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What audiences really want: For journalists to connect with them as people
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What audiences really want: For journalists to connect with them as people
Plus: How newsrooms are using generative AI, what makes news seem authentic on social media, and how to bridge the divide between academics and journalists.
By Mark Coddington and Seth Lewis
When the winner’s name isn’t enough: How the AP is leaning into explanatory journalism to call races
“We’ve learned, especially in the last few cycles, that it’s not necessarily possible or a good idea to let [the electoral] process play out in silence.”
By Neel Dhanesha
Votebeat assembles nearly 100 election experts to answer reporters’ questions (now, and in the weeks ahead)
“The problem with voting stories is that the people who make themselves most available don’t know what the hell they’re talking about.”
By Sarah Scire
Student journalists, filling local news gaps, step up to cover the 2024 election
The Center for Community News at the University of Vermont is leading “the first nationally coordinated effort to strengthen university-led election coverage.”
By Sophie Culpepper
The Washington Post isn’t alone: Roughly 3/4 of major American newspapers aren’t endorsing anyone for president this year
Led by risk-averse corporate owners, dozens of the biggest U.S. newspapers have decided their editorials should express opinions on everything except who should be president.
By Joshua Benton
10 years after Serial: Nieman Lab looks at crime news now
In our package: Digital news outlets reimagine the crime beat; TikTok creators balance ethics and money; public radio stations see more true crime in their future; AI might reshape court reporting.
By Laura Hazard Owen
Why criminal courts are still a black box for data journalists
Testify’s groundbreaking investigations in Cleveland show the power of computational methods in courthouse reporting. Why, then, are its stories so hard to replicate?
By Andrew Deck
Is the crime news people crave the crime news they need?
“We need to better understand what people mean when they say ‘safety.’”
By Sophie Culpepper
The Washington Post’s non-endorsement led to record-breaking weeks at other news orgs
The Philadelphia Inquirer had its best week for new subscriptions ever and The Guardian U.S. broke its single-day fundraising record — twice.
By Sarah Scire
In a saturated true crime landscape, some content creators try to focus on victims and survivors
“[Families] know it’s way quicker to get a story out through me than through Univision and Telemundo.”
By Hanaa' Tameez
In 2020, talk of “defunding the crime beat.” Where are we four years later?
“Sometimes as journalists, we move around with an attitude that the community is just not going to [understand] us….I think that’s a huge obstacle to being able to do this better.”
By Sarah Scire
The future of true crime sounds like…public radio?
Amid the downturn in audio, some executives think the public radio model — with a dash of true crime — might provide a way forward.
By Neel Dhanesha
Why do broadcast journalists look and talk the way they do? Look to the imagined audience.
I interviewed dozens of journalists and reviewed decades of research on how audiences evaluate journalists’ on-air presentation.
By Elia Powers
Medill’s 2024 State of Local News report expands what it qualifies as local news — and asks readers to point out what it missed
This year’s report documents “network local news sites” like Patch and Axios Local for the first time.
By Sophie Culpepper
What audiences really want: For journalists to connect with them as people
Plus: How newsrooms are using generative AI, what makes news seem authentic on social media, and how to bridge the divide between academics and journalists.
By Mark Coddington and Seth Lewis
When the winner’s name isn’t enough: How the AP is leaning into explanatory journalism to call races
“We’ve learned, especially in the last few cycles, that it’s not necessarily possible or a good idea to let [the electoral] process play out in silence.”
Votebeat assembles nearly 100 election experts to answer reporters’ questions (now, and in the weeks ahead)
“The problem with voting stories is that the people who make themselves most available don’t know what the hell they’re talking about.”
What We’re Reading
New York Times / Benjamin Mullin
Trump Bump 2.0? Experts expect another surge, with caveats.
“David Clinch, a revenue consultant for Media Growth Partners, a media advisory firm, said he thought news organizations would see another uptick in customers, but that it would be more muted than in the first Trump administration, because some readers have become fed up with or exhausted by mainstream news coverage.”
Nieman Lab / Joshua Benton
What would Project 2025 do for (or to) journalism?
“The federal government can intersect with any part of the journalism process — from how stories get reported to the platforms they’re distributed on to the business models that pay the bills. What does Project 2025 have in mind for an institution it doesn’t seem to have much affection for?”
CNN / Brian Stelter
Trump and the hard truth
“Will there be another ‘Trump bump’ of viewers and subscribers, or will the opposite happen?…As Kristen Welker asked on NBC’s overnight coverage, ‘Will he go after his political rivals, legally? What specifically does that look like?’…Will news organizations have the resources to defend against legal, digital and physical threats?”
Reuters / Michelle Conlin
Thousands of election gamblers anticipate betting jackpot after Trump win
“Two of the largest of the prediction exchanges, crypto-fueled, offshore Polymarket which sells contracts to overseas bettors and U.S.-based Kalshi which serves U.S. residents, together ended up with a purse of about $450 million as of Tuesday evening, according to data from the companies.”
404 Media / Joseph Cox
Voted in America? This site doxed you
“Voting rolls are public records, and ways to more readily access them are not new. But during a time of intense division, political violence, or even the broader threat of data being used to dox or harass anyone, sites like VoteRef turn a vital part of the democratic process—simply voting—into a security and privacy threat.”
The Atlantic / Charlie Warzel
X is a white-supremacist site
“As I was preparing to write this story, I visited some of the most vile corners of the internet. I’ve monitored these spaces for years, and yet this time, I was struck by how little distance there was between them and what X has become. It is impossible to ignore: The difference between X and a known hateful site such as Gab are people like myself….We are the human shield of respectability that keeps Musk’s disastrous $44 billion investment from being little more than an algorithmically powered Stormfront.”
Columbia Journalism Review / Jon Allsop
At war, because we’re at work
“Already, there is chatter among some observers that the heightened mass outrage and interest of Trump’s first term—which drove eyeballs and subscriptions to organizations producing hard-hitting journalism, and energized the journalism itself—won’t be repeated this time; that exhaustion and apathy might reign instead. If that is indeed to be the case, then it will pose some very sharp questions for the business of news—or rather, intensify questions we’re already grappling with.”
The Hollywood Reporter / Georg Szalai
The U.K. government wants regulatory oversight news site mergers, as it already does over TV, radio, and print mergers
“The changes would allow for ‘greater scrutiny in the public interest’ of deals that include the purchase of U.K. online news publications and news magazines ‘that might adversely impact accurate reporting, freedom of expression and media plurality.'”
Press Gazette / Charlotte Tobitt
News organizations are forced to accept Google AI crawlers, says FT policy chief
“Matt Rogerson, director of global public policy and platform strategy at the FT and former Guardian Media Group director of public policy, argued that Google’s “social contract” with publishers — through which it provided value to the industry by sending traffic to their sites — has been broken.”
Axios / Sara Fischer
How Trump’s second term could target media with bullying tactics
“Are there political levers the former president could pull to target media companies he doesn’t like? Yes. But harassment campaigns and lawsuits that drain companies of time, money, resources and trust are much easier and can be just as punitive.”
Nieman Lab is a project to try to help figure out where the news is headed in the Internet age. Sign up for The Digest, our daily email with all the freshest future-of-journalism news.