In September of this year, Mattia Peretti, manager of JournalismAI, stressed to stressed-out journalists that “AI is not stealing your job.”
But with show-stopping releases like ChatGPT and DALL-E, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for not just writers, but also art departments, to feel like their jobs as they know them are safe for long.
So what’s a person committed to this art and craft of journalism to do in order to future-proof their careers? I predict (hope) that folks should invest heavily in what AI can’t do: care.
The activist, scholar, and poet Maya Angelou famously said, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
It’s easy to forget that every interaction that journalists and other newsroom staff have with the public — be that sources, readers, viewers, members, subscribers, commenters, etc. — is an opportunity to influence people to feel something.
Journalism isn’t just extracting information and molding it into formats and products. There is always a by-product of a relationship — whether that’s between journalist and source, organization that’s reported on and newsroom, community that journalism is about and community that journalism is for. To neglect the fact that every interaction carries its own kind of psychological metadata that adds up to shape how people experience the world, your newsroom, and you, is to not wield the power that’s actually most in your control: how you show up.
Showing up is not a matter of just being present, physically or virtually, to witness and record. It’s actually an extremely sophisticated and subtle combination of thoughts, intentions and behaviors manifested into action.
I hope that in 2023, journalists will begin asking themselves questions like:
To quote another powerhouse, Gloria Steinem, “If you want people to listen to you, you have to listen to them. If you want people to change how they live, you have to know how they live. If you want people to see you, you have to sit down with them eye to eye.”
So, until the people you’re interviewing, reporting on, and serving are sitting down eye-to-AI with your newsroom, here’s a list of opportunities, made a little more whimsical and approachable as a bingo board than a bullet-pointed list, that I’m hopeful more real-life humans of newsrooms will invest in 2023 and beyond. (Get a PDF copy with links here.)
I can only imagine how the trust barometer that Americans have in their news sources could be positively lifted if the millions of interactions and touchpoints that any given newsroom has in the course of a year were consciously caring.
What would it take for you to orient your interactions to ensure the people you engage with, report on and report for, get the signal that you and your newsroom really care?
I predict that, in 2023, journalists will consult more often with the piece of technology they carry on their person 24/7: Their brains. For quality control, they should always get an edit from their hearts.
Thanks to SRCCON:CARE for the brilliant conference on care in journalism, and for inspiring the collaborative session called “Curiosity As Care” with Mónica Guzmán that led to this post.
And for a metric ton of inspiration, check out this fresh guide from Free Press.
Jennifer Brandel is the CEO of Hearken.
In September of this year, Mattia Peretti, manager of JournalismAI, stressed to stressed-out journalists that “AI is not stealing your job.”
But with show-stopping releases like ChatGPT and DALL-E, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for not just writers, but also art departments, to feel like their jobs as they know them are safe for long.
So what’s a person committed to this art and craft of journalism to do in order to future-proof their careers? I predict (hope) that folks should invest heavily in what AI can’t do: care.
The activist, scholar, and poet Maya Angelou famously said, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
It’s easy to forget that every interaction that journalists and other newsroom staff have with the public — be that sources, readers, viewers, members, subscribers, commenters, etc. — is an opportunity to influence people to feel something.
Journalism isn’t just extracting information and molding it into formats and products. There is always a by-product of a relationship — whether that’s between journalist and source, organization that’s reported on and newsroom, community that journalism is about and community that journalism is for. To neglect the fact that every interaction carries its own kind of psychological metadata that adds up to shape how people experience the world, your newsroom, and you, is to not wield the power that’s actually most in your control: how you show up.
Showing up is not a matter of just being present, physically or virtually, to witness and record. It’s actually an extremely sophisticated and subtle combination of thoughts, intentions and behaviors manifested into action.
I hope that in 2023, journalists will begin asking themselves questions like:
To quote another powerhouse, Gloria Steinem, “If you want people to listen to you, you have to listen to them. If you want people to change how they live, you have to know how they live. If you want people to see you, you have to sit down with them eye to eye.”
So, until the people you’re interviewing, reporting on, and serving are sitting down eye-to-AI with your newsroom, here’s a list of opportunities, made a little more whimsical and approachable as a bingo board than a bullet-pointed list, that I’m hopeful more real-life humans of newsrooms will invest in 2023 and beyond. (Get a PDF copy with links here.)
I can only imagine how the trust barometer that Americans have in their news sources could be positively lifted if the millions of interactions and touchpoints that any given newsroom has in the course of a year were consciously caring.
What would it take for you to orient your interactions to ensure the people you engage with, report on and report for, get the signal that you and your newsroom really care?
I predict that, in 2023, journalists will consult more often with the piece of technology they carry on their person 24/7: Their brains. For quality control, they should always get an edit from their hearts.
