For too long, media companies have slashed newsroom jobs and replaced hard-hitting journalism with celebrity gossip, sensational crime stories and pay-for-play content. They defended these decisions by arguing that they were just giving the people what they want.
The latest “State of the News Media” report from the Pew Research Center suggests otherwise. One third of the people Pew surveyed say they have abandoned a news organization because of the declining quality of news.
However, this is a two-way street. When I talk to people about the media in their communities, they tell me that they are the ones who have been left behind.
They feel abandoned by TV and radio stations that were granted access to the public airwaves in exchange for serving the public interest. They feel abandoned by the policymakers who fail to pressure media outlets to fulfill this commitment. They feel abandoned by news outlets that show more political ads than actual political reporting. They feel abandoned by the newspapers that cover only those communities whose demographics will sell ads.
The data in Pew’s report resonates with years of anecdotal evidence, and it should put a nail in the coffin of the media companies’ refrain that they’re “just giving people what they want.”
The Poynter Institute’s Bill Mitchell saw this coming. During a year-long fellowship at Harvard’s Shorenstein Center, he wrote a paper calling on news organizations to adopt a user-first approach to journalism.
“The best prospects for sustaining journalism in the future are rooted in the most important stakeholders of its past and present,” he wrote, “that collection of readers, viewers and listeners also known as users.” At the time, he called for an “intervention” at the ground level in local communities.
The new data suggests that the time for such an intervention is here. According to Pew, the future of news organizations will likely hinge on their ability to provide the kind of quality reporting that people want. Newsrooms need to renew their connections to their communities, rethink what it means to serve the public and rebuild their capacity for the kind of quality content that will bring people back.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
Last week, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy