The Nieman Foundation for Journalism

“The news media is the least trusted group among 10 U.S. civic and political institutions involved in the democratic process,” the polling firm Gallup concluded in a 2024 analysis. Despite news organizations’ pledges to provide fact-based reporting, and ongoing investments to build trust, people across the political spectrum in the U.S. are unconvinced of mainstream media’s self-described credibility. The category “mainstream…

The news is often quite good at being bad — as in deeply negative and depressing. This systemic negativity in news coverage, in one estimation, has gone from being “a mere ‘news value’ to an overarching ‘news ideology.” And it’s not without consequence: It’s leaving audiences increasingly overwhelmed, frustrated, and apathetic, not to mention feeling helpless, stressed, and…

Ten years ago, in Vancouver’s oldest office building, a few colleagues and I launched what seemed like an impossible venture: a digital newspaper that would stand up to one of the most powerful forces on earth, the oil and gas industry. We funded it through crowdfunding and a handful of “social impact” investors who knew…

“The AI era,” Sara Fischer writes in Axios, “is proving lucrative for media publishers looking to offset a slowdown in ads and subscription fatigue.” My prediction for 2025 is that this will not be true for most news organizations, because they’ll find that no technology companies are interested in paying for their content. While in…

We live in a time of media fragmentation and hyperpolarization. This year’s presidential election raised further questions about traditional media’s relevance. And it seems increasingly clear that people are gravitating to extremes in the types of content they consume — whether scrolling short-form posts or listening to hours-long podcasts. We must meet them there. When…

For decades, the news industry has operated on a familiar rhythm: Journalists chase scoops, publish headlines, and define the news cycle. But a new model for information sharing is emerging. Prediction markets — platforms where users buy and sell shares based on the probability of future events — are poised to disrupt the media landscape…

Predictions — said someone — are a fool’s game. But there’s little doubt that in the next year we will continue to bear painful witness to the decline of America’s formal news structures. Twentieth-century news outlets will keep crashing by the wayside — victims to changing business and technological models, to hubris, to cultural mistrust…

We’ve covered 2024 as the fragmentation election, and media analysts mostly assume fragmentation will continue — more and more podcasts and Substacks and hyper-personalized TikTok accounts, and a weaker and weaker big media. But as one of the great early internet CEOs once said, there are only two ways to go in media: bundling and…

If I’m going to predict the future, I find it useful to return to the past. As a kid, I wanted to be a journalist because I dreamed of seeing the world, meeting people who were different from me, and telling their stories. I suspect many of us were drawn to journalism for similar reasons:…

This will be the year journalism finally explains arcane legislative rules to the public — for national, state, and local government. Most people find talk of clotures, filibusters, committee votes, bill reconciliation, the legislative calendar, and beyond absolutely boring. If civic-affairs news is the broccoli of American journalism, then coverage of legislative procedure is the…

In 2025, more podcasts will move from audio and video to the stage — and not just the big ones with big budgets. This already-growing trend will be adapted and invigorated by mid-tier and smaller shows whose audiences have been steadily increasing for years, whose listeners yearn for live interactions with hosts and shows that…

Do you ever visit a friend’s house and find yourself surprised at how different their Netflix queue looks than yours? Or worry about the breaking down of a shared reality amid an increasingly fractured media landscape? As more of our digital experiences become mediated by personalization algorithms and fandoms built around individual content creators, I…

The hard question isn’t how journalists should cover Trump, but how they should relate to Trump voters. Now that the furor of the election has died down, perhaps political coverage might be perceived as a little less partisan. And perhaps there’s an opening for conservative audiences to return to the news, if they’re not worried…

Are you still looking for a holiday gift for the journalist in your life, or perhaps just doing a little shopping for yourself? We’ve got a bunch of ideas for you, whether you’re looking to give someone something to wear, something to read, or something to help organize life. A game to play A local…

In 1988, NASA scientist James Hansen told the U.S. Senate that man-made climate change was real, imminent, and potentially catastrophic. It was a perfect opportunity for the media to start covering the issue with the importance and urgency it deserved. Yet journalists did not rise to the occasion. For decades, they peddled both-sidesism, failing to…

As generative AI creeps further into news delivery, discovery, and consumption, both the media and the tech industries will increasingly find themselves in a strange new digital landscape where tech giants aren’t just aggregators of journalism, but creators of it. The media and tech industries, frequently to the dismay of both, are deeply and inextricably…

The hype wave around AI has peaked (or close to it), but its impact on the industry hasn’t yet been felt. I don’t predict that AI will take us “boldly where no one has gone before.” Instead, it will help us revisit old territory, digging deeper into abandoned wells to uncover untapped value, hidden insights,…

Around the world, illiberal regimes seek to control the flow of information. But they themselves are often open to certain new ideas — the innovations that other regimes have successfully used to suppress or obscure information that is unflattering or undermines their authority. This mutual emboldening adds another advantage to an already unfair fight, as…

Say what you will about The Washington Post’s much-maligned decision not to endorse a U.S. presidential candidate in 2024, but Jeff Bezos had a point when he wrote this: “Most people believe the media is biased. Anyone who doesn’t see this is paying scant attention to reality, and those who fight reality lose. Reality is…

When Trump won in 2016, those in journalism circles wrung their hands. How had the media missed it? The field settled on an explanation: America’s elite newsrooms had overlooked middle America and neglected rural areas. Journalists misunderstood the zeitgeist. Listening became the new mantra. Employ journalists living in the heartland. Spend time in flyover country….

