Sometimes, things get worse before they get better.
New York Knicks point guard Micheal Ray Richardson (that’s how he spells his name) understood this. In 1981, he offered one of the most trenchant observations in the history of professional sports. When asked about the Knicks’ latest losing streak, Richardson said, “The ship be sinking.” When asked how bad things could get, he replied, “Sky’s the limit.”
The Knicks finished 16 games under .500 that season, but they did win a playoff series the following year. Which brings us back to the moral of this story: Sometimes, things get worse before they get better.
The same can be said of commercial journalism in the United States. Its current state is bad, and it will probably get worse in 2023. News outlets are slashing payrolls like horror movie villains, and one hedge fund appears to be fulfilling the terms of a reverse social contract in which they get everything by gutting local newsrooms and the public gets nothing.
Meanwhile, political journalists can’t shake their two-pack-a-day habit of publishing stories that use game framing, which political communication scholars Matthew P. Hitt and Kathleen Searles describe as frames that emphasize political strategy over policies and principles. So much political coverage focuses on who’s up, who’s down, who’s winning, and who’s losing — despite the knowledge, as media scholar Dannagal Young explains, that this kind of framing is hazardous to the health of our democracy.
And the promise of diversity, equity, and inclusion in commercial journalism that lasted for a season has both risen and set in the east, regressing to what the Carpenters once called a crescent noon — a dreary sun that provides no warmth. This sun does not shine for Black journalists who push back against the problematic conceptions of neutral objectivity that are conceptualized and enforced by white editors and news executives. You can’t even convince commercial newsrooms in 2022 to fill out surveys that provide transparency into how equitable their newsrooms are.
There’s little reason to believe that much of this will change for the better in 2023, though some useful triage is possible. Nonprofit alternatives to commercial journalism, like the Baltimore Banner, Mississippi Today, and the Mississippi Free Press, will continue to distinguish themselves with their coverage of local communities. Also, my colleague at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, former Buffalo News Washington bureau chief Jerry Zremski, is doing brilliant work directing the college’s new Local News Network. Last fall, this outlet provided badly needed policy-centered and investigative reporting by student journalists on local and state elections in Maryland. But not every community has the resources necessary to sustain nonprofit journalism.
Also in the coming year, media researchers will continue to stress the need to replace game framing with a focus on what political developments mean for our democracy. They will highlight exemplars of democracy-centered framing, as we hit the start of the 2024 presidential campaign. But will political journalists resist democracy-centered framing as an unacceptable deviation from the troubled norm of objectivity?
Unions will keep pushing news organizations a little closer toward racial equity — even if that makes certain unnamed journalists who prefer that unions stay away from “broader cultural and social issues” uncomfortable. A valuable holiday gift for these unnamed journalists might be a copy of The Kerner Report, since Chapter 15 discusses at length how their industry directly relates to some very important social issues.
These are all important interventions, but the practice of journalism in the United States will continue to regress as long as what’s systemically rotten within the industry endures. And what’s rotten is commercialism — predatory and unchecked. Repairing the rot requires us to imagine a media system that isn’t centered nearly as much around profit motives — and then insist that our elected officials help to bring it about. We need this kind of imagination urgently, because any chance we have of building and sustaining a more equitable democratic society may rely on it.
Christoph Mergerson is an assistant professor in the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland.
Sometimes, things get worse before they get better.
New York Knicks point guard Micheal Ray Richardson (that’s how he spells his name) understood this. In 1981, he offered one of the most trenchant observations in the history of professional sports. When asked about the Knicks’ latest losing streak, Richardson said, “The ship be sinking.” When asked how bad things could get, he replied, “Sky’s the limit.”
The Knicks finished 16 games under .500 that season, but they did win a playoff series the following year. Which brings us back to the moral of this story: Sometimes, things get worse before they get better.
The same can be said of commercial journalism in the United States. Its current state is bad, and it will probably get worse in 2023. News outlets are slashing payrolls like horror movie villains, and one hedge fund appears to be fulfilling the terms of a reverse social contract in which they get everything by gutting local newsrooms and the public gets nothing.
