There are more than eight billion people in the world, but often fewer than eight people featured in top news headlines and trending topics of the day. What makes a handful of individuals special enough to attract widespread and ongoing media attention? Usually, the answer is that they have elite status as officials, celebrities, or credentialed experts. Add scandal, shock value, and outrageous events, and you have a “winning” formula for top news billing in some of the best-resourced and largest news platforms and publications.
On the other hand, coverage of issues like the unprecedented scale of flooding in Pakistan tend to rely on brisk numerical shorthand: “millions are now homeless as a result of the floods,” for example. The same shorthand comes up, again and again, in coverage of local issues related to people’s basic survival like housing instability, water supply contamination, food insecurity, and mass shootings. People become statistics, and officials presume to speak on behalf of people affected.
An exasperating exception often takes the form of a profile of an exceptional, upstanding marginalized person who has, against all odds, lifted themselves up by their bootstraps to reach admirable heights by escaping the structural conditions they were born into. But where does that leave everyone else who is still affected by these conditions? Invisible, ignored, and presumably insignificant.
In 2023, I predict that journalism will prioritize people’s basic needs for survival as an act of solidarity. This will take two forms:
First, dominant newsworthiness decisions will refocus attention on entire communities’ struggles and grassroots efforts to address steep (and rising) barriers that prevent people from having the basics like stable housing, clean water, sufficient food, and the safety of simply existing in public without being attacked. Journalism will do justice to millions of people’s lived realities by representing these shared conditions from the ground up — instead of isolating an exceptional individual who has had unusual strokes of luck.
Second, journalism on basic needs for survival will include journalists as among those in need. In Austin, Texas, the Austin News Guild has called attention to the many ways that local journalists struggle due to not being paid enough to live in the city they cover. While some journalism leaders may bristle at the idea of journalists “becoming the story,” we need to recognize that reporting the truth of journalists’ lived reality isn’t a conflict of interest. Instead, it is a sign of the urgent and growing need for solidarity across society to demand change.
As cost of living rises, the likelihood of recession looms, and extreme weather due to climate change escalates, journalism that only offers a sliver of the story can no longer suffice. We need more journalism that rises to the occasion by representing people’s unmet needs, explaining root causes, and accounting for grassroots pursuits to build a society in which everyone’s humanity is recognized and respected at the level of concrete (material) lived conditions. In solidarity, journalism unapologetically reports the truth of people’s ongoing struggles and collective efforts to fight for better.
Anita Varma leads the Solidarity Journalism Initiative at the Center for Media Engagement and is an assistant professor focused on media ethics at UT Austin’s School of Journalism and Media.
There are more than eight billion people in the world, but often fewer than eight people featured in top news headlines and trending topics of the day. What makes a handful of individuals special enough to attract widespread and ongoing media attention? Usually, the answer is that they have elite status as officials, celebrities, or credentialed experts. Add scandal, shock value, and outrageous events, and you have a “winning” formula for top news billing in some of the best-resourced and largest news platforms and publications.
On the other hand, coverage of issues like the unprecedented scale of flooding in Pakistan tend to rely on brisk numerical shorthand: “millions are now homeless as a result of the floods,” for example. The same shorthand comes up, again and again, in coverage of local issues related to people’s basic survival like housing instability, water supply contamination, food insecurity, and mass shootings. People become statistics, and officials presume to speak on behalf of people affected.
An exasperating exception often takes the form of a profile of an exceptional, upstanding marginalized person who has, against all odds, lifted themselves up by their bootstraps to reach admirable heights by escaping the structural conditions they were born into. But where does that leave everyone else who is still affected by these conditions? Invisible, ignored, and presumably insignificant.
In 2023, I predict that journalism will prioritize people’s basic needs for survival as an act of solidarity. This will take two forms:
First, dominant newsworthiness decisions will refocus attention on entire communities’ struggles and grassroots efforts to address steep (and rising) barriers that prevent people from having the basics like stable housing, clean water, sufficient food, and the safety of simply existing in public without being attacked. Journalism will do justice to millions of people’s lived realities by representing these shared conditions from the ground up — instead of isolating an exceptional individual who has had unusual strokes of luck.
Second, journalism on basic needs for survival will include journalists as among those in need. In Austin, Texas, the Austin News Guild has called attention to the many ways that local journalists struggle due to not being paid enough to live in the city they cover. While some journalism leaders may bristle at the idea of journalists “becoming the story,” we need to recognize that reporting the truth of journalists’ lived reality isn’t a conflict of interest. Instead, it is a sign of the urgent and growing need for solidarity across society to demand change.
