Future of Journalism – a series by the Alliance for Journalists' Freedom

Media outlets are experimenting with ways to attract younger audiences, as the under 35s snack instead of grazing on smartphones across their multiple networks for news. They also have the lowest trust in media, according to a Reuters Institute report. 

How can media gain the trust of younger audiences? How can they inspire loyalty? Is it true that younger audiences don’t consume long-form content?    

For our #FutureOfJournalism series, the AJF's Chair Peter Wilkinson talked to Phoebe Connelly, director of Next Generation Audience Development at the Washington Post.

Watch this interview on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYf3MwSfQ20

John Cook created Cranky Uncle to fight misinformation. He’s a scientist and reporting those complexities is not easy. Take climate change. How might journalists have covered climate change in a more nuanced way – without giving so much weight to a tiny contrarian minority? What lessons can be learned from the way media covered Covid-19 vaccines? 

For our #FutureOfJournalism series, the AJF's Chair Peter Wilkinson talked to Cook, a research fellow with the Monash Climate Change Communication Research Hub.

Watch this interview on YouTube https://youtu.be/s_UnvWmoaH4

A journalists' job, in part, is to shine light into dark corners. But how can they be effective when increasingly readers don’t read beyond the headline, and headline writers are driven by clicks? How can journalists cover disinformation and avoid becoming vehicles for it? 

For our #FutureOfJournalism series, the AJF's Chair Peter Wilkinson talked to Claire Wardle, co-founder and director of the Information Futures Lab at the US-based Brown University which is focused on fixing the way misinformation harms people.

Watch this interview on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSBMdlXXPFU 

The digital revolution brought an end to the glory days of most print publications. However, journalism’s ability to reach larger audiences has never been better than now. How can legacy media rethink their role and attract younger readers who are less loyal to news brands? Is it time to redefine journalistic objectivity? Is using individual brands of journalists a better way to gain the trust of audiences?

For our #FutureOfJournalism series, the AJF's Chair Peter Wilkinson talked to Raju Narisetti, Head of Global Publishing at McKinsey&Company. Previously, he was a journalist and held management roles with the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, News Corp, amongst others.

Watch this interview on YouTube https://youtu.be/mtGF4OjQOgU

Where does journalism fit into the metaverse? And what is the metaverse beyond a concept? Well, it’s tomorrow’s internet -- a convergence of virtual and augmented reality, artificial intelligence, blockchain, digital currencies, and 5G. It is predicted to reshape the way people live, work and play, and with immersive content, how we get, or experience, new information.   

For our #FutureOfJournalism series, the AJF's Peter Wilkinson talked to Zillah Watson, a London-based consultant on VR and immersive content. Previously, she had a long career with the BBC as a producer, digital strategist, and, most recently, as the head of the VR Hub.

As newsrooms become more complex, journalists will be increasingly negotiating with a variety of experts: data harvesters, social and digital geeks, product developers, content executives and marketing specalists.

So how should the media bosses rethink their strategies? And can an increasingly smarter focus on audiences help journalism thrive and, ultimately, be more trusted?

In 2019, former journalist, Anita Zielina, founded an executive program in news innovation – a kind of MBA for media managers -- at City University of New York. Now, she’s leaving the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, where she is the Director of Strategic Initiatives, to start her own media consultancy based in her hometown of Vienna.

Who is going to pay in future for trustworthy and quality journalism as the money once used to pay for it further bleeds into other communication options? 

Audiences in regional areas are amongst the biggest losers as their only local news source closes. The governments in the United States, Canada and UK are contemplating following the Australian precedent of making Big Tech pay news publishers. Is that a band-aid option, or a sustainable solution?  

Timothy Karr is a senior director at Free Press, an American not-for-profit fighting for press freedom and to strengthen local media. 

#FutureofJournalism

Watch this interview on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXE6RNGp76o

The AFP raids in 2019 shone a light on press freedom issues in Australia. However, our record more generally for press freedom is relatively lacklustre – last year we were 25th in the world according to Reporters Without Borders. New Zealand was eighth – https://rsf.org/en/index?year=2021 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Press_Freedom_Index 

Hence the importance of the Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom (AJF), an organisation that works with governments on initiatives to improve our press freedoms.   Its work will hopefully help prevent a repeat of the raids on the ABC studios and Annika Smethurst’s home, in June 2019.  

Today is World Press Freedom Day. Here, Lesley Power, the new CEO for the AJF, a media lawyer and formerly general counsel for SBS, talks to the AJF’s chair, Peter Wilkinson about the projects for 2022 aimed at improving press freedoms in Australia.    

Watch this interview on YouTube https://youtu.be/7lrVwRHokbk

#worldpressfreedomday2022 #wpfd2022

How are podcasts changing journalism? They’ve exploded in popularity during the pandemic. Media companies are recognising that they are, at least, part of our immediate future.

Tech giants like Spotify and Amazon are investing in exclusive shows in the hope of attracting a different type of paying subscriber. Will this trend live on into the next decade and beyond?

Kellie Riordan was the creative lead of the ABC’s audio team and oversaw the production of some of Australia’s most successful podcasts. She now runs her own podcast consultancy, Deadset Studios.

Watch the video of this interview on YouTube. 

Is our media good for us? For instance, at what point does the hostility between the ABC and The Australian become unhealthy? Is the sustained public polarisation good for us - and for a strong democracy, which, after all, a free press is committed to strengthening?   

And is there an alternative to the wall-to-wall criticisms and ‘gotcha’ moments on current affairs TV?   

The reason many people become journalists is to create a better society – that was certainly one of my motivations. Once you are there, though, the constant chase for a better story can tempt you to become an adrenaline junkie. It’s so exciting. And for Peter Wilkinson, a former television reporter, the reward was in great ratings. There were times when millions watched his stories. But that was when the audience had limited options, and there was lots of money in journalism – time for research; high production values; resources to focus on accuracy; high salaries, business class travel and top hotels.   

Now the pressure is different, more about survival. The argument from editors is that bad news sells and good news does not. That is true. The publishers know their audience. However, an alternative might be for a journalist to be just as hard-nosed and investigative in delivering a high-rating exposé, but weaving into the narrative solutions that make things better. Report the problem, and a solution.   

Future of Journalism Ep 17: Tina Rosenberg is co-founder of the Solutions Journalism Network (https://lnkd.in/gmSzAKVi), and co-author of the Fixes column in the New York Times. She’s just as keen on journalists exposing what’s wrong, but then, as well, showing somewhere or someone that’s doing it right (https://bloom.bg/3Dns2x6).   #journalist #journalism #auspol #abcnews #Nine #News (The #FutureofJournalism interviews are created by the Alliance for Journalists'