Edward Wong, who grew up in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., said his father never shared much about his life in China before immigrating to the United States. Over the years, Wong initiated more conversations, learning that, as a young man, his father once enthusiastically embraced Mao Zedong's Communist revolution, dropped out of college to join the People's Liberation Army, and hoped to serve in the Chinese air force during the Korean War. He eventually grew disillusioned with Mao’s regime, and made a daring escape to Hong Kong in 1962 before ultimately settling in Alexandria, Virginia. Edward Wong Wong delves […]

In 1998, when the internet was still relatively new and its implications for the news industry still unclear, MassLive joined one of the earliest waves of digital-only news outlets. Since then, it has continued to focus its coverage on Western Massachusetts from its Springfield offices.  Ronnie Ramos The organization took another step toward statewide coverage in September 2024, when it started reporting on high school sports teams in the Bay State and Catholic Conferences. The combined 19 teams in those leagues come from some of the wealthiest communities in the state. What motivated this move? And how does MassLive hope […]

In 2024, U.S.-based journalists faced a historic presidential election, while the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas claimed an unprecedented number of reporters’ lives. Nieman Reports’ feature writers reported on these topics as well as on changes to journalism education, the need for news leaders to develop better business savvy, the evolving relationship between news outlets and social media, and more. As the year comes to a close, have a look at our top five feature stories that resonated most with readers. Journalism Needs Leaders Who Know How to Run a Business For the next era of journalism, news […]

This year, Nieman Reports contributors explored some of the most pressing challenges facing the future of journalism: how to create sustainable newsroom business models, how to navigate the complex relationship with AI companies, and how to find your way in a job market rocked by layoffs and volatility. As we approach the start of 2025, take a moment to revisit our top five opinion pieces from this past year. Let’s Retire the “Leaving Journalism” Fallacy   For reporters facing layoffs and a tough job market, freelance writer and columnist Katherine Lewis reminds us that leaving journalism doesn’t have to last forever. […]

These personal essays pull the curtain back to reveal the ins and outs of reporting on the plight of asylum-seekers, government corruption, the devastating effects of climate change, and the history of gun manufacturing in the United States. The authors describe the risks and challenges they face in their work. As 2024 comes to a close, revisit the year’s top 5 first-person essays from Nieman Reports.  A Moment of Deep Sorrow on the U.S.-Mexico Border For our visual journalism column, AfterImage, photographer Barbara Davidson shared her experiences on a reporting trip to the U.S.-Mexico border in December 2023. In the […]

In the past year, Nieman Reports published interviews with reporters, founders of new news outlets, and media experts on the ongoing challenges facing journalism and the various strategies for overcoming them. The interviews highlight the urgent need for transparent and reliable coverage in conflict zones like Gaza, and how reporters can combat the alarming spread of misinformation on social media. Here are five of Nieman Reports’ most thought-provoking conversations in 2024.  ‘I’ve Never Experienced This Level of Silence’ As public officials become increasingly evasive or even hostile toward members of the press, journalists must adopt new strategies for covering politics […]

American voters have made a clear and undeniable choice. Donald Trump will be their 47th president come January. They have chosen him despite — or because of — his vows to go after his political adversaries and his deep-seated animosity towards the news media, which he labels as the "enemy of the people." During Trump’s first administration, at least eight journalists from various outlets, including The New York Times and The Washington Post, had their records sought by the Justice Department. This was not entirely new: the Obama administration paved the way for this kind of abuse. However, given the […]

“I wish I could find Syrians here to cry with,” Lina Chawaf told other fellows in the Nieman Class of 2025 as she followed the stunning developments unfolding in her country in early December.  Chawaf is the CEO and founder of Syrian independent radio station Radio Rozana, which has been operating in exile from France and Gaziantep, Turkey. She spoke to her Nieman classmates about the fast-moving series of events since the Islamist rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) took control of Damascus on Dec. 8, bringing an abrupt end to Syria’s prolonged civil war and forcing President Bashar Assad […]

When journalist Amanda Becker first read a leaked draft of the Supreme Court decision on ending constitutional protections for abortion, she instantly knew she wanted to chronicle the historic moment when the ruling was handed down. This ultimately led to her new book, “You Must Stand Up,” which documents how abortion access has been dramatically restricted or forced into legal limbo in states across the U.S. after the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Becker, a 2023 Nieman Fellow, is a political reporter for The 19th — a nonprofit news organization focused on gender, politics, and policy. She spent a year […]

Dressed in a white salwar and tunic, journalist Meena Kotwal speaks of equality, hope, and revolution and of leaving a better world for her 4-year-old daughter than the one she is fighting. Her eyes are resolute, her voice impassioned; and yet, in moments, all that ferocity melts into fear.  “I grew up in this same colony … but please don’t write its name,” she says of the New Delhi neighborhood where she has an office and where the two of us meet. “I don’t want my address to be published.” Little Dharaa sits on her mother’s lap, scribbling on her […]