We’re in an era of wicked problems around the world: the rise of authoritarianism regimes, deepening political polarization, and of course, the wickedest of all, climate change.
The term “wicked problem” was introduced in 1973 by two design theorists who used it to refer to problems that become so complex their boundaries and interdependencies become too difficult to define, rendering them inherently unsolvable. Poverty, education, environmental policy, public health, and war are all examples.
You can imagine some of the wicked problems of journalism: a sustainable business model for local news; our polluted information ecosystem; the ongoing work in how we think about our role in communities. What makes wicked problems uniquely difficult is that there are many overlapping stakeholders with different perspectives, making it harder to tease out causes and effects. They are also relentless, and can’t be solved with just a single action.
It’s impossible to think about these problems in a vacuum. They exist in a broader context of technological disruption, declining trust in institutions, fractured audiences, shifting power structures, and a president who tries to delegitimize factual and fair reporting.
It’s darkest before dawn, and in 2020, all of this will get worse before it gets better.
Another defining characteristic of wicked problems is that they “arise from unanticipated, uncertain, and unclear futures.” That means it’s less about taking corrective actions and learning through feedback, but instead about constantly scanning for weak signals to envision the way forward. What glimmer of change in one area might affect another?
One glimmer is The Salt Lake Tribune becoming a nonprofit community asset — the first successful attempt by a legacy U.S. daily to do so. When it comes to our polluted information ecosystem, we’ve barely begun to understand the actual problem of mis- and disinformation, realizing social networks are actually working just as intended. There’s progress in our collective action though — from being mindful about amplification when it comes to hateful speech, to not naming mass shooters in certain cases, and the idea of complicating the narrative.
And finally, the backlash toward the Northwestern student journalists. In addressing the criticism, Troy Closson, the editor-in-chief, noted his role as one of only a few black editors in chief in the paper’s history: “Being in this role and balancing our coverage and the role of this paper on campus with my racial identity — and knowing how our paper has historically failed students of color, and particularly black students, has been incredibly challenging to navigate.” Some of our best and brightest young minds are thinking about the potential harms of their coverage, showing a nuanced, sensitive, and empathetic understanding of their role and power in their communities — and that’s a good thing, stumbles and all.
It will get harder before it gets easier. But there’s hope, because I believe in people and the capacity to continue to change and adapt to even the most wicked problems.
Millie Tran is the deputy off-platform editor at The New York Times.
We’re in an era of wicked problems around the world: the rise of authoritarianism regimes, deepening political polarization, and of course, the wickedest of all, climate change.
The term “wicked problem” was introduced in 1973 by two design theorists who used it to refer to problems that become so complex their boundaries and interdependencies become too difficult to define, rendering them inherently unsolvable. Poverty, education, environmental policy, public health, and war are all examples.
You can imagine some of the wicked problems of journalism: a sustainable business model for local news; our polluted information ecosystem; the ongoing work in how we think about our role in communities. What makes wicked problems uniquely difficult is that there are many overlapping stakeholders with different perspectives, making it harder to tease out causes and effects. They are also relentless, and can’t be solved with just a single action.
It’s impossible to think about these problems in a vacuum. They exist in a broader context of technological disruption, declining trust in institutions, fractured audiences, shifting power structures, and a president who tries to delegitimize factual and fair reporting.
It’s darkest before dawn, and in 2020, all of this will get worse before it gets better.
Another defining characteristic of wicked problems is that they “arise from unanticipated, uncertain, and unclear futures.” That means it’s less about taking corrective actions and learning through feedback, but instead about constantly scanning for weak signals to envision the way forward. What glimmer of change in one area might affect another?
One glimmer is The Salt Lake Tribune becoming a nonprofit community asset — the first successful attempt by a legacy U.S. daily to do so. When it comes to our polluted information ecosystem, we’ve barely begun to understand the actual problem of mis- and disinformation, realizing social networks are actually working just as intended. There’s progress in our collective action though — from being mindful about amplification when it comes to hateful speech, to not naming mass shooters in certain cases, and the idea of complicating the narrative.