As cost of living rises, the likelihood of recession looms, and extreme weather due to climate change escalates, journalism that only offers a sliver of the story can no longer suffice. We need more journalism that rises to the occasion by representing people’s unmet needs, explaining root causes, and accounting for grassroots pursuits to build a society in which everyone’s humanity is recognized and respected at the level of concrete (material) lived conditions. In solidarity, journalism unapologetically reports the truth of people’s ongoing struggles and collective efforts to fight for better.
Anita Varma leads the Solidarity Journalism Initiative at the Center for Media Engagement and is an assistant professor focused on media ethics at UT Austin’s School of Journalism and Media.
Larry Ryckman We’ll work together with our competitors
Laxmi Parthasarathy Unlocking the silent demand for international journalism
Raney Aronson-Rath Journalists will band together to fight intimidation
Jennifer Brandel AI couldn’t care less. Journalists will care more.
Jessica Maddox Journalists keep getting manipulated by internet culture
Emma Carew Grovum The year to resist forgetting about diversity
Molly de Aguiar and Mandy Van Deven Narrative change trend brings new money to journalism
Michael W. Wagner The backlash against pro-democracy reporting is coming
Danielle K. Brown and Kathleen Searles DEI efforts must consider mental health and online abuse
Sam Gregory Synthetic media forces us to understand how media gets made
Josh Schwartz The AI spammers are coming
Don Day The news about the news is bad. I’m optimistic.
Joanne McNeil Facebook and the media kiss and make up
Michael Schudson Journalism gets more and more difficult
Sarah Alvarez Dream bigger or lose out
Errin Haines Journalists on the campaign trail mend trust with the public
Simon Galperin Philanthropy stops investing in corporate media
Lisa Heyamoto The independent news industry gets a roadmap to sustainability
A.J. Bauer Covering the right wrong
Stefanie Murray The year U.S. media stops screwing around and becomes pro-democracy
Jim Friedlich Local journalism steps up to the challenge of civic coverage
Alexandra Borchardt The year of the climate journalism strategy
An Xiao Mina Journalism in a time of permacrisis
Basile Simon Towards supporting criminal accountability
Juleyka Lantigua Newsrooms recognize women of color as the canaries in the coal mine
Jarrad Henderson Video editing will help people understand the media they consume
Anna Nirmala News organizations get new structures
Bill Grueskin Local news will come to rely on AI
Peter Sterne AI enters the newsroom
Snigdha Sur Newsrooms get nimble in a recession
Mario García More newsrooms go mobile-first
Barbara Raab More journalism funders will take more risks
Mauricio Cabrera It’s no longer about audiences, it’s about communities
Parker Molloy We’ll reach new heights of moral panic
Cassandra Etienne Local news fellowships will help fight newsroom inequities
Dominic-Madori Davis Everyone finally realizes the need for diverse voices in tech reporting
Paul Cheung More news organizations will realize they are in the business of impact, not eyeballs
S. Mitra Kalita “Everything sucks. Good luck to you.”
Alexandra Svokos Working harder to reach audiences where they are
Kaitlyn Wells We’ll prioritize media literacy for children
Surya Mattu Data journalists learn from photojournalists
Jacob L. Nelson Despite it all, people will still want to be journalists
Jesse Holcomb Buffeted, whipped, bullied, pulled
Johannes Klingebiel The innovation team, R.I.P.
Amethyst J. Davis The slight of the great contraction
Amy Schmitz Weiss Journalism education faces a crossroads
Alan Henry A reckoning with why trust in news is so low
Joshua P. Darr Local to live, wire to wither
Tamar Charney Flux is the new stability
Peter Bale Rising costs force more digital innovation
J. Siguru Wahutu American journalism reckons with its colonialist tendencies
Eric Holthaus As social media fragments, marginalized voices gain more power
Shanté Cosme The answer to “quiet quitting” is radical empathy
Alex Sujong Laughlin Credit where it’s due
Mariana Moura Santos A woman who speaks is a woman who changes the world
Cory Bergman The AI content flood
Megan Lucero and Shirish Kulkarni The future of journalism is not you
Emily Nonko Incarcerated reporters get more bylines
Sarah Stonbely Growth in public funding for news and information at the state and local levels
Wilson Liévano Diaspora journalism takes the next step
Al Lucca Digital news design gets interesting again
Janet Haven ChatGPT and the future of trust
Sam Guzik AI will start fact-checking. We may not like the results.
