PEOPLE THINKING ABOUT THE NEWS
As news and newsrooms evolve, sometimes they become the story, or a beat. Below are some places to read about current journalism trends in context:
The Columbia Journalism Review does a wonderful job in its magazine and online issues of reporting on the news and stepping back to look at the big picture.
Editor&Publisher is one of the longest-running trade publications covering the news industry.
NPR's award-winning series "On the Media"
covers and clarifies issues in the news. In this episode, the show analyzes the outing of astronaut Sally Ride in stories about her death, asking what and how much detail obits should include.
David Folkenflick at NPR provides insightful analysis about the news media.
DATA
A wealth of information—data, analyses, future-thinking—comes courtesy of people and organizations who are serious about journalism's mission. Here's a sample:
The American Press Institute offers lots of resources, including data and thought pieces such as one on the role of journalists and another on source diversity.
The Pew Research Center's State of the News Media features fact sheets about particular segments of the industry, such as podcasting, tv news and digital news. You can find solid research and analysis about what's going on in the news industry—presented in an accessible, intelligent way. Pew also provides access to lots of information, for example under the Tools and Resources tab.
The Poynter Institute offers news, resources and events for journalists, journalism students and journalism educators—like this tab on fact checking and this section on "Tech and Tools."
The Reuters Institute posts an annual Digital News Report that looks at how and why people in the U.S. and around the world use digital media. It has interactive elements where you can look at specific data they gathered and break them down by country, among other features.
News About the News
Election Coverage
Going into the election season of 2024, The Citizens Agenda collaborative ˚again called for an audience-centered approach to election coverage—asking people what they want reporters to cover in the election and then focusing on those, moving away from typical horserace coverage. Jay Rosen, an NYU journalism professor, calls it focusing on the “stakes” not the “odds.” Here’s how The Durango Herald puts it in practice, and this piece in The Colorado Sun shows the types of responses that people provide.
As they describe their election coverage process to readers, editors are providing both transparency and a good description of what they see as their public duty, including their approach to accuracy, mis/disinformation and “both-sides-ism.” Jon Ralston, editor and CEO of The Nevada Independent, says his team is “guided by accountability journalism.” Chris Quinn, editor of cleveland.com/The Plain Dealer, says of his newsroom, “The north star here is truth. We tell the truth even when it offends some of the people who pay us for information.” An update to the column links to a sample of the thousands of reader responses to it.
In response to critics who say the media aren’t adequately covering the stakes of the election, Erik Wemple, the Washington Post media critic has compiled a lengthy list of news stories and commentary that illustrates the breadth of media organizations’ coverage.
News Deserts
News deserts are places in the country where there’s no local news. In some cases, like in rural areas, that’s because there’s not enough advertising and/or readership to pay for it. Other times, a media chain buys up the local news outlet and simply sends its non-local content through it, offering no local reporting of, say, the school board meeting or mayor’s decisions.
The State of Local News Project at Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism offers a map where you can check news deserts in communities across the nation, including yours. Its posts cover a good mix of topics like solutions to the problem, interviews and continuing coverage of news deserts themselves.
The Post and Courier based in Charleston, South Carolina, collaborated with smaller news outlets across the state in its “Uncovered” series on government corruption, which is a cool idea: a big newspaper helps out smaller ones by collaborating on an important series. One article talks about news deserts and, using local examples, the impact on a community if there are no watchdogging journalists. This investigative piece is from the series. The links at the bottom provide a wealth of further information. The Post and Courier is owned by Evening Post Industries, which also publishes several other South Carolina newspapers, so it’s a statewide chain. EPI is owned by Courier Square, and their portfolio includes real estate and marinas in the state.
This Los Angeles Times series is paywall protected, but the promotion page shows a good range of topics, and if you have access through school or subscription, it’s worth visiting.