In 2021, the world will continue to unravel in pieces, in shards of catastrophes, as it struggles to cope with the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. The relentless sequence of fires, floods, and hurricanes will blend into a distant, monotonous hum for those of us not directly connected to the disasters, given the depletion of our surge capacities and the current patterns of breaking news coverage.
So what can disaster journalists do to break away from that drone? What questions do we ask? What words can we use that leave their traces as we trudge through the horrors? What imagery works when people become accustomed to photographs of glowing orange skies?
I hope we find new answers to these questions next year. One way that is known but less practiced is to dive deeper and take a long-term view of disasters. Apart from breaking news, report on the calamities in the making and contextualize the risks we face.
Open up the files of catastrophes past and “conduct a social autopsy,” a phrase used by sociologist Eric Klinenberg in his book Heat Wave, which investigates the aftermath of the 1995 Chicago disaster. Reveal the institutional organs that failed, the human mistakes behind the avoidable deaths. Talk to the ones who had no choice but to stay or leave. Write about the moral challenges faced during calamities.
Follow up with those who are accountable for the mismanagement. Trace the environmental histories and colonial legacies of disasters. Uncover the deep scars, such as domestic violence and survivor’s guilt. Go back to the forgotten ground zeroes and report on the abandoned homes and the ghost schools that have propped up as part of the recovery efforts. Investigate the lasting effects, for instance, the impact of mold on respiratory health after hurricanes.
Elaborate on the long-running injustices that have been exposed by disasters. Look at the spillage of past calamities into new ones. Report on resilience and hope — it’s essential to do so — to draw out lessons in reorganization and resourcefulness, keeping in mind extended time frames.
A more experimental way would be to create visceral presentations. As I write these words, what comes to mind is the art project Ai Weiwei built using thousands of backpacks to honor the children who died when schools collapsed in a 2008 earthquake in Sichuan, China. News outlets must think innovatively about how to create a similar emotional impact.
A recent example — though it doesn’t directly fall under the umbrella of natural hazards — is the front page of The New York Times’ Sunday edition designed as a long list of coronavirus victims to mark the death toll in the United States approaching 100,000. Simple yet searing.
Sonali Prasad is an independent journalist and researcher covering science, the environment, and climate change.
In 2021, the world will continue to unravel in pieces, in shards of catastrophes, as it struggles to cope with the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. The relentless sequence of fires, floods, and hurricanes will blend into a distant, monotonous hum for those of us not directly connected to the disasters, given the depletion of our surge capacities and the current patterns of breaking news coverage.
So what can disaster journalists do to break away from that drone? What questions do we ask? What words can we use that leave their traces as we trudge through the horrors? What imagery works when people become accustomed to photographs of glowing orange skies?
I hope we find new answers to these questions next year. One way that is known but less practiced is to dive deeper and take a long-term view of disasters. Apart from breaking news, report on the calamities in the making and contextualize the risks we face.
Open up the files of catastrophes past and “conduct a social autopsy,” a phrase used by sociologist Eric Klinenberg in his book Heat Wave, which investigates the aftermath of the 1995 Chicago disaster. Reveal the institutional organs that failed, the human mistakes behind the avoidable deaths. Talk to the ones who had no choice but to stay or leave. Write about the moral challenges faced during calamities.
Follow up with those who are accountable for the mismanagement. Trace the environmental histories and colonial legacies of disasters. Uncover the deep scars, such as domestic violence and survivor’s guilt. Go back to the forgotten ground zeroes and report on the abandoned homes and the ghost schools that have propped up as part of the recovery efforts. Investigate the lasting effects, for instance, the impact of mold on respiratory health after hurricanes.
Elaborate on the long-running injustices that have been exposed by disasters. Look at the spillage of past calamities into new ones. Report on resilience and hope — it’s essential to do so — to draw out lessons in reorganization and resourcefulness, keeping in mind extended time frames.
A more experimental way would be to create visceral presentations. As I write these words, what comes to mind is the art project Ai Weiwei built using thousands of backpacks to honor the children who died when schools collapsed in a 2008 earthquake in Sichuan, China. News outlets must think innovatively about how to create a similar emotional impact.
A recent example — though it doesn’t directly fall under the umbrella of natural hazards — is the front page of The New York Times’ Sunday edition designed as a long list of coronavirus victims to mark the death toll in the United States approaching 100,000. Simple yet searing.
Sonali Prasad is an independent journalist and researcher covering science, the environment, and climate change.
