Algorithms will take their place as editorial tools that support the ethics and values of journalism — not just ways of getting people to listen more, read more, and share our stuff more.
Sure it’s easy to give people what they want in the moment and keep them glued to our content. Just like we humans love a big vat of caramelized popcorn, who doesn’t like stories that represent how we “want” to see the world? Ooo, yummy. At least until you feel sick. This last year of fake news and false narratives brought a wave of nausea to the public and to the media about the dark side of the promise of personalization algorithms.
More and more, we’re getting comments from NPR One listeners along the lines of “I don’t want personalization, I want the news.” My answer is, that’s exactly what we are using personalization algorithms to do.
These algorithms are our modern editorial tools. We need them to control the distribution of our stories.
At NPR One, we use them to make sure our listeners are getting the most up-to-date and relevant stories every time they listen. What do you use yours for? As editorial leaders, we should have a hand in deciding how we will use personalization and to what end. This is the year to be clear about what that end is and make sure our audiences know.
We can bring the same editorial integrity and values to this tool as we do any other tool of the journalistic trade. NPR, like The Washington Post and even Snap, have started using algorithms and personalization to make sure people are getting an expansive view. Instead of only giving people more of the things they like, we can use personalization to bring them multiple points of view or even updates and corrections to things they’ve seen or heard. It’s heartening to see more calls for being responsible and transparent about how we use personalization algorithms so that we hang onto the public’s trust in journalism.
These tools are only going to be a larger force in how we deliver our stories, and this is the year where there should be a wider focus on using personalization to inform, educate, and foster common understanding.
Tamar Charney is managing editor of NPR One.
Amy King Let’s amplify visual voice
Vanessa K. DeLuca Women’s voices take center stage
Kawandeep Virdee Zines had it right all along
Millie Tran and Stine Bauer Dahlberg (Hint: It’s about your brand)
Ruth Palmer Risks will grow for news subjects — especially minorities
Michael Kuntz The only pivot that might work
Raju Narisetti Mirror, mirror on the wall
Betsy O'Donovan and Melody Kramer Skepticism and narcissism
Hossein Derakhshan Television has won
Joyce Barnathan It will be harder to bury the news
Andrew Ramsammy The year ownership mattered
Evie Nagy Pivot to mobile video frustration
Vivian Schiller Pivot to tomorrow
Miguel Castro The arrival of the impact producer
Matt Carlson Attacks on the press will get worse
Mariano Blejman News games rule
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Seeking trust in fragmented spaces
Christopher Meighan Passive partnership is in the rearview
Andrew Losowsky The year of resilience
Marie Gilot No assholes allowed
Mira Lowe The year of the local watchdog
Pablo Boczkowski The rise of skeptical reading
Alastair Coote The year of self-improvement
Jessica Parker Gilbert Design connects storytelling and strategy
Raney Aronson-Rath Transparency is the antidote to fake news
Damon Krukowski Reviving the alt-weekly soul
Hannah Cassius The year of the echo-chamber escapists
Dheerja Kaur Fun with subscription products
Rubina Madan Fillion Unlocking the potential of AI
Matt Boggie The intellectual equivalent of the Dead Sea
Kyle Ellis Let’s build our way out of this
Claire Wardle Disinformation gets worse
Corey Ford The empire strikes back
Matt DeRienzo A recession, then a collapse
Mary Meehan Real lives are at stake in rural areas
Edward Roussel Eyes, ears, and brains
Carrie Brown-Smith Transparency finally takes off
Doris Truong Computer vision vs. the Internet vigilantes
Taylor Lorenz Social and media will split
Emma Carew Grovum Newsroom culture becomes a priority
Gordon Crovitz Serving readers over advertisers
Basile Simon We need better career paths for news nerds
Sarah Marshall Loyalty as the key performance indicator
Sally Lehrman Trust comes first
Manoush Zomorodi Self-help as a publishing strategy
Heather Bryant Building the ecosystems for collaboration
Emily Goligoski Looking beyond news for inspiration
Mary Walter-Brown Show a little vulnerability
Laura E. Davis Writing answers before you know the question
Cristina Wilson The year of the Instagram Story
Justin Kosslyn The year journalists become digital security experts
Lucas Graves From algorithms to institutions
Eric Ulken The year local publishers get smart(er) about change
Nikki Usher The year of The Washington Post
Feli Sánchez The year for guerrilla user research
David Skok Finding an information-life balance
Francesco Marconi The year of machine-to-machine journalism
Michelle Ferrier The year of the great reckoning
Mi-Ai Parrish Blockchain and trust
Kim Fox Audience teams diversify their approach