Meanwhile, political journalists can’t shake their two-pack-a-day habit of publishing stories that use game framing, which political communication scholars Matthew P. Hitt and Kathleen Searles describe as frames that emphasize political strategy over policies and principles. So much political coverage focuses on who’s up, who’s down, who’s winning, and who’s losing — despite the knowledge, as media scholar Dannagal Young explains, that this kind of framing is hazardous to the health of our democracy.
And the promise of diversity, equity, and inclusion in commercial journalism that lasted for a season has both risen and set in the east, regressing to what the Carpenters once called a crescent noon — a dreary sun that provides no warmth. This sun does not shine for Black journalists who push back against the problematic conceptions of neutral objectivity that are conceptualized and enforced by white editors and news executives. You can’t even convince commercial newsrooms in 2022 to fill out surveys that provide transparency into how equitable their newsrooms are.
There’s little reason to believe that much of this will change for the better in 2023, though some useful triage is possible. Nonprofit alternatives to commercial journalism, like the Baltimore Banner, Mississippi Today, and the Mississippi Free Press, will continue to distinguish themselves with their coverage of local communities. Also, my colleague at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, former Buffalo News Washington bureau chief Jerry Zremski, is doing brilliant work directing the college’s new Local News Network. Last fall, this outlet provided badly needed policy-centered and investigative reporting by student journalists on local and state elections in Maryland. But not every community has the resources necessary to sustain nonprofit journalism.
Also in the coming year, media researchers will continue to stress the need to replace game framing with a focus on what political developments mean for our democracy. They will highlight exemplars of democracy-centered framing, as we hit the start of the 2024 presidential campaign. But will political journalists resist democracy-centered framing as an unacceptable deviation from the troubled norm of objectivity?
Unions will keep pushing news organizations a little closer toward racial equity — even if that makes certain unnamed journalists who prefer that unions stay away from “broader cultural and social issues” uncomfortable. A valuable holiday gift for these unnamed journalists might be a copy of The Kerner Report, since Chapter 15 discusses at length how their industry directly relates to some very important social issues.
These are all important interventions, but the practice of journalism in the United States will continue to regress as long as what’s systemically rotten within the industry endures. And what’s rotten is commercialism — predatory and unchecked. Repairing the rot requires us to imagine a media system that isn’t centered nearly as much around profit motives — and then insist that our elected officials help to bring it about. We need this kind of imagination urgently, because any chance we have of building and sustaining a more equitable democratic society may rely on it.
Christoph Mergerson is an assistant professor in the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland.
Jesse Holcomb Buffeted, whipped, bullied, pulled
Laxmi Parthasarathy Unlocking the silent demand for international journalism
Michael W. Wagner The backlash against pro-democracy reporting is coming
Juleyka Lantigua Newsrooms recognize women of color as the canaries in the coal mine
Gina Chua The traditional story structure gets deconstructed
Sumi Aggarwal Smart newsrooms will prioritize board development
Felicitas Carrique and Becca Aaronson News product goes from trend to standard
Alex Sujong Laughlin Credit where it’s due
Parker Molloy We’ll reach new heights of moral panic
Jarrad Henderson Video editing will help people understand the media they consume
Jacob L. Nelson Despite it all, people will still want to be journalists
Eric Nuzum A focus on people instead of power
Emily Nonko Incarcerated reporters get more bylines
Sue Schardt Toward a new poetics of journalism
Eric Ulken Generative AI brings wrongness at scale
Dana Lacey Tech will screw publishers over
Esther Kezia Thorpe Subscription pressures force product innovation
Eric Thurm Journalists think of themselves as workers
Raney Aronson-Rath Journalists will band together to fight intimidation
Delano Massey The industry shakes its imposter syndrome
Pia Frey Publishers start polling their users at scale
Kerri Hoffman Podcasting goes local
Moreno Cruz Osório Brazilian journalism turns wounds into action
Sam Gregory Synthetic media forces us to understand how media gets made
Joshua P. Darr Local to live, wire to wither
Jennifer Brandel AI couldn’t care less. Journalists will care more.