Gonzalo del Peon Collaborations expand from newsrooms to the business side
Parker Molloy The press will risk elevating a Shadow President Trump
Errin Haines Let’s normalize women’s leadership
David Chavern Local video finally gets momentum
Megan McCarthy Readers embrace a low-information diet
Aaron Foley Diversity gains haven’t shown up in local news
Michael W. Wagner Fractured democracy, fractured journalism
Kristen Muller Engaged journalism scales
Annie Rudd Newsrooms grow less comfortable with the “view from above”
Gordon Crovitz Common law will finally apply to the Internet
Beena Raghavendran Journalism gets fused with art
Danielle C. Belton A decimated media rededicates itself to truth
Mandy Jenkins You build trust by helping your readers
Jody Brannon People won’t renew
Pia Frey Building growth through tastemakers and their communities
Janet Haven and Sam Hinds Is this an AI newsroom?
Heidi Tworek A year of news mocktails
Rachel Glickhouse Journalists will be kinder to each other — and to themselves
Rachel Schallom The rise of nonprofit journalism continues
Nonny de la Pena News reaches the third dimension
Nico Gendron Ask your readers to help build your products
Chase Davis The year we look beyond The Story
Garance Franke-Ruta Rebundling content, rebuilding connections
Ben Werdmuller The web blooms again
Meredith D. Clark The year journalism starts paying reparations
Mariano Blejman It’s time to challenge autocompleted journalism
Ariel Zirulnick Local newsrooms question their paywalls
Nabiha Syed Newsrooms quit their toxic relationships
Amara Aguilar Journalism schools emphasize listening
Jesse Holcomb Genre erosion in nonprofit journalism
Hossein Derakhshan Mass personalization of truth
Rishad Patel From direct-to-consumer to direct-to-believers
J. Siguru Wahutu Journalists still wrongly think the U.S. is different
John Saroff Covid sparks the growth of independent local news sites
María Sánchez Díez Traffic will plummet — and it’ll be ok
Ryan Kellett The bundle gets bundled
Ståle Grut Network analysis enters the journalism toolbox
Kerri Hoffman Protecting podcasting’s open ecosystem
Gabe Schneider Another year of empty promises on diversity
Victor Pickard The commercial era for local journalism is over
Francesco Zaffarano The year we ask the audience what it needs
Jer Thorp Fewer pixels, more cardboard
Whitney Phillips Facts are an insufficient response to falsehoods
Kevin D. Grant Parachute journalism goes away for good
A.J. Bauer The year of MAGAcal thinking
Eric Nuzum Podcasting dodged a bullet in 2020, but 2021 will be harder
Marissa Evans Putting community trauma into context
Mike Ananny Toward better tech journalism
Alicia Bell and Simon Galperin Media reparations now
Don Day Business first, journalism second
Sue Cross A global consensus around the kind of news we need to save
Doris Truong Indigenous issues get long-overdue mainstream coverage
Colleen Shalby The definition of good journalism shifts
Kawandeep Virdee Goodbye, doomscroll
Ariane Bernard Going solo is still only a path for the few
Anthony Nadler Journalism struggles to find a new model of legitimacy
Alfred Hermida and Oscar Westlund The virus ups data journalism’s game
Christoph Mergerson Black Americans will demand more from journalism
Ernie Smith Entrepreneurship on rails
Logan Jaffe History as a reporting tool
Jacqué Palmer The rise of the plain-text email newsletter
Joshua P. Darr Legislatures will tackle the local news crisis
Mark S. Luckie Newsrooms and streaming services get cozy
Bo Hee Kim Newsrooms create an intentional and collaborative culture
Chicas Poderosas More voices mean better information
Jean Friedman-Rudovsky and Cassie Haynes A shift from conversation to action
Astead W. Herndon The Trump-sized window of the media caring about race closes again
Laura E. Davis The focus turns to newsroom leaders for lasting change
Rick Berke Virtual events are here to stay
Tim Carmody Spotify will make big waves in video
David Skok A pandemic-prompted wave of consolidation
Ray Soto The news gets spatial
Jessica Clark News becomes plural
Juleyka Lantigua The download, podcasting’s metric king, gets dethroned
Mike Caulfield 2021’s misinformation will look a lot like 2020’s (and 2019’s, and…)
Francesca Tripodi Don’t expect breaking up Google and Facebook to solve our information woes
Marie Shanahan Journalism schools stop perpetuating the status quo
Natalie Meade Journalism enters rehab
Cory Bergman The year after a thousand earthquakes
Patrick Butler Covid-19 reporting has prepared us for cross-border collaboration
AX Mina 2020 isn’t a black swan — it’s a yellow canary
Imaeyen Ibanga Journalism gets unmasked
Pablo Boczkowski Audiences have revolted. Will newsrooms adapt?
