In the fall of 2022, Twitter, our digital public square, was taken over by the world’s richest man on a whim. Almost immediately we started seeing the impact the change in ownership was having on the platform. We saw reports on the rise in the use of hate speech, a shift in the platform’s audience, and the restoration of previously banned accounts.
Given the haphazard nature of recent policy decisions, journalists and researchers are reckoning with their reliance on the platform to provide access to data they need for reporting. In the case of Twitter, this means the Twitter API and the slew of products built on top of it — but Twitter is not the only place where this is an issue. Facebook recently crippled CrowdTangle, a vital tool for reporting on what’s trending on the platform.
These days, being in the dark about what is happening on social media has increasingly come to mean being in the dark about how important parts of society function — whether that’s how public health misinformation spreads, elections are conducted, or countries at war reach their citizens.
To meaningfully report on society, we need to be able to observe what’s taking place on these platforms without relying on their permission. Data journalists need to go inside these black box social networks to document the experience of those living there — like photojournalists documenting what’s happening on the streets of Algorithm City.
We need to collect data in an independent manner to tell stories that are in the public interest, not the ones the companies want reported. Doing so requires deeply collaborative working environments where journalists, engineers, designers, and researchers can combine their skills to study the world we live in and report on it with precision. It also requires investment in building the methods and best practices to keep the data secure and to respect the privacy of the people who are sharing it, along with the communities they are a part of.
We need to invest in developing investigative engineering techniques independent of these companies to bear witness to what they would prefer remains hidden.
Surya Mattu is a data journalist and engineer who leads The Digital Witness Lab at Princeton’s Center For Information Technology Policy.
In the fall of 2022, Twitter, our digital public square, was taken over by the world’s richest man on a whim. Almost immediately we started seeing the impact the change in ownership was having on the platform. We saw reports on the rise in the use of hate speech, a shift in the platform’s audience, and the restoration of previously banned accounts.
Given the haphazard nature of recent policy decisions, journalists and researchers are reckoning with their reliance on the platform to provide access to data they need for reporting. In the case of Twitter, this means the Twitter API and the slew of products built on top of it — but Twitter is not the only place where this is an issue. Facebook recently crippled CrowdTangle, a vital tool for reporting on what’s trending on the platform.
These days, being in the dark about what is happening on social media has increasingly come to mean being in the dark about how important parts of society function — whether that’s how public health misinformation spreads, elections are conducted, or countries at war reach their citizens.
To meaningfully report on society, we need to be able to observe what’s taking place on these platforms without relying on their permission. Data journalists need to go inside these black box social networks to document the experience of those living there — like photojournalists documenting what’s happening on the streets of Algorithm City.
We need to collect data in an independent manner to tell stories that are in the public interest, not the ones the companies want reported. Doing so requires deeply collaborative working environments where journalists, engineers, designers, and researchers can combine their skills to study the world we live in and report on it with precision. It also requires investment in building the methods and best practices to keep the data secure and to respect the privacy of the people who are sharing it, along with the communities they are a part of.
We need to invest in developing investigative engineering techniques independent of these companies to bear witness to what they would prefer remains hidden.
Surya Mattu is a data journalist and engineer who leads The Digital Witness Lab at Princeton’s Center For Information Technology Policy.
Alex Perry New paths to transparency without Twitter
Ariel Zirulnick Journalism doubles down on user needs
Nicholas Diakopoulos Journalists productively harness generative AI tools
Nicholas Jackson There will be launches — and we’ll keep doing the work
Emma Carew Grovum The year to resist forgetting about diversity
Gabe Schneider Well-funded journalism leaders stop making disparate pay
Laura E. Davis The year we embrace the robots — and ourselves
Tamar Charney Flux is the new stability
Burt Herman The year AI truly arrives — and with it the reckoning
Surya Mattu Data journalists learn from photojournalists
Eric Thurm Journalists think of themselves as workers
Peter Sterne AI enters the newsroom
Cindy Royal Yes, journalists should learn to code, but…
Alexandra Svokos Working harder to reach audiences where they are
Mauricio Cabrera It’s no longer about audiences, it’s about communities
Hillary Frey Death to the labor-intensive memo for prospective hires
Nikki Usher This is the year of the RSS reader. (Really!)