David Skok Renewed interest in human-powered reporting
Mael Vallejo More threats to press freedom across the Americas
Janet Haven ChatGPT and the future of trust
Nicholas Diakopoulos Journalists productively harness generative AI tools
Priyanjana Bengani Partisan local news networks will collaborate
Jessica Clark Open discourse retrenches
Victor Pickard The year journalism and capitalism finally divorce
Matt Rasnic More newsroom workers turn to organized labor
Ayala Panievsky It’s time for PR for journalism
S. Mitra Kalita “Everything sucks. Good luck to you.”
Khushbu Shah Global reporting will suffer
Anika Anand Independent news businesses lead the way on healthy work cultures
Nikki Usher This is the year of the RSS reader. (Really!)
Errin Haines Journalists on the campaign trail mend trust with the public
Joni Deutsch Podcast collaboration — not competition — breeds excellence
Anthony Nadler Confronting media gerrymandering
Francesco Zaffarano There is no end of “social media”
Sarah Marshall A web channel strategy won’t be enough
Sue Cross Thinking and acting collectively to save the news
Sue Robinson Engagement journalism will have to confront a tougher reality
Zizi Papacharissi Platforms are over
Rachel Glickhouse Humanizing newsrooms will be a badge of honor
Gordon Crovitz The year advertisers stop funding misinformation
Larry Ryckman We’ll work together with our competitors
Sarah Alvarez Dream bigger or lose out
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Well-being will become a core tenet of journalism
Ståle Grut Your newsroom experiences a Midjourney-gate, too
Ryan Nave Citizen journalism, but make it equitable
Ryan Kellett Airline-like loyalty programs try to tie down news readers
Leezel Tanglao Community partnerships drive better reporting
Jennifer Choi and Jonathan Jackson Funders finally bet on next-generation news entrepreneurs
Janelle Salanga Journalists work from a place of harm reduction
Julia Angwin Democracies will get serious about saving journalism
Rodney Gibbs Recalibrating how we work apart
Alex Perry New paths to transparency without Twitter
Danielle K. Brown and Kathleen Searles DEI efforts must consider mental health and online abuse
Upasna Gautam Technology that performs at the speed of news
Surya Mattu Data journalists learn from photojournalists
Kaitlyn Wells We’ll prioritize media literacy for children
Megan Lucero and Shirish Kulkarni The future of journalism is not you
Richard Tofel The press might get better at vetting presidential candidates
Don Day The news about the news is bad. I’m optimistic.
Elizabeth Bramson-Boudreau More of the same
Taylor Lorenz The “creator economy” will be astroturfed
Shanté Cosme The answer to “quiet quitting” is radical empathy
An Xiao Mina Journalism in a time of permacrisis
Wilson Liévano Diaspora journalism takes the next step
Josh Schwartz The AI spammers are coming
Bill Grueskin Local news will come to rely on AI
Alexandra Borchardt The year of the climate journalism strategy
Ben Werdmuller The internet is up for grabs again
Bill Adair The year of the fact-check (no, really!)
Emma Carew Grovum The year to resist forgetting about diversity
Simon Galperin Philanthropy stops investing in corporate media
Cindy Royal Yes, journalists should learn to code, but…
Ariel Zirulnick Journalism doubles down on user needs
Hillary Frey Death to the labor-intensive memo for prospective hires
Peter Bale Rising costs force more digital innovation
Doris Truong Workers demand to be paid what the job is worth
Karina Montoya More reporters on the antitrust beat
Alan Henry A reckoning with why trust in news is so low
Brian Moritz Rebuilding the news bundle
Michael Schudson Journalism gets more and more difficult
Sam Guzik AI will start fact-checking. We may not like the results.