And finally, the backlash toward the Northwestern student journalists. In addressing the criticism, Troy Closson, the editor-in-chief, noted his role as one of only a few black editors in chief in the paper’s history: “Being in this role and balancing our coverage and the role of this paper on campus with my racial identity — and knowing how our paper has historically failed students of color, and particularly black students, has been incredibly challenging to navigate.” Some of our best and brightest young minds are thinking about the potential harms of their coverage, showing a nuanced, sensitive, and empathetic understanding of their role and power in their communities — and that’s a good thing, stumbles and all.
It will get harder before it gets easier. But there’s hope, because I believe in people and the capacity to continue to change and adapt to even the most wicked problems.
Millie Tran is the deputy off-platform editor at The New York Times.
Emily Withrow The year we kill the news article
Hossein Derakhshan AI can’t conjure up an Errol Morris
Jeff Kofman Speed through technology
Alexandra Borchardt Get out of the office and talk to people
Nicholas Jackson What’s left of local gets comfortable with reader support
Felix Salmon Spotify launches a news channel
Don Day Respect the non-paying audience
Tom Glaisyer Journalism can emerge newly vibrant and powerful
Joni Deutsch Podcasting unsilences the silent
Geneva Overholser Death to bothsidesism
Sarah Schmalbach Journalist, quantify thyself
Helen Havlak Platforms shine a light on original reporting
Joe Amditis Collaborative journalism takes its rightful place at the table
Catalina Albeanu Rebuilding journalism, together
Tamar Charney From broadcast to bespoke
Nushin Rashidian Are platforms a bridge or a lifeline?
Alice Antheaume Trade “politics” for “power”
Steve Henn The dawning audio web
Anthony Nadler Clash of Clans: Election Edition
Meredith Artley Stronger solidarity among news organizations
Kourtney Bitterly Transparency isn’t just a desire, it’s an expectation
Nathalie Malinarich Betting on loyalty
Linda Solomon Wood Everyone in your organization, moving toward a common goal
Carl Bialik Journalists will try running the whole shop
Mario García Think small (screen)
Jeremy Olshan All journalism should be service journalism
Jasmine McNealy A call for context
Heather Bryant Some kinds of journalism aren’t worth saving
A.J. Bauer A fork in the road for conservative media
Ben Werdmuller Use the tools of journalism to save it
Cory Haik We’re already consuming the future of news — now we have to produce it
Eric Nuzum Podcasting finally creates another mega-hit show
Ernie Smith The death of the industry fad
Whitney Phillips A time to question core beliefs
Jake Shapiro Podcasting gets listener relationship management
Errin Haines Race and gender aren’t a 2020 story — they’re the story
Mary Walter-Brown and Tristan Loper Power to the people (on your audience team)
Monica Drake A renewed focus on misinformation
Sarah Stonbely More people start caring about news inequality
Madelyn Sanfilippo and Yafit Lev-Aretz News coverage gets geo-fragmented
Seth C. Lewis 20 questions for 2020
Meg Marco Everything happens somewhere
M. Scott Havens First-party data becomes media’s most important currency
Rachel Schallom The value of push alerts goes beyond open rates
Sonali Prasad Climate change storytelling gets multidimensional
Fiona Spruill The climate crisis gets the coverage it deserves
Imaeyen Ibanga Let’s take it slow
Dan Shanoff Sports media enters the Bronny era
Alana Levinson Brand-backed media gets another look
Kerri Hoffman Opening closed systems
Nico Gendron Make better products if you want to reach Gen Z
Logan Molyneux and Shannon McGregor Think twice before turning to Twitter
Zizi Papacharissi A president leads, the press follows, reality fades
Alfred Hermida and Mary Lynn Young The promise of nonprofit journalism
Bill Grueskin Our ethics codes get an overhaul
Craig Newmark Formalizing newsrooms’ battle against disinformation
Greg Emerson News apps fall further behind
Richard Tofel A constraint of the reader-revenue model emerges
Simon Galperin Journalism becomes more democratic
AX Mina The Forum we wanted, the forum we got
Matthew Pressman News consumers divide into haves and have-nots
Sara K. Baranowski A big year for little newspapers
J. Siguru Wahutu Western journalists, learn from your African peers
Gordon Crovitz Fighting misinformation requires journalism, not secret algorithms
Bill Adair A Nobel Prize, a Brad Pitt film, and a Taylor Swift song
Margarita Noriega The platforms try to figure out what to do with single-subject newsrooms
Raney Aronson-Rath News deserts will proliferate — but so will new solutions
Masuma Ahuja Slower, quieter, more measured and thoughtful
Tonya Mosley The neutrality vs. objectivity game ends
Colleen Shalby Journalists become media literacy teachers
Kristen Muller The year we operationalize community engagement
Sarah Marshall The year to learn about news moments
Ståle Grut OSINT journalism goes mainstream
Pablo Boczkowski The day after November 4
Carrie Brown-Smith Engaged journalism: It’s finally happening
Mariana Moura Santos The future of journalism is collaborative
Elizabeth Dunbar Frank talk, and then action
Joanne McNeil A return to blogs (finally? sort of?)
