Nieman Lab.
Predictions for
Journalism, 2024.
The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism found recently that more people turn to social media platforms for news than news websites.
For many journalists, this sounds like yet another dire blow to the industry.
But it could also be an opportunity — if we take it.
For me, investigative reporting serves the highest ideals of journalism. It appeals to my belief that if you shed light on an injustice, you can make a difference. I believe that readers and viewers want to know the truth, and armed with that, they will demand that things change.
And it often works that way.
But in today’s noisy and crowded information ecosystem, we have to work to make sure the public finds our work. That means we must reach them where they are and in ways that appeal to them.
We must accept that the beautifully written 10,000-word piece will only reach certain kinds of audiences — those most willing to sit at a desktop and take the time necessary to read it. Those are not stories that are meant for mobile or young news consumers. The audiences for those prestige pieces inherently skew older, more affluent and let’s face it, traditional white and North American readers.
But if we want to reach impacted communities — as many news outlets say they do — we must think beyond that traditional website reader. In fact, we have to accept that our “readers” might not be readers at all. We have to innovate and find ways to deliver investigative reporting and findings in ways that will be meaningful to our audiences and help create new relationships with news consumers and newsrooms.
This doesn’t simply mean finding a young staffer to “translate” investigative stories to TikTok. It means we have to think outside of our conventional distribution channels. It could look like trying to book reporters on diaspora AM talk radio shows that have trust with their communities, creating WhatsApp stories that can be serialized over several days, renting billboards and bus ads, or partnering with influencers to share findings. As we experiment and measure effectiveness, we will develop new playbooks and most importantly, new audiences.
The possibilities are endless, if we’re willing to take up the challenge.
Sumi Aggarwal is the chief strategy officer at The Intercept.
The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism found recently that more people turn to social media platforms for news than news websites.
For many journalists, this sounds like yet another dire blow to the industry.
But it could also be an opportunity — if we take it.
For me, investigative reporting serves the highest ideals of journalism. It appeals to my belief that if you shed light on an injustice, you can make a difference. I believe that readers and viewers want to know the truth, and armed with that, they will demand that things change.
And it often works that way.
But in today’s noisy and crowded information ecosystem, we have to work to make sure the public finds our work. That means we must reach them where they are and in ways that appeal to them.
We must accept that the beautifully written 10,000-word piece will only reach certain kinds of audiences — those most willing to sit at a desktop and take the time necessary to read it. Those are not stories that are meant for mobile or young news consumers. The audiences for those prestige pieces inherently skew older, more affluent and let’s face it, traditional white and North American readers.
But if we want to reach impacted communities — as many news outlets say they do — we must think beyond that traditional website reader. In fact, we have to accept that our “readers” might not be readers at all. We have to innovate and find ways to deliver investigative reporting and findings in ways that will be meaningful to our audiences and help create new relationships with news consumers and newsrooms.
This doesn’t simply mean finding a young staffer to “translate” investigative stories to TikTok. It means we have to think outside of our conventional distribution channels. It could look like trying to book reporters on diaspora AM talk radio shows that have trust with their communities, creating WhatsApp stories that can be serialized over several days, renting billboards and bus ads, or partnering with influencers to share findings. As we experiment and measure effectiveness, we will develop new playbooks and most importantly, new audiences.
The possibilities are endless, if we’re willing to take up the challenge.
Sumi Aggarwal is the chief strategy officer at The Intercept.
