Annual Report 2017-2018 Contents Annual Report 2017-2018 01 Preface 04 The Year in Review Director’s Report RISJ International Impact and Influence Bringing the World in 12 The Journalist Fellowship Programme Improving the Standards of International Journalism Fellows’ Focus: Global Issues, Fresh Perspectives Journalist Fellows 2017/18 Fellows’ Voices 30 Research and Publications RISJ Research The European Journalism Observatory Digital News Report 2018 Research Projects Developing RISJ Research Publications Visiting Fellows Opposite: The entrance to the Chaldean 50 Events Catholic Cathedral Em Al Ahzan ruins is seen at the archaeological site of a castle in Kirkuk, Iraq August 3, 2017. 60 About Us REUTERS/Ako Rasheed Reuters Institute - Annual Report 2017-18 00 Preface Alan Rusbridger Monique Villa Chair, Steering Committee CEO, Thomson Reuters Foundation Only the most pollyannaish of media between fellows, and between the group The media landscape has transformed But it has also never been a more watchers could think of 2017/8 as a and the outside guests who come to itself at such speed in the last 20 exhilarating time to be a journalist. good year for the news business. talk to them. years that it is difficult to make sense And that is because there’s a growing ©Ben Robinson of the continual revolution of which thirst for ground-breaking, investigative, Journalists continue to be murdered Then there is the powerhouse of research we are all part. The Reuters Institute world-class journalism that cuts through around the world at a rate of around one a and academics who bring such clear and plays such a crucial role in helping the chaos. It informs. It empowers. It week. Newspapers are closing and reporters fresh thinking to a huge range of subjects. There editors and reporters make sense of what changes lives. thrown out of work even as the West Coast giants is the wider Oxford community of philosophers, political is happening, and to navigate the many challenges continue to swell in profits, if not users. As the new scientists, technologists, lawyers and human rights they face all over the world. This is why the Thomson Reuters Foundation funds economic realities of news bite harder, so governments, experts who have been regularly engaging with some of RISJ – one of the world’s most powerful and respected oligarchs and their less fastidious friends are learning the biggest West Coast companies as they grapple with centres driving journalism excellence. As the world has new methods of ‘influence’. the formidable challenges that have emerged in recent changed, the Institute has changed too, not only to keep times, and which will surely continue to surface. pace, but to stay ahead of the curve. You need only to So, no, it is not the most natural thing in the world to look at the Digital News Report - launched in 2012 - that attempt a cheerful account of the past 12 months. But The gathering in September of so many alumni of the has become the industry Bible used to benchmark there are glimmers of hope. If 2018 was the year the 35-year fellowship programme was testimony to the digital news trends. world woke up to Facebook’s capacity for manipulation it loyalty and affection our graduates feel towards was also the year Facebook woke up to the problem and Reuters and Oxford. This is thanks to the stellar leadership of the Institute began to deal with it. If 2018 was the year we learned we under David Levy, who leaves us after ten years. When had a President who was serially careless with the truth, We were sorry when, after 10 years, David Levy decided David first started, he had three members of staff. Now it was also the year extraordinary journalists rose to the it was time to step down as Director. His decade running there are over 20 employees, including 10 post-doc challenge of exposing the lies and evasions. RISJ has been an extremely happy and creative one. research fellows, producing 15 original pieces of research He has put the Institute on a stable footing and helped each year. Rasmus Kleis Nielsen has brilliantly directed There is, in short, no simple narrative of the way news build a global reputation for research and pragmatic the research these last few years and now replaces David is going at the moment. The great disruption of the interventions into the great media issues of our day. as Director. His fast and powerful analysis and great past dozen years or so continues to howl through the authority makes him the perfect successor. industry, bringing chaos, confusion and opportunities Equally, we were delighted that Prof Rasmus Kleis in its wake. Nielsen – formerly Director of Research – should have The Institute’s Journalist Fellowship Programme agreed to step up to the role of overall Director. He has – now in its 35th year – has welcomed some of the The Reuters Institute