NIEMAN REPORTS WHAT JOURNALISTS MUST DO NEXT Danielle Allen • Perry Bacon • Joshua Benton • Michael Calderone • Jeff Jarvis • Mark Jurkowitz Jill Lepore • Matt K. Lewis • Ann Marie Lipinski • Diana Marcum • Nicco Mele • Michael Oreskes Evan Osnos • Ricardo Sandoval Palos • Wendi C. Thomas • Keven Ann Willey • Jeff Young Contributors The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University www.niemanreports.org Keith O’Brien (page 6) is a former reporter for The Boston Globe, a correspondent for National Public Radio, and author. He has written for The New York Times Magazine, Politico, and Slate, among other publications. Gabe Bullard (page 12) is the senior publisher producer, digital and strategy, for 1A, a new Ann Marie Lipinski public radio show launching in 2017 on editor stations across the country. A 2015 Nieman James Geary Fellow, he is the former deputy director of senior editor digital news at National Geographic. Jan Gardner editorial assistant Carla Power (page 20) is the author of the Eryn M. Carlson 2016 Pulitzer finalist “If the Oceans Were design Ink: An Unlikely Friendship and a Journey to Pentagram the Heart of the Quran,” about her studies Donald Trump’s rise to the presidency is being viewed by journalists and historians as an important time to reflect on the best way to move forward editorial offices with a traditional Islamic scholar. She is a One Francis Avenue, Cambridge, former correspondent for Newsweek. MA 02138-2098, 617-496-6308, Contents Fall 2016 / Vol. 70 / No. 4 [email protected] Naomi Darom (page 26), a 2016 Nieman Copyright 2016 by the President and Features Departments Fellows of Harvard College. Fellow, is a visiting researcher at Boston Periodicals postage paid at University’s Elie Wiesel Center. She is a storyboard cover Live@Lippmann 2 Boston, Massachusetts and contributing writer at Musaf Haaretz, the The Power of Oral Former New York Times executive editor What Journalists Must Do Next 30 additional entries weekend magazine for Haaretz newspaper History as Journalism 6 Jill Abramson In the wake of the presidential election, in Israel. First-person reports are bringing new journalists are exploring the issues, subscriptions/business attention to an old form of storytelling Niemans@Work 4 617-496-6299, [email protected] challenges, and opportunities that will By Keith O’Brien Teaming up with a four-legged friend, inform political reporting going forward Adrienne LaFrance (page 48) is a staff crafting the quasi-memoir, guiding Subscription $25 a year, By Danielle Allen, Perry Bacon, Joshua writer for The Atlantic. Before that, she was Crowdfunding the News 12 newsrooms toward reinvention $40 for two years; Benton, Michael Calderone, Jeff Jarvis, add $10 per year for foreign airmail. a staff writer at the Nieman Journalism Gaining what Google and Facebook so Mark Jurkowitz, Jill Lepore, Matt K. Lewis, Single copies $7.50. Lab, an investigative reporter at Honolulu often take away: the crowd and the funding Books 56 Ann Marie Lipinski, Diana Marcum, Back copies are available from Civil Beat, and a news anchor at Hawaii By Gabe Bullard “The Content Trap: A Strategist’s Guide Nicco Mele, Michael Oreskes, Evan Osnos, the Nieman office. Public Radio. to Digital Change” Ricardo Sandoval Palos, Wendi C. Thomas, Reporting on Islam 20 By Bharat Anand Please address all subscription Keven Ann Willey, and Jeff Young correspondence to: How journalists are stepping up efforts to One Francis Avenue, provide nuanced coverage of Muslims Nieman Notes 60 Cambridge, MA 02138-2098 By Carla Power watchdog and change of address information to: Access, Accountability Sounding 66 P.O. Box 4951, Manchester, NH 03108 Reporting and Silicon Valley 48 Andrea Bruce, NF ’16 ISSN Number 0028-9817 The award of Covering the tech sector presents a the 2015 Nobel Prize profound accountability challenge Postmaster: Send address changes to in Literature to Nieman Reports P.O. Box 4951, By Adrienne LaFrance correction Svetlana Alexievich Manchester, NH 03108 has elevated the Due to a reporting error in “Pulitzer’s Forgotten Classics” in the profile of Nieman Reports (USPS #430-650) Summer 2016 issue, Herbert Bayard Swope was erroneously credited oral history is published in March, June, with winning the first Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. It was the first page 6 September, and December by Pulitzer Prize for Reporting that he won in 1917. the Nieman Foundation at Harvard University, Due to an editing error in “Pulitzer’s Power Struggles,” a photo of One Francis Avenue, Hank Williams Jr. was identified as his father. It was the elder Williams Cambridge, MA 02138-2098 who received