Ashton Lattimore Remote work helps level the playing field in an insular industry
Sonali Prasad Making disaster journalism that cuts through the noise
Sarah Stonbely Videoconferencing brings more geographic diversity
Masuma Ahuja We’ll remember how interconnected our world is
Ben Collins We need to learn how to talk to (and about) accidental conspiracists
Steve Henn Has independent podcasting peaked?
Brian Moritz The year sports journalism changes for good
Andrew Ramsammy Stop being polite and start getting real
Tamar Charney Public radio has a midlife crisis
Nisha Chittal The year we stop pivoting
Sam Ford We’ll find better ways to archive our work
Nikki Usher Don’t expect an antitrust dividend for the media
Taylor Lorenz Journalists will learn influencing isn’t easy
Jennifer Brandel A sneak peak at power mapping, 2073’s top innovation
Richard Tofel Less on politics, more on how government works (or doesn’t)
Stefanie Murray and Anthony Advincula Expect to see more translations and non-English content
Alyssa Zeisler Holistic medicine for journalism
Jonas Kaiser Toward a wehrhafte journalism
Zizi Papacharissi The year we rebuild the infrastructure of truth
Candis Callison Calling it a crisis isn’t enough (if it ever was)
Andrew Donohue The rise of the democracy beat
Moreno Cruz Osório In Brazil, a push for pluralism
Julia Angwin Show your (computational) work
Raney Aronson-Rath To get past information divides, we need to understand them first
Cindy Royal J-school grads maintain their optimism and adaptability
Sumi Aggarwal News literacy programs aren’t child’s play
C.W. Anderson Journalism changed under Trump — will it keep changing under Biden?
Edward Roussel Tech companies get aggressive in local
Jennifer Choi What have we done for you lately?
Jeremy Gilbert Human-centered journalism
Linda Solomon Wood Canada steps up for journalism
Sara M. Watson Return of the RSS reader
Shaydanay Urbani and Nancy Watzman Local collaboration is key to slowing misinformation
Hadjar Benmiloud Get representative, or die trying
M. Scott Havens Traditional pay TV will embrace the disruption
Nicholas Jackson Blogging is back, but better
Celeste Headlee The rise of radical newsroom transparency
Talmon Joseph Smith The media rejects deficit hawkery
Matt Skibinski Misinformation won’t stop unless we stop it
Julia B. Chan and Kim Bui Millennials are ready to run things
Delia Cai Subscriptions start working for the middle
Samantha Ragland The year of journalists taking initiative
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen Stop pretending publishers are a united front
Sarah Marshall The year audiences need extra cheer
José Zamora Walking the talk on diversity
Anna Nirmala Local news orgs grasp the urgency of community roots
Joanne McNeil Newsrooms push back against Ivy League cronyism
Brandy Zadrozny Misinformation fatigue sets in
Mark Stenberg The rise of the journalist-influencer
John Ketchum More journalists of color become newsroom founders
John Garrett A surprisingly good year
Catalina Albeanu Publish less, listen more
Burt Herman Journalists build post-Facebook digital communities
Marcus Mabry News orgs adapt to a post-Trump world (with Trump still in it)
Rodney Gibbs Zooming beyond talking heads
Benjamin Toff Beltway reporting gets normal again, for better and for worse
Bill Adair The future of fact-checking is all about structured data
Jim Friedlich A newspaper renaissance reached by stopping the presses
Tonya Mosley True equity means ownership
Charo Henríquez A new path to leadership
Renée Kaplan Falling in love with your subscription
Kate Myers My son will join every Zoom call in our industry
Joni Deutsch Local arts and music make journalism more joyous
Loretta Chao Open up the profession
Tauhid Chappell and Mike Rispoli Defund the crime beat
Zainab Khan From understanding to feeling
Robert Hernandez Data and shame
Matt DeRienzo Citizen truth brigades steer us back toward reality
Cherian George Enter the lamb warriors
John Davidow Reflect and repent
Tanya Cordrey Declining trust forces publishers to claim (or disclaim) values