How Is Your Newsfeed?

By DON ROLLINS

The recent death of trailblazing news journalist, Cokie Roberts, is yet another reminder the way America “does” news continues to evolve. A forward-thinking champion for newswomen here and abroad, Roberts’ passing is cause for taking stock of her many contributions to news journalism, but also the field itself.

Were we to rank the changes in news journalism over that period, surely the rapid proliferation of technology between the turn of the century and today would be at or near the top of the list — a state of affairs at least one journalist presaged.

Writing on the precipice of a new millennia, Christian Science Monitor’s Tom Regan offered, “We face a future in which technology will change journalism, as it always has. Just as telephones gave reporters the ability to remain on the scene of a story longer or TV allowed us to tell news stories using moving pictures, these new media are already changing the way we do our jobs as journalists — whether we welcome those changes or not.”

Regan’s prediction about the synergy between journalism and technology has come to reality. In spades. But while he captured the essence of a coming “analog-to-digital” shift in news gathering and reporting, two of Regan’s misses are instructive.

First, Regan posited much more optimism than was ultimately merited: “In the end, it’s all about our readers/viewers/audience and getting them reliable information in a timely manner. If we focus more on their needs, and less on our complaints, then moving into the new media era will be a piece of cake.”

Not so. Missing from Regan’s rosy projection is the complexity of relentless, mass-scale technological change, especially as applied to gathering and presenting information. Even 20 years removed from the relatively primitive hardware and software of 2000, not every new leap is absorbable in short order, if even welcome. It’s not that today’s technology isn’t monumentally superior; it’s that no matter how consumer-centered today’s professional news journalist, technological adeptness will rarely be a piece of cake.

Second, Regan’s futuristic news world fails to anticipate the power of a generation come of age — the recurring changing-of-the-guard affecting all aspects of American society, journalism and technology withstanding.

Consider Millennials, members of the first fully digital generation in history, who are on the path of news journalism. Now in their 20s and 30s, these young professionals have access to multiple platforms, exceeding all of Regan’s forecasts for how journalism would one day gather and share information.

Case in point, the Millennial-driven outlet, Newsy, begun in 2008 as a video news source for mobile devices and the web. Acquired by mainstream media giant Scripps in 2014, Newsy has since expanded to several cable providers, YouTube TV and streaming services such as Roku and Hulu. It’s a true hybrid approach: a familiar news channel platform and storylines; plus punchy segments, solid visuals and youthful faces. And it’s but one example of how that generation’s journalists are changing the way we do our news.

Know that none of this is to undermine an overall sound prediction of news journalism and technology. Tom Regan’s prognostication from 2000 is remarkably on target. Nor is it to sentimentalize all journalists, lumping talk-show haters, bullshit artists and fake-news adherents with journalistic giants like Cokie Roberts.

It’s just that every now and then — say, at the passing of a fine journalist — the rest of us do well to think about the complex, dynamic, science and art of truth-telling in such times. Maybe remember those folks the next time we pull up a newsfeed or open the paper.

Don Rollins is a Unitarian Universalist minister living in Hendersonville, N.C. Email donaldlrollins@gmail.com.

From The Progressive Populist, October 15, 2019

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