Elite Truong In platform collapse, an opportunity for community
Nicholas Thompson The year AI actually changes the media business
Al Lucca Digital news design gets interesting again
Nicholas Jackson There will be launches — and we’ll keep doing the work
Cassandra Etienne Local news fellowships will help fight newsroom inequities
John Davidow A year of intergenerational learning
J. Siguru Wahutu American journalism reckons with its colonialist tendencies
Mario García More newsrooms go mobile-first
Kirstin McCudden We’ll codify protection of journalism and newsgathering
Joanne McNeil Facebook and the media kiss and make up
Ryan Gantz “I’m sorry, but I’m a large language model”
Sarah Stonbely Growth in public funding for news and information at the state and local levels
Jaden Amos TikTok personality journalists continue to rise
Christoph Mergerson The rot at the core of the news business
Cari Nazeer and Emily Goligoski News organizations step up their support for caregivers
Stefanie Murray The year U.S. media stops screwing around and becomes pro-democracy
Tamar Charney Flux is the new stability
Dannagal G. Young Stop rewarding elite performances of identity threat
Andrew Losowsky Journalism realizes the replacement for Twitter is not a new Twitter
Snigdha Sur Newsrooms get nimble in a recession
Lisa Heyamoto The independent news industry gets a roadmap to sustainability
Paul Cheung More news organizations will realize they are in the business of impact, not eyeballs
Jenna Weiss-Berman The economic downturn benefits the podcasting industry. (No, really!)
Mary Walter-Brown and Tristan Loper Mission-driven metrics become our North Star
Cory Bergman The AI content flood
Laura E. Davis The year we embrace the robots — and ourselves
Joe Amditis AI throws a lifeline to local publishers
Tim Carmody Newsletter writers need a new ethics
David Cohn AI made this prediction
Eric Holthaus As social media fragments, marginalized voices gain more power
Sarabeth Berman Nonprofit local news shows that it can scale
Barbara Raab More journalism funders will take more risks
Anita Varma Journalism prioritizes the basic need for survival
Jody Brannon We’ll embrace policy remedies
Kavya Sukumar Belling the cat: The rise of independent fact-checking at scale
Jonas Kaiser Rejecting the “free speech” frame
Basile Simon Towards supporting criminal accountability
Andrew Donohue We’ll find out whether journalism can, indeed, save democracy
Amy Schmitz Weiss Journalism education faces a crossroads
Walter Frick Journalists wake up to the power of prediction markets
Mauricio Cabrera It’s no longer about audiences, it’s about communities
Amethyst J. Davis The slight of the great contraction
A.J. Bauer Covering the right wrong
Masuma Ahuja Journalism starts working for and with its communities
Christina Shih Shared values move from nice-to-haves to essentials
Anna Nirmala News organizations get new structures
Tre'vell Anderson Continued culpability in anti-trans campaigns
Brian Stelter Finding new ways to reach news avoiders
Dominic-Madori Davis Everyone finally realizes the need for diverse voices in tech reporting
Peter Sterne AI enters the newsroom
Mar Cabra The inevitable mental health revolution
Johannes Klingebiel The innovation team, R.I.P.
Susan Chira Equipping local journalism
Kaitlin C. Miller Harassment in journalism won’t get better, but we’ll talk about it more openly
Alexandra Svokos Working harder to reach audiences where they are
Jim VandeHei There is no “peak newsletter”
Jim Friedlich Local journalism steps up to the challenge of civic coverage
Jakob Moll Journalism startups will think beyond English
Julia Beizer News fatigue shows us a clear path forward
Kathy Lu We need emotionally agile newsroom leaders
Mariana Moura Santos A woman who speaks is a woman who changes the world
Martina Efeyini Talk to Gen Z. They’re the experts of Gen Z.
Molly de Aguiar and Mandy Van Deven Narrative change trend brings new money to journalism
Gabe Schneider Well-funded journalism leaders stop making disparate pay
Burt Herman The year AI truly arrives — and with it the reckoning
Daniel Trielli Trust in news will continue to fall. Just look at Brazil.
Jessica Maddox Journalists keep getting manipulated by internet culture