Thanks to SRCCON:CARE for the brilliant conference on care in journalism, and for inspiring the collaborative session called “Curiosity As Care” with Mónica Guzmán that led to this post.
And for a metric ton of inspiration, check out this fresh guide from Free Press.
Jennifer Brandel is the CEO of Hearken.
Emily Nonko Incarcerated reporters get more bylines
Susan Chira Equipping local journalism
Raney Aronson-Rath Journalists will band together to fight intimidation
Don Day The news about the news is bad. I’m optimistic.
Zizi Papacharissi Platforms are over
Daniel Trielli Trust in news will continue to fall. Just look at Brazil.
Wilson Liévano Diaspora journalism takes the next step
Rachel Glickhouse Humanizing newsrooms will be a badge of honor
Burt Herman The year AI truly arrives — and with it the reckoning
Nikki Usher This is the year of the RSS reader. (Really!)
Jesse Holcomb Buffeted, whipped, bullied, pulled
Richard Tofel The press might get better at vetting presidential candidates
Kathy Lu We need emotionally agile newsroom leaders
Felicitas Carrique and Becca Aaronson News product goes from trend to standard
Jacob L. Nelson Despite it all, people will still want to be journalists
Joe Amditis AI throws a lifeline to local publishers
Sarah Alvarez Dream bigger or lose out
Andrew Losowsky Journalism realizes the replacement for Twitter is not a new Twitter
Cassandra Etienne Local news fellowships will help fight newsroom inequities
Emma Carew Grovum The year to resist forgetting about diversity
Jarrad Henderson Video editing will help people understand the media they consume
Sarah Marshall A web channel strategy won’t be enough
Alan Henry A reckoning with why trust in news is so low
Doris Truong Workers demand to be paid what the job is worth
Elite Truong In platform collapse, an opportunity for community
Alex Perry New paths to transparency without Twitter
Cari Nazeer and Emily Goligoski News organizations step up their support for caregivers
Johannes Klingebiel The innovation team, R.I.P.
Pia Frey Publishers start polling their users at scale
Anna Nirmala News organizations get new structures
Shanté Cosme The answer to “quiet quitting” is radical empathy
Alex Sujong Laughlin Credit where it’s due
Sue Schardt Toward a new poetics of journalism
Barbara Raab More journalism funders will take more risks
Mariana Moura Santos A woman who speaks is a woman who changes the world
Parker Molloy We’ll reach new heights of moral panic
Esther Kezia Thorpe Subscription pressures force product innovation
Sam Guzik AI will start fact-checking. We may not like the results.
Amy Schmitz Weiss Journalism education faces a crossroads
Jim Friedlich Local journalism steps up to the challenge of civic coverage
Karina Montoya More reporters on the antitrust beat
S. Mitra Kalita “Everything sucks. Good luck to you.”
Matt Rasnic More newsroom workers turn to organized labor
Janelle Salanga Journalists work from a place of harm reduction
Surya Mattu Data journalists learn from photojournalists
Larry Ryckman We’ll work together with our competitors
Anika Anand Independent news businesses lead the way on healthy work cultures
Al Lucca Digital news design gets interesting again
Sue Robinson Engagement journalism will have to confront a tougher reality
Ryan Kellett Airline-like loyalty programs try to tie down news readers
Amethyst J. Davis The slight of the great contraction
Michael W. Wagner The backlash against pro-democracy reporting is coming
Tamar Charney Flux is the new stability
Walter Frick Journalists wake up to the power of prediction markets
Sam Gregory Synthetic media forces us to understand how media gets made
Kaitlin C. Miller Harassment in journalism won’t get better, but we’ll talk about it more openly
Ryan Nave Citizen journalism, but make it equitable
Nicholas Jackson There will be launches — and we’ll keep doing the work
Mar Cabra The inevitable mental health revolution
Gordon Crovitz The year advertisers stop funding misinformation
Eric Ulken Generative AI brings wrongness at scale
Sarabeth Berman Nonprofit local news shows that it can scale
Joanne McNeil Facebook and the media kiss and make up
Anita Varma Journalism prioritizes the basic need for survival
Juleyka Lantigua Newsrooms recognize women of color as the canaries in the coal mine
Alexandra Borchardt The year of the climate journalism strategy
Josh Schwartz The AI spammers are coming
Rodney Gibbs Recalibrating how we work apart
Stefanie Murray The year U.S. media stops screwing around and becomes pro-democracy
Ayala Panievsky It’s time for PR for journalism
Brian Stelter Finding new ways to reach news avoiders
Jennifer Brandel AI couldn’t care less. Journalists will care more.
David Skok Renewed interest in human-powered reporting
Lisa Heyamoto The independent news industry gets a roadmap to sustainability
Mauricio Cabrera It’s no longer about audiences, it’s about communities
Jessica Clark Open discourse retrenches
Joni Deutsch Podcast collaboration — not competition — breeds excellence
Jonas Kaiser Rejecting the “free speech” frame
Martina Efeyini Talk to Gen Z. They’re the experts of Gen Z.