is a very good vantage point from won a huge international reputation, increasingly sought best journalists in the world, who have gone on to which to observe this dramatic revolution in journalism. out for the clarity and depth of his work. win multiple awards for their first-class reporting – It is a place to ponder; to reflect; to test new ideas; to testament to the support, solidarity and inspiration collect data; to analyse trends; to think big; to meet Thanks to all our staff in Norham Gardens for their offered by RISJ. fellow pioneers; to make global comparisons. tireless work in the cause of journalism and to all those who, in ways large and small, contribute to the work we When free and independent journalism thrives, society Every year a new cohort of journalist fellows arrives do. It has never been more important. thrives too. Good journalism is under attack everywhere. from all over the world and we are reminded again of Some institutions play an important role in reminding the quality, bravery and resourcefulness of the best in everyone of journalists’ mission, and it’s the Reuters our profession. They come to do their own research, but Institute that leads the pack. Preface often the most creative moments are the interactions Preface 001 Reuters Institute - Annual Report 2017-18 Reuters Institute - Annual Report 2017-18 2 The Year in Review Riot police arrive at a press conference due to be addressed by opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Nelson Chamisa, ordering journalist out of the venue in Harare, Zimbabwe, August 3, 2018. REUTERS/Mike Hutchings Reuters Institute - Annual Report 2017-18 4 Director’s Report David Levy I arrived as Reuters Institute It has been a real privilege to run the Institute over Director in September 2008, just the past decade. I remain as enthusiastic as on my first day about our mission to connect rigorous in time for the 25th anniversary research with practice and have been honoured to reunion of our Journalist have occupied this premier vantage point from which Programme. Ten years on I am to learn from, engage with, and I hope improve, the writing my final introduction as understanding of and prospects for journalism across the Director as we are preparing to welcome globe. I am always impressed and humbled by the courage over 130 journalist fellows back to Oxford to and commitment of our journalist fellows, especially the increasing number for whom journalism is a dangerous occupation. It is their celebrate our 35th anniversary. passion which informs my answers to sceptics who question whether journalism has a future. This past year has been one of continuing progress at the Institute with enormously grateful to the contributions of the very distinguished Above: Capital Gazette staffer the arrival of Meera Selva, herself a former fellow, as the first full-time members of our Advisory Board and Editorial Committee and Pat Furgurson takes part in a Director of the Fellowship Programme, and Alexandra Borchardt as the many different sponsors of the Institute. This year’s Digital candlelight vigil held near the Director of Leadership Programmes and creator of a series of short News Report was supported by 14 different sponsors and we are Capital Gazette, the day after a gunman killed five people inside executive courses, together with a new commitment to increasing our delighted that earlier this year Google extended their support the newspaper's building in visibility marked by the appointment of Caroline Lees as our first Head to the Summer of 2020. Facebook also made their first grant to Our mission is to connect Annapolis, Maryland, U.S., June 29, of Communications. Their arrival, along with the continued invaluable us for a new project on Innovation in Newsrooms. Finally, I am rigorous research with 2018. REUTERS/Leah Millis practice work of our Administrator, Kate Hanneford-Smith and Rasmus Kleis grateful for the commitment and dedication of our staff without Nielsen as Director of Research, has strengthened what is a very which we could only deliver a fraction of our ambitions. Left: Marty Baron delivering the Memorial Lecture. collaborative Senior Management Team. ©Bernard Galewski A lot has changed in the past decade. The Institute has grown Everyone at the Institute will have their own, but my personal high enormously, our staffing has tripled and funding quadrupled, Below: Denise Lievesley points for this year are many and varied. They include Marty Baron’s we have strengthened the fellowship programme, established introducing the 'Power of remarkable Reuters Memorial lecture, ‘When a President Wages a substantial research team, and increased our impact on Platforms' inaugural lecture at Green Templeton College. War on a Press at Work’; Nic Newman’s leadership of the 2018 Digital journalism and the news industry.