"I'm sitting you down and asking you to draft a definition of "news in the public interest." How long do you think you would need? And how confident in your answer would feel? Or, if I came to you, despondent and unsure what might make news essential, or even useful (I have been there!). Where would you point me for guidance or answers?"
"One last exercise; Do you think journalism needs a coherent theory of change? Would you feel equipped to participate in those conversations? These questions about what we are doing in and with news and information don't feel academic to me. They feel existential and urgent. We need more decision-making frameworks to rely on as we respond to needs and imagine what we can become."
"A strong theoretical backbone is useful in any profession. It's completely necessary in ours, when newsrooms must think so carefully about how to allocate their resources and even the most careful will leave information and accountability needs unmet. We need more decision-making frameworks to rely on as we respond to needs and imagine what we can become. In the few other predictions I've done for this series over the years, I've been pleading as much as predicting."
News organizations need clear definitions of 'news in the public interest' and accessible decision-making frameworks to guide resource allocation and priorities. Journalists and newsroom leaders must develop coherent theories of change to address urgent information and accountability needs. A strong theoretical backbone is necessary for practical choices about what reporting to pursue and what to leave unmet. Emerging journalists and innovators have begun building models and news products to meet these needs despite scarce time for foundational theory and ethics. Sustained effort is required to create and adopt frameworks that translate ethics and theory into newsroom decisions.
Read at Nieman Lab
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