Borja Echevarría TV goes digital, digital goes TV
Julia Beizer A longer view on the pivot
Alfred Hermida Going beyond mobile-first
Debra Adams Simmons And a woman shall lead them
Ståle Grut Reclaiming audience interaction from social networks
Julia B. Chan Looking for loyalty in all the right places
Will Sommer The year local media gets conservative
C.W. Anderson The social media apocalypse
Niketa Patel Live journalism comes of age
Alan Soon The rise of start of psychographic, micro-targeted media
Corey Johnson The pro-fact resistance
Jennifer Choi Standing up for us and for each other
Rodney Gibbs Tech workers turn to journalism
Dan Shanoff You down with OTT? (Yeah, DTC)
Sam Sanders Shine the light on ourselves
Nicholas Diakopoulos Fortifying social media from automated inauthenticity
Tamar Charney We get serious about algorithms
Helen Havlak Keywords, not publishers, power the world’s biggest feeds
Jennifer Brandel and Mónica Guzmán The editorial meeting of the future
Susie Banikarim R.I.P. Pivot to Video (2017–2017)
Jennifer Coogan The future is female
Marcela Donini and Thiago Herdy Collaboration is the way forward for Brazilian journalism
Rodney Benson Better, less read, and less trusted
Ray Soto VR reaches the next level
Eric Nuzum Beyond the narrative arc
Monique Judge Letting black women tell their own stories
Elizabeth Jensen Show your work
Mariana Moura Santos Think local, act global
Caitlin Thompson Podcasting models mature and diversify
Molly de Aguiar Good journalism won’t be enough
Kathleen McElroy Building a news video experience native to mobile
Carlos Martínez de la Serna The new journalism commons
Zizi Papacharissi Women come back
Lam Thuy Vo Breaking free from the tyranny of the loudest
Umbreen Bhatti The trust problem isn’t new
Errin Haines At the ballot, it’s time to count black women
Nicholas Quah Stop talking trash about young people
Matt Thompson Here come the attention managers
Sam Ford The year of investing in processes
Renée Kaplan The year of quiet adjustments (shhh)
Jassim Ahmad Thriving on change
Sara M. Watson Feeds will open up to new user-determined filters
Jim Brady With the people, not just of the people
Cindy Royal Your journalism curriculum is obsolete
Daniel Trielli The rich get richer, the poor scramble
Juliette De Maeyer A responsible press criticism
Jamie Mottram From pageviews to t-shirts
Bill Keller A growing turn to philanthropy
Dannagal G. Young Stop covering politics as a game
Charo Henríquez Training is an investment, not an expense
Pete Brown Push alerts, personalized
Imaeyen Ibanga Longform video leads the way
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen The Snapchat scenario and the risk of more closed platforms
Juleyka Lantigua Women of color will reclaim and monetize our time
Mario García Storytelling finally adapts to mobile
José Zamora Revenue-first journalism
Felix Salmon Covering bitcoin while owning bitcoin
Jarrod Dicker Honesty in advertising
Nushin Rashidian Publishers seek ad dollar alternatives
Adam Thomas Sharing is caring: The year of the mentor
Kinsey Wilson Facebook and Google: Help out or pay up
Aron Pilhofer We can’t leave the business to the business side any more
Jesse Holcomb Information disorder, coming to a congressional district near you
Craig Newmark Working together toward sustainable solutions
Mike Caulfield Refactoring media literacy for the networked age
Kristen Muller The year of the voter
Tanya Cordrey Finally, the seeds of radical reinvention
Tanzina Vega It’s time for media companies to #PassTheMic
Rick Berke Value is the watchword
Steve Grove The midterms are an opportunity
Jared Newman Venture funding and digital news don’t mix
Pia Frey Address users as individuals
AX Mina Memes and visuals come to the fore
Jim Moroney Newspapers have to be good enough for readers to pay for
Federica Cherubini The rise of bridge roles in news organizations
Rachel Davis Mersey AI, with real smarts
Amie Ferris-Rotman More female reporters abroad (please)
Rachel Schallom Better design helps differentiate opinion and news
P. Kim Bui The reckoning is only beginning
Frédéric Filloux External forces
Yvonne Leow The rise of video messaging
Brian Lam Sketchy ethics around product reviews
Richard Tofel The platforms’ power demands more reporters’ attention
Caitria O'Neill The new court of public opinion
Tim Carmody Watch out for Spotify
Monika Bauerlein The firehose of falsehood
S. Mitra Kalita The arc of news and audience
Sydette Harry Listen to your corner and watch for the hook
Ernst-Jan Pfauth Publishing less to give readers more
Michelle Garcia Navigating journalistic transparency
Luke O'Neil The end is already here
Lanre Akinola Making noise is not a strategy
Joanne Lipman Journalists inventing revenue streams
Mandy Velez texting is lit rn, fam
Joanne McNeil Gatekeeping the gatekeepers
Jacqui Cheng Retailers move into content
Tracie Powell The muting of underserved voices
Trushar Barot The Jio-fication of India
Amy Webb Listen to weak signals
Alexios Mantzarlis Moving fake news research out of the lab
Andrew Haeg The year journalists become relationship builders