Jessica Clark Open discourse retrenches
Jaden Amos TikTok personality journalists continue to rise
Delano Massey The industry shakes its imposter syndrome
Ryan Kellett Airline-like loyalty programs try to tie down news readers
Cari Nazeer and Emily Goligoski News organizations step up their support for caregivers
Kaitlin C. Miller Harassment in journalism won’t get better, but we’ll talk about it more openly
Sarah Marshall A web channel strategy won’t be enough
Mary Walter-Brown and Tristan Loper Mission-driven metrics become our North Star
Jennifer Choi and Jonathan Jackson Funders finally bet on next-generation news entrepreneurs
Hillary Frey Death to the labor-intensive memo for prospective hires
Leezel Tanglao Community partnerships drive better reporting
Eric Thurm Journalists think of themselves as workers
Janelle Salanga Journalists work from a place of harm reduction
Kavya Sukumar Belling the cat: The rise of independent fact-checking at scale
Dannagal G. Young Stop rewarding elite performances of identity threat
Esther Kezia Thorpe Subscription pressures force product innovation
Elite Truong In platform collapse, an opportunity for community
Brian Stelter Finding new ways to reach news avoiders
Zizi Papacharissi Platforms are over
Ståle Grut Your newsroom experiences a Midjourney-gate, too
Anthony Nadler Confronting media gerrymandering
Jim VandeHei There is no “peak newsletter”
Nikki Usher This is the year of the RSS reader. (Really!)
Tim Carmody Newsletter writers need a new ethics
Gordon Crovitz The year advertisers stop funding misinformation
Jonas Kaiser Rejecting the “free speech” frame
Ben Werdmuller The internet is up for grabs again
Eric Ulken Generative AI brings wrongness at scale
Ryan Gantz “I’m sorry, but I’m a large language model”
John Davidow A year of intergenerational learning
Bill Adair The year of the fact-check (no, really!)
David Skok Renewed interest in human-powered reporting
Mael Vallejo More threats to press freedom across the Americas
Nicholas Thompson The year AI actually changes the media business
Ryan Nave Citizen journalism, but make it equitable
Nicholas Jackson There will be launches — and we’ll keep doing the work
David Cohn AI made this prediction
Doris Truong Workers demand to be paid what the job is worth
Julia Beizer News fatigue shows us a clear path forward
Victor Pickard The year journalism and capitalism finally divorce
Pia Frey Publishers start polling their users at scale
Andrew Donohue We’ll find out whether journalism can, indeed, save democracy
Sumi Aggarwal Smart newsrooms will prioritize board development
Julia Angwin Democracies will get serious about saving journalism
Jenna Weiss-Berman The economic downturn benefits the podcasting industry. (No, really!)
Rodney Gibbs Recalibrating how we work apart
Ayala Panievsky It’s time for PR for journalism
Tre'vell Anderson Continued culpability in anti-trans campaigns
Christoph Mergerson The rot at the core of the news business
Martina Efeyini Talk to Gen Z. They’re the experts of Gen Z.
Brian Moritz Rebuilding the news bundle
Elizabeth Bramson-Boudreau More of the same
Jody Brannon We’ll embrace policy remedies
Susan Chira Equipping local journalism
Francesco Zaffarano There is no end of “social media”
Cindy Royal Yes, journalists should learn to code, but…
Nicholas Diakopoulos Journalists productively harness generative AI tools
Gabe Schneider Well-funded journalism leaders stop making disparate pay
Gina Chua The traditional story structure gets deconstructed
Rachel Glickhouse Humanizing newsrooms will be a badge of honor
Taylor Lorenz The “creator economy” will be astroturfed
Upasna Gautam Technology that performs at the speed of news
Sue Robinson Engagement journalism will have to confront a tougher reality
Felicitas Carrique and Becca Aaronson News product goes from trend to standard
Burt Herman The year AI truly arrives — and with it the reckoning
Khushbu Shah Global reporting will suffer
Joni Deutsch Podcast collaboration — not competition — breeds excellence
Joe Amditis AI throws a lifeline to local publishers
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Well-being will become a core tenet of journalism
Mar Cabra The inevitable mental health revolution
Christina Shih Shared values move from nice-to-haves to essentials
Priyanjana Bengani Partisan local news networks will collaborate
Anika Anand Independent news businesses lead the way on healthy work cultures
Sue Cross Thinking and acting collectively to save the news
Moreno Cruz Osório Brazilian journalism turns wounds into action
Kirstin McCudden We’ll codify protection of journalism and newsgathering
Sue Schardt Toward a new poetics of journalism
Andrew Losowsky Journalism realizes the replacement for Twitter is not a new Twitter
Eric Nuzum A focus on people instead of power
Jakob Moll Journalism startups will think beyond English
Masuma Ahuja Journalism starts working for and with its communities
Daniel Trielli Trust in news will continue to fall. Just look at Brazil.
Ariel Zirulnick Journalism doubles down on user needs
Matt Rasnic More newsroom workers turn to organized labor
Anita Varma Journalism prioritizes the basic need for survival
Alex Perry New paths to transparency without Twitter
Richard Tofel The press might get better at vetting presidential candidates
Sarabeth Berman Nonprofit local news shows that it can scale
Walter Frick Journalists wake up to the power of prediction markets
Karina Montoya More reporters on the antitrust beat
Laura E. Davis The year we embrace the robots — and ourselves