Franke-Ruta Rebundling content, rebuilding connections
Samantha Ragland The year of journalists taking initiative
Nico Gendron Ask your readers to help build your products
Megan McCarthy Readers embrace a low-information diet
J. Siguru Wahutu Journalists still wrongly think the U.S. is different
M. Scott Havens Traditional pay TV will embrace the disruption
Kate Myers My son will join every Zoom call in our industry
Whitney Phillips Facts are an insufficient response to falsehoods
Alfred Hermida and Oscar Westlund The virus ups data journalism’s game
Zizi Papacharissi The year we rebuild the infrastructure of truth
Zainab Khan From understanding to feeling
Nonny de la Pena News reaches the third dimension
Nisha Chittal The year we stop pivoting
Amara Aguilar Journalism schools emphasize listening
Gonzalo del Peon Collaborations expand from newsrooms to the business side
Francesco Zaffarano The year we ask the audience what it needs
Alicia Bell and Simon Galperin Media reparations now
C.W. Anderson Journalism changed under Trump — will it keep changing under Biden?
Marissa Evans Putting community trauma into context
Edward Roussel Tech companies get aggressive in local
Julia B. Chan and Kim Bui Millennials are ready to run things
Natalie Meade Journalism enters rehab
Catalina Albeanu Publish less, listen more
John Garrett A surprisingly good year
Aaron Foley Diversity gains haven’t shown up in local news
Jessica Clark News becomes plural
Mike Ananny Toward better tech journalism
Logan Jaffe History as a reporting tool
Ray Soto The news gets spatial
A.J. Bauer The year of MAGAcal thinking
Rick Berke Virtual events are here to stay
Sumi Aggarwal News literacy programs aren’t child’s play
Sue Cross A global consensus around the kind of news we need to save
Mandy Jenkins You build trust by helping your readers
Ashton Lattimore Remote work helps level the playing field in an insular industry
Jer Thorp Fewer pixels, more cardboard
Sarah Marshall The year audiences need extra cheer
Kristen Muller Engaged journalism scales
Tamar Charney Public radio has a midlife crisis
Errin Haines Let’s normalize women’s leadership
Mariano Blejman It’s time to challenge autocompleted journalism
John Saroff Covid sparks the growth of independent local news sites
Bill Adair The future of fact-checking is all about structured data
Christoph Mergerson Black Americans will demand more from journalism
Heidi Tworek A year of news mocktails
Rodney Gibbs Zooming beyond talking heads
Robert Hernandez Data and shame
Pia Frey Building growth through tastemakers and their communities
Cory Bergman The year after a thousand earthquakes
Patrick Butler Covid-19 reporting has prepared us for cross-border collaboration
David Skok A pandemic-prompted wave of consolidation
Steve Henn Has independent podcasting peaked?
Astead W. Herndon The Trump-sized window of the media caring about race closes again
Tonya Mosley True equity means ownership
Hossein Derakhshan Mass personalization of truth
Eric Nuzum Podcasting dodged a bullet in 2020, but 2021 will be harder
Shaydanay Urbani and Nancy Watzman Local collaboration is key to slowing misinformation
Nicholas Jackson Blogging is back, but better
Ernie Smith Entrepreneurship on rails
Delia Cai Subscriptions start working for the middle
Mark S. Luckie Newsrooms and streaming services get cozy
Jim Friedlich A newspaper renaissance reached by stopping the presses
Linda Solomon Wood Canada steps up for journalism
Cindy Royal J-school grads maintain their optimism and adaptability
Anthony Nadler Journalism struggles to find a new model of legitimacy
Don Day Business first, journalism second
Rachel Schallom The rise of nonprofit journalism continues
Raney Aronson-Rath To get past information divides, we need to understand them first
An Xiao Mina 2020 isn’t a black swan — it’s a yellow canary
Andrew Ramsammy Stop being polite and start getting real
Ben Collins We need to learn how to talk to (and about) accidental conspiracists
David Chavern Local video finally gets momentum
Tim Carmody Spotify will make big waves in video
Beena Raghavendran Journalism gets fused with art
Joshua P. Darr Legislatures will tackle the local news crisis
Matt DeRienzo Citizen truth brigades steer us back toward reality
Taylor Lorenz Journalists will learn influencing isn’t easy
Marie Shanahan Journalism schools stop perpetuating the status quo
Doris Truong Indigenous issues get long-overdue mainstream coverage
Meredith D. Clark The year journalism starts paying reparations
Andrew Donohue The rise of the democracy beat