democracy | Nieman Journalism Lab

Articles tagged democracy (20)

Jon GrinspanOctober 10, 2024

How a 19th-century news revolution sparked activists, influencers, disinformation, and the Civil War

Long before anyone was accused of being “woke,” the Wide Awakes used new news technology to rapidly construct a national movement.

Richard TofelSeptember 15, 2022

How can local news help inform voters? Here are a few good examples

News organizations can help prepare voters as they head to the polls.

Stephan Lewandowsky and Anastasia KozyrevaApril 7, 2022

Algorithms, lies, and social media

Achieving a more transparent and less manipulative online media may well be the defining political battle of the 21st century.

Joshua BentonAugust 21, 2020

What can “folk theories of journalism” tell us about why some people don’t trust us?

“Many of our interviewees had little direct experience with news, yet they ‘knew’ they could not trust it, or found it boring, or that it was part of a shady system intended to hide important matters from them.”

Joshua BentonNovember 22, 2019

Damaged newspapers, damaged civic life: How the gutting of local newsrooms has led to a less-informed public

“If you don’t have a newspaper staff who points out when things aren’t working, there is no impetus behind trying to put somebody new in, right?”

Joshua BentonApril 9, 2019

When local newspapers shrink, fewer people bother to run for mayor

“In a well-functioning system, citizens need to be actively engaged in their government and aware of decisions made by their elected representatives. Newspapers are a means of citizen engagement, and this study provides evidence of the importance of this link.”

Anthony Nadler and Matthew CrainDecember 7, 2018

3 ways Facebook and other social media companies could clean up their acts — if they wanted to

“These moves may hurt the firms’ finances, but they would also demonstrate serious and lasting commitment to limiting their platforms’ usefulness in political manipulation campaigns.”

Shan WangNovember 2, 2017

Facebook, Google, and Twitter faced Congress this week to talk Russian meddling. Here’s what we learned (and didn’t)

“Your actions need to catch up to your responsibilities.”

Caroline O'DonovanJune 12, 2013

Would you click a “Respect” button more than a “Like” button? Experiments in tweaking news reader behavior for democracy

The Engaging News Project want to know if that and other small cues and prompts can encourage people to seek points of view different from their own.

Herbert J. GansFebruary 1, 2013

Journalism for democracy

“Journalists have to consider how American politics has changed since modern journalism first formulated the conventions and norms for covering politics.”

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