a posthumous Pulitzer in 2010. BOTTOM: PRESS; REUTERS/STRINGER OPPOSITE TOP: JULIO CORTEZ/ASSOCIATED Live@Lippmann parts of my leadership were flawless by any writing this, it was becoming untrue, slowly, Jill Abramson: “You’ve got to means, but I thought that was a much bigger but if you graphed the highs and lows, it was deal than most of my colleagues did. starting to go down. What I’m trying to do get a younger generation in in the time frame that I picked— from 2006 the habit of reading that On the importance of diversity to now—is chart the transition from a print There’s not enough diversity in most news- world to a digital world. highest-quality journalism” rooms. That’s something I admire about I’m mimicking Halberstam. I’m looking BuzzFeed. Their newsroom is very diverse. at four institutions, and how they weath- The former New York Times They have succeeded. It can be done. You have ered those times. Why 2006? Because the Jill Abramson said the rise in social media makes raising awareness of articles part of publishing to have leadership at the top who really cares iPhone was about to be introduced, Google executive editor on why she about it. bought YouTube, so video was really start- On the shift in publishing on. Vice’s pieces for HBO are like mini-doc- If you have a diverse business, you ing to become a big news conveyor. Twitter In the old days, which are really fairly recent, umentaries. They go and cover places that admires BuzzFeed, misses get more customers. If you use diverse started in 2006. The Facebook news feed when something went up on the web or no one else goes to. Gawker, and the public holds suppliers, you have a stronger business. It began in 2006. It’s a totemic year. It’s when rolled off of the presses, that was publishing. directly impacts the audience, because it BuzzFeed started, and it’s when Vice, which That was the end. It was a finite point. On the low public trust in journalists the press in such low regard means that, with stories affecting women, is another institution that I’m looking at With the rise of social media, raising the “Why?” is hard. It requires a many-faceted you won’t have so many that talk about, closely, was becoming the cool brand. They awareness of the work is part of the actual answer. A big reason for it is the dumbing dwell on, appearance. You won’t be slow were very early video pioneers. They used publishing system now. That you have to down of news, turning everything—even a to realize that the Trayvon Martin case is a YouTube as their distribution system. In a get it out. That you have to know how to presidential debate—into a celebrity, as my national story. The national news media was way, BuzzFeed and YouTube were the first use Facebook or Twitter. BuzzFeed has students said, cage match. People feel that slow on that story. At least having been in distributed content purveyors. They used many platforms that they distribute on. there’s no elevating or relevant purpose to The New York Times newsroom then, there that model. It didn’t matter to them wheth- They custom design every article. Even for investing your time in reading the news, be- weren’t enough journalists—either editors er you came to vice.com or buzzfeed.com. Pinterest. cause so little of it helps you figure out how ill abraMson, executive It’s not like I feel there should be strict or reporters—saying “This is a huge story. They were using social media or YouTube. It’s like, “We’re the Times and the Post, to spend your day. What is really important? editor of The New York Times from rules, and you should never be able to de- Wake up. Wake up, you mainly white editors.” In addition to BuzzFeed and YouTube, I am and we’ve published these stories.” Actually What isn’t important? It’s sort of a confus- 2011 to 2014, worked at the Times for scribe someone, whether a man or a woman, We’re supposed to be reflecting the world. looking at the Post and the Times. distributing them is not the job of trucks ing jumble right now. 17 years. Now she is writing a politi- or anybody’s clothes. Sometimes it’s reveal- If you’re going to bring people the The thing that interests me most is anymore. It’s the job of the journalist to dis- I love Eli Pariser’s book “The Filter cal column for The Guardian; teach- ing, and important to talk about it, but you world, you better include people who are that what BuzzFeed and Vice are both do- tribute and call attention to the content of Bubble.” At least in the U.S., there is a filter Jing journalism at Harvard, which is have to demonstrate in your writing why covering the world who have different ing now is building up more conventional their stories.