In this episode, American Enterprise Institute scholar Yuval Levin discusses how the professionalization of American journalism has led to a lack of diversity in newsrooms and contributed to a loss of public confidence in the fourth estate. After years of standardization of good practices and commitment to ethics, seen as essential to the quality, credibility and respect of journalism, the news media are experiencing the costs associated with their institutionalization.

Economist Ruben Durante discusses his groundbreaking research on how the quality of TV entertainment consumed affects children’s IQ scores, their level of civic engagement and their voting preferences as adults.

With seemingly endless options, how do people select their news sources? University of Texas at Austin associate professor and Director for the Center of Media Engagement Talia Stroud joins us to discuss Niche News: The Politics of News Choice — her new book that explores how people navigate today’s sea of news sources and the political implications of their choices. We also discuss her research on enhancing the quality of public discourse on social media.

When consuming the news, people bring their biases with them. However, University of Michigan professor Brendan Nyhan and other scholars have found that facts can — and do — change people’s minds when presented under certain conditions. We discuss his research on how to create a more widely-shared understanding of reality and related topics.

During the 2016 election season, many U.S. citizens were getting their news from organizations known to neglect professional journalistic standards. Harvard professor Yochai Benkler joins us to discuss Network Propaganda — a new book he has co-authored that examines how exposure to low-quality news during that election cycle was particularly prevalent on the political right, resulting in a distorted presidential campaign based on misinformation.

Join us for part two as we continue our conversation with The National Review’s Ramesh Ponnuru and Knight Foundation’s Sam Gill about their efforts to produce and encourage high-quality news. This is a follow-up to the May 2 panel in D.C. featured in part one.

How does our low-trust, polarized media environment complicate the practice of journalism? Gallup’s Jonathan Rothwell hosts a lively discussion with guests Yamiche Alcindor of PBS NewsHour, Ramesh Ponnuru of The National Review and Sam Gill of Knight Foundation about challenges facing those trying to restore trust in the news.