How journalism can seize the moment

With so much change and conflict sweeping the world, Americans and our free press need to get back on the same side, the side of journalism that thrives because people rely on it and support it. How can we get there?

Journalists who work hard and care a lot are disheartened by today’s “I hate the media” rhetoric. Many share the same worries about their jobs and futures as others across the disrupted U.S. economy. Yet we encounter distrust and worse — outright hostility from some, a rejection of honest reporting from others.

We also know many people value good journalism. Donations jumped in our post-election drive at Southern California Public Radio/ KPCC, as did many news organizations’ subscriptions. I think those supporters want journalism to be better than “the media,” and that we should use this moment to deepen trust and loyalty for the long haul.

This begins with the hard work of reporting aggressively, in depth and with a long attention span. The opportunity comes if we can connect this vital work much more directly and powerfully with the people who inform and rely on journalism. That’s the revolutionary power of the Internet, far beyond simply delivering the same material and the same approaches via new platforms.

Five years ago I published a paper for USC Annenberg proposing such change, which I described as open journalism. After nearly a year outside news, where I’d been a top newspaper editor with a passion for high-impact work, I’d gotten a stark view of the gap between news people and citizens.

After this election and the continued struggle for journalism as a business, the problem seems more urgent. We should:

* Embrace independence as our stance (not neutrality, objectivity or partisanship). Independence relies on knowing what you’re about and what you’re trying to do — it’s a point of view that can build credibility.

* Report aggressively and with the aim of informing people so they can make up their own minds. Less spin, more judge-for-yourself breakdowns and explanation.

* Ramp up journalism as service — not just philosophically but practically, by finding, organizing and delivering information in ways people rely on and pay for.

* Communicate more often and more emphatically about what we’re doing, why and for whom

* Ask and answer with readers/viewers/listeners/the public much more often and more visibly/ vocally, and bring that dialogue into coverage to improve journalism substantively and increasing its relevance.

I’ll offer two examples of how this can work to produce better journalism.

First, from right now, the New York Times’ work on covering the Oakland warehouse fire that killed 36 people. The NYT team has told readers it’s trying to get answers to key questions, shared those questions and invited people to share what they know. From a Dec. 8 post:

“We’ll tell you about the interviews that our journalists conduct, the documents we obtain and what we learn as we learn it — as part of our effort to piece this story together.”

Second, from our KPCC/ Southern California Public Radio newsroom, coverage of the 2016 election that prompted listeners to pitch in money during our pledge drive that happened the following week.

We asked questions early and often and built specific coverage to answer them directly. Our senior politics reporter, Mary Plummer, became the “Human Voter Guide” and researched and answered questions in a weekly segment, as host of “Hack the Vote” events and more. Everything we did with coverage aimed to help people prepare to vote — and we said that in on-air language describing the Voter Game Plan and in our web resources.

Also, we gave up the not-invented-here mentality and collaborated to give our audience more. We got deeper and broader statewide election coverage as part of the California Counts Collaborative with KQED, Capital Public Radio and KPBS. And we worked with California Counts to use the Voters Edge guide with MapLight and the League of Women Voters — you typed in your home address, got your sample ballot and a lot of information, including campaign contributions, endorsements and news coverage.

One of the most-read online features right before the election was a series of interviews on KPCC’s morning news magazine Take Two with candidates for LA County Superior Court judge — another response to a voter question. Where else would you find that? This is service that listeners recognized and rewarded in our pledge drive:

“I’ve been meaning to contribute to KPCC for a long time now,” wrote one donor. “I commute about an hour each way to and from work and KPCC is the only thing that’s on my radio. And what finally got me to take the time to donate was the Voter Guide.”

The former Nieman Foundation curator and veteran editor Bill Kovach has often noted that journalism wasn’t invented by news companies. It exists as a response to fundamental human desires — to know what’s happening, to be able to make decisions, to have access to power.

We talk a lot about service in journalism. Service is about doing good; it’s also a business concept. Our business model for good journalism today is people — customers, citizens, users, sustaining members. By serving those people more effectively in big and small ways, we have a chance not just at trust but also for survival as a vital part of democracy.

Journalism thinker and doer. News consultant. Former top news exec/editor at KPCC public radio, News & Observer and Sacramento Bee. https://t.co/QnquFRTN28

Journalism thinker and doer. News consultant. Former top news exec/editor at KPCC public radio, News & Observer and Sacramento Bee. https://t.co/QnquFRTN28