Laura E. Davis’s predictions for journalists urges them to “show (their) work”, to their audiences in order to break down the barriers built up over the years. The media coverage of the 2016 Presidential election saw media organisations publishing “over-confident predictions” of Hillary Clinton’s win and as such broke audience’s confidence in journalists to produce un-biased content. Davis believes journalists must “restore trust with audiences” in the aftermath, with complete transparency in how they produce stories.
Even if the Presidential election had gone as predicted, I believe true transparency and establishing a stronger relationship with readers is always beneficial. As a fledgling journalist and news consumer, myself, I can sometimes feel a disconnect between the event and the reporting of the event. Sometimes simply having a 300-word article laying out the facts for us doesn’t resonate enough. As Davis described, journalists such as The Washington Post’s David Fahrenthold sharing their workings in their investigation into Trump’s charity donations gave a new sense of reality and authenticity to the issue.
Something which resonated with my current experience at university, trying to learn the ins and outs of digital and technological journalism is when Davis asked journalists to be “more honest about what you know and what you don’t know”.
Like other journalists, I am attempting to branch out of traditional journalistic tools by learning digital journalism. I think openly sharing the ups and downs of this process with audiences would create an interesting dialogue between news creators and news consumers, and perhaps bring the two to similar standings.
You can read Laura E. Davis’s full prediction on Nieman Lab.
Samantha Barry predicts messaging apps will become a “mainstream” part of journalist’s “distribution toolbox”. Including the written word, Barry suggests newsrooms will begin using “stickers, emojis, gifs (and) vertical video” as new means to tell stories.
These elements of communication are fast approaching in the digital journalism world, with the latest news already available in your messaging inbox or at the touch of a thumbnail image on Snapchat and Facebook.
Seeing as news corporations are already starting to heavily utilise social media and instant messaging for news distribution, it seems inevitable some written articles will be enhanced if not partially replaced by mediums like videos and gifs. As the general public appeared to have happily included emojis and stickers in their own peer-to-peer communication, the natural step for journalists would be to follow suit if they wish to produce stories which are engaging in a modern age.
Read Samantha Barry’s full prediction on Nieman Lab.