Cindy Royal Prepare media students for skills, not job titles
Mike Caulfield Native verification tools for the blue checkmark crowd
Jonas Kaiser Russian bots are just today’s slacktivists
Christa Scharfenberg It’s time to make journalism a field that supports and respects women
Jim Brady We’ll complain about other people living in bubbles while ignoring our own
Elizabeth Hansen and Jesse Holcomb Local news initiatives run into a capital shortage
Stefanie Murray Charitable giving goes collaborative
John Garrett It’s the best time in a century to start a local news organization
Sue Robinson Campaign coverage as test bed for engagement experiments
Tanya Cordrey Saying no to more good ideas
Juleyka Lantigua A changing industry amps up podcasters’ ambitions
Peter Bale Lies get further normalized
Jeremy Gilbert and Jarrod Dicker A call for collaboration between storytelling and tech
Candis Callison Taking a cue from Indigenous journalists on climate change
Heidi Tworek The year of positive pushback
Brenda P. Salinas Treating MP3 files like text
Kevin D. Grant The free press stands against authoritarians’ attacks on truth
Brian Moritz The end of “stick to sports”
Rick Berke Incoming fire from both left and right
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen The business we want, not the business we had
Rachel Glickhouse Journalists get left behind in the industry’s decline
Annie Rudd The expanded ambiguity of the news photograph
Doris Truong The year of radical salary transparency
Knight Foundation Five generations of journalists, learning from each other
S. Mitra Kalita The race to 2021
Michael W. Wagner Increasingly fractured, but little bit deliberative
Mira Lowe The year of student-powered journalism
Cristina Kim Public media stops trying to serve “everybody”
Monique Judge The year to organize, unionize, and fight
Jennifer Brandel A love letter from the year 2073
Laura E. Davis Know the context your journalism is operating within
Lauren Duca The rise of the journalistic influencer
Talia Stroud The work of reconnecting starts November 4
Moreno Cruz Osório In Brazil, collaboration in a time of state attacks
Joshua P. Darr All that campaign cash will make the media’s problems worse
Barbara Gray Join local libraries on the frontlines of civic engagement
Logan Jaffe You don’t need fancy tools to listen
Francesco Zaffarano TikTok without generational prejudice
Josh Schwartz Publishers move beyond the metered paywall
Beena Raghavendran The year of the local engagement reporter
Lucas Graves A smarter conversation about how (and why) fact-checking matters
Rachel Davis Mersey The business of local TV news will enter its downward slide
Matt DeRienzo Local broadcasters begin to fill the gaps left by newspapers
Kathleen Searles Pay more attention to attention
Sarah Alvarez I’m ready for post-news
Victor Pickard We reclaim a public good
Julia B. Chan We 👏 take 👏 breaks 👏
John Keefe Journalism gets hacked
Dannagal G. Young Let’s disrupt the logic that’s driving Americans apart
Irving Washington Leadership isn’t something you learn on the job