Cassandra Etienne Local news fellowships will help fight newsroom inequities
Sue Schardt Toward a new poetics of journalism
Brian Stelter Finding new ways to reach news avoiders
Zizi Papacharissi Platforms are over
Snigdha Sur Newsrooms get nimble in a recession
Shanté Cosme The answer to “quiet quitting” is radical empathy
Errin Haines Journalists on the campaign trail mend trust with the public
Bill Grueskin Local news will come to rely on AI
Jarrad Henderson Video editing will help people understand the media they consume
Jakob Moll Journalism startups will think beyond English
A.J. Bauer Covering the right wrong
Elizabeth Bramson-Boudreau More of the same
Sarah Stonbely Growth in public funding for news and information at the state and local levels
Michael Schudson Journalism gets more and more difficult
Christina Shih Shared values move from nice-to-haves to essentials
Danielle K. Brown and Kathleen Searles DEI efforts must consider mental health and online abuse
Raney Aronson-Rath Journalists will band together to fight intimidation
David Skok Renewed interest in human-powered reporting
Taylor Lorenz The “creator economy” will be astroturfed
Matt Rasnic More newsroom workers turn to organized labor
Nicholas Thompson The year AI actually changes the media business
Johannes Klingebiel The innovation team, R.I.P.
Mael Vallejo More threats to press freedom across the Americas
Josh Schwartz The AI spammers are coming
Dominic-Madori Davis Everyone finally realizes the need for diverse voices in tech reporting
Jessica Clark Open discourse retrenches
Andrew Donohue We’ll find out whether journalism can, indeed, save democracy
Karina Montoya More reporters on the antitrust beat
Janet Haven ChatGPT and the future of trust
Eric Nuzum A focus on people instead of power
Megan Lucero and Shirish Kulkarni The future of journalism is not you
Joshua P. Darr Local to live, wire to wither
Elite Truong In platform collapse, an opportunity for community
Janelle Salanga Journalists work from a place of harm reduction
Pia Frey Publishers start polling their users at scale
Peter Bale Rising costs force more digital innovation
Mario García More newsrooms go mobile-first
Paul Cheung More news organizations will realize they are in the business of impact, not eyeballs
Amethyst J. Davis The slight of the great contraction
Ståle Grut Your newsroom experiences a Midjourney-gate, too
Sarah Alvarez Dream bigger or lose out
Dana Lacey Tech will screw publishers over
Tre'vell Anderson Continued culpability in anti-trans campaigns
Sue Robinson Engagement journalism will have to confront a tougher reality
Sam Guzik AI will start fact-checking. We may not like the results.
Barbara Raab More journalism funders will take more risks
Francesco Zaffarano There is no end of “social media”
Kavya Sukumar Belling the cat: The rise of independent fact-checking at scale
Upasna Gautam Technology that performs at the speed of news
Sarah Marshall A web channel strategy won’t be enough
Rodney Gibbs Recalibrating how we work apart
Daniel Trielli Trust in news will continue to fall. Just look at Brazil.
Jonas Kaiser Rejecting the “free speech” frame
Masuma Ahuja Journalism starts working for and with its communities
Richard Tofel The press might get better at vetting presidential candidates
Amy Schmitz Weiss Journalism education faces a crossroads
Moreno Cruz Osório Brazilian journalism turns wounds into action
Simon Galperin Philanthropy stops investing in corporate media
Jim VandeHei There is no “peak newsletter”
Joanne McNeil Facebook and the media kiss and make up
Lisa Heyamoto The independent news industry gets a roadmap to sustainability
Julia Beizer News fatigue shows us a clear path forward
Anika Anand Independent news businesses lead the way on healthy work cultures
Mary Walter-Brown and Tristan Loper Mission-driven metrics become our North Star
Ryan Nave Citizen journalism, but make it equitable
Eric Ulken Generative AI brings wrongness at scale
Anna Nirmala News organizations get new structures
Brian Moritz Rebuilding the news bundle
Joni Deutsch Podcast collaboration — not competition — breeds excellence
Tim Carmody Newsletter writers need a new ethics
Molly de Aguiar and Mandy Van Deven Narrative change trend brings new money to journalism
Sumi Aggarwal Smart newsrooms will prioritize board development
Emily Nonko Incarcerated reporters get more bylines
Al Lucca Digital news design gets interesting again
Kaitlyn Wells We’ll prioritize media literacy for children
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Well-being will become a core tenet of journalism
Rachel Glickhouse Humanizing newsrooms will be a badge of honor
Christoph Mergerson The rot at the core of the news business
Ryan Gantz “I’m sorry, but I’m a large language model”
Bill Adair The year of the fact-check (no, really!)
