Journalism will break from the hero narrative

"that incentivizes stories designed to polarize rather than illuminate. This flattening doesn't just distort our work; it enables erasure and makes authoritarianism's job easier. Authoritarianism thrives on main-character energy. It needs a hero story - a single person to valorize, platform, co-opt, discredit, or remove. Journalism has leaned hard into these toxic individualistic tropes, perpetuating a form of narrative kingmaking that creates a momentum of inevitability that feels impossible to escape."

"But democracy is protected by an unglamorous counterforce: people power. Communities moving together. Neighbors showing up for neighbors. Collectives powered by volunteer Google sheets, group texts, phone trees, and potlucks. Real heroism demonstrated by people working collectively whose names we'll never know, linking arms in solidarity. Hope is built together in a perpetual group project. This is expansiveness in action."

"Democracy is an experiment of the collective. As that experiment faces direct attack, the future of journalism lies in covering the complexity of the collective - the many who make up this exercise in faith and abundance. We must complicate the narrative. In journalism, we are living the story we need to learn how to tell. The journalism industry is facing disruptions from many forces all at once, primarily driven by AI and emerging tech, moving at such a pace of change"

Information infrastructure is built on the volcanoes of capitalism, a system that demands flattening, rewards derivative work, and incentivizes polarizing stories. That flattening distorts journalism, enables erasure, and makes authoritarianism's job easier. Authoritarianism thrives on main-character narratives and benefits when journalism valorizes single heroes, perpetuating narrative kingmaking and feelings of inevitability. Democracy is protected by people power: communities organizing through volunteer Google sheets, group texts, phone trees, and potlucks. Real heroism emerges from collective action and solidarity among neighbors. The future of journalism lies in covering the complexity of collectives and supporting collective organizing amid rapid AI-driven disruption.

Read at Nieman Lab