Francesco Zaffarano There is no end of “social media”
Tim Carmody Newsletter writers need a new ethics
Anthony Nadler Confronting media gerrymandering
Cindy Royal Yes, journalists should learn to code, but…
Alexandra Svokos Working harder to reach audiences where they are
Eric Thurm Journalists think of themselves as workers
Peter Sterne AI enters the newsroom
Dana Lacey Tech will screw publishers over
Jennifer Choi and Jonathan Jackson Funders finally bet on next-generation news entrepreneurs
Sue Cross Thinking and acting collectively to save the news
Sumi Aggarwal Smart newsrooms will prioritize board development
Julia Beizer News fatigue shows us a clear path forward
David Cohn AI made this prediction
John Davidow A year of intergenerational learning
Brian Moritz Rebuilding the news bundle
Bill Adair The year of the fact-check (no, really!)
Moreno Cruz Osório Brazilian journalism turns wounds into action
Victor Pickard The year journalism and capitalism finally divorce
Hillary Frey Death to the labor-intensive memo for prospective hires
Joshua P. Darr Local to live, wire to wither
Molly de Aguiar and Mandy Van Deven Narrative change trend brings new money to journalism
Ryan Gantz “I’m sorry, but I’m a large language model”
Christoph Mergerson The rot at the core of the news business
J. Siguru Wahutu American journalism reckons with its colonialist tendencies
Basile Simon Towards supporting criminal accountability
Jody Brannon We’ll embrace policy remedies
Kirstin McCudden We’ll codify protection of journalism and newsgathering
Upasna Gautam Technology that performs at the speed of news
Tre'vell Anderson Continued culpability in anti-trans campaigns
Kaitlyn Wells We’ll prioritize media literacy for children
Taylor Lorenz The “creator economy” will be astroturfed
Cory Bergman The AI content flood
Snigdha Sur Newsrooms get nimble in a recession
Megan Lucero and Shirish Kulkarni The future of journalism is not you
Delano Massey The industry shakes its imposter syndrome
Kerri Hoffman Podcasting goes local
Danielle K. Brown and Kathleen Searles DEI efforts must consider mental health and online abuse
Kavya Sukumar Belling the cat: The rise of independent fact-checking at scale
Gina Chua The traditional story structure gets deconstructed
Dominic-Madori Davis Everyone finally realizes the need for diverse voices in tech reporting
Jim VandeHei There is no “peak newsletter”
Eric Nuzum A focus on people instead of power
A.J. Bauer Covering the right wrong
Peter Bale Rising costs force more digital innovation
Errin Haines Journalists on the campaign trail mend trust with the public
Sarah Stonbely Growth in public funding for news and information at the state and local levels
Bill Grueskin Local news will come to rely on AI
Elizabeth Bramson-Boudreau More of the same
Simon Galperin Philanthropy stops investing in corporate media
Dannagal G. Young Stop rewarding elite performances of identity threat
Mario García More newsrooms go mobile-first
Jaden Amos TikTok personality journalists continue to rise
Andrew Donohue We’ll find out whether journalism can, indeed, save democracy
An Xiao Mina Journalism in a time of permacrisis
Jenna Weiss-Berman The economic downturn benefits the podcasting industry. (No, really!)
Mary Walter-Brown and Tristan Loper Mission-driven metrics become our North Star
Eric Holthaus As social media fragments, marginalized voices gain more power
Jessica Maddox Journalists keep getting manipulated by internet culture
Priyanjana Bengani Partisan local news networks will collaborate
Laura E. Davis The year we embrace the robots — and ourselves
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Well-being will become a core tenet of journalism
Janet Haven ChatGPT and the future of trust
Laxmi Parthasarathy Unlocking the silent demand for international journalism
Khushbu Shah Global reporting will suffer
Christina Shih Shared values move from nice-to-haves to essentials
Paul Cheung More news organizations will realize they are in the business of impact, not eyeballs
Gabe Schneider Well-funded journalism leaders stop making disparate pay
Jakob Moll Journalism startups will think beyond English
Michael Schudson Journalism gets more and more difficult
Ben Werdmuller The internet is up for grabs again
Masuma Ahuja Journalism starts working for and with its communities
Leezel Tanglao Community partnerships drive better reporting
Ariel Zirulnick Journalism doubles down on user needs
Ståle Grut Your newsroom experiences a Midjourney-gate, too
Nicholas Thompson The year AI actually changes the media business
Mael Vallejo More threats to press freedom across the Americas
Nicholas Diakopoulos Journalists productively harness generative AI tools
Julia Angwin Democracies will get serious about saving journalism