Alex Sujong Laughlin Credit where it’s due
Jenna Weiss-Berman The economic downturn benefits the podcasting industry. (No, really!)
Kirstin McCudden We’ll codify protection of journalism and newsgathering
Jody Brannon We’ll embrace policy remedies
Leezel Tanglao Community partnerships drive better reporting
Juleyka Lantigua Newsrooms recognize women of color as the canaries in the coal mine
Kaitlin C. Miller Harassment in journalism won’t get better, but we’ll talk about it more openly
Alexandra Borchardt The year of the climate journalism strategy
Doris Truong Workers demand to be paid what the job is worth
Sam Gregory Synthetic media forces us to understand how media gets made
Delano Massey The industry shakes its imposter syndrome
Felicitas Carrique and Becca Aaronson News product goes from trend to standard
Martina Efeyini Talk to Gen Z. They’re the experts of Gen Z.
Gordon Crovitz The year advertisers stop funding misinformation
Jaden Amos TikTok personality journalists continue to rise
Priyanjana Bengani Partisan local news networks will collaborate
Jessica Maddox Journalists keep getting manipulated by internet culture
Sue Cross Thinking and acting collectively to save the news
Laxmi Parthasarathy Unlocking the silent demand for international journalism
Mariana Moura Santos A woman who speaks is a woman who changes the world
Larry Ryckman We’ll work together with our competitors
Joe Amditis AI throws a lifeline to local publishers
S. Mitra Kalita “Everything sucks. Good luck to you.”
Sarabeth Berman Nonprofit local news shows that it can scale
Wilson Liévano Diaspora journalism takes the next step
Parker Molloy We’ll reach new heights of moral panic
Basile Simon Towards supporting criminal accountability
John Davidow A year of intergenerational learning
Cari Nazeer and Emily Goligoski News organizations step up their support for caregivers
Khushbu Shah Global reporting will suffer
Don Day The news about the news is bad. I’m optimistic.
Jacob L. Nelson Despite it all, people will still want to be journalists
Ben Werdmuller The internet is up for grabs again
Alan Henry A reckoning with why trust in news is so low
Eric Holthaus As social media fragments, marginalized voices gain more power
Julia Angwin Democracies will get serious about saving journalism
Anthony Nadler Confronting media gerrymandering
Susan Chira Equipping local journalism
Stefanie Murray The year U.S. media stops screwing around and becomes pro-democracy
Ryan Kellett Airline-like loyalty programs try to tie down news readers
Ayala Panievsky It’s time for PR for journalism
J. Siguru Wahutu American journalism reckons with its colonialist tendencies
Jennifer Choi and Jonathan Jackson Funders finally bet on next-generation news entrepreneurs
Michael W. Wagner The backlash against pro-democracy reporting is coming
Kerri Hoffman Podcasting goes local
Mar Cabra The inevitable mental health revolution
Walter Frick Journalists wake up to the power of prediction markets
Andrew Losowsky Journalism realizes the replacement for Twitter is not a new Twitter
Jennifer Brandel AI couldn’t care less. Journalists will care more.
David Cohn AI made this prediction
Esther Kezia Thorpe Subscription pressures force product innovation
Kathy Lu We need emotionally agile newsroom leaders
Anita Varma Journalism prioritizes the basic need for survival
Cory Bergman The AI content flood
An Xiao Mina Journalism in a time of permacrisis
Gina Chua The traditional story structure gets deconstructed
Dannagal G. Young Stop rewarding elite performances of identity threat
Jim Friedlich Local journalism steps up to the challenge of civic coverage
Victor Pickard The year journalism and capitalism finally divorce