Abstract
The rise of interpretive news opened a gap between journalism and what people need from news. Modern journalism aims to provide a mature explanation for what happened, insight into what will come next, and a repeatable performance by reporters. With events placed in context, the public can pursue future action based on expert reporting. But US news has mainly proved callow, fallible, and hasty, despite a century of change. Reflections on a project tracking 125 years of news content suggest that flawed news opens more space for engagement than modern journalism can offer. Realism in news confronts the main problems of partisanism, sensationalism, and cynicism. Mainstream journalists resist lurid or partisan coverage to build public trust, but again appear to have failed, especially in the digital era. The implication is that all three could spur vigorous citizenship, partisanism teaching consensus-building, sensationalism teaching moderation, and untrustworthiness teaching self-reliance. The crisis of journalism seems to accompany perils for the people, but modern news at its height of power likely dampened public engagement, a danger itself. Only a different news philosophy can accommodate bottom-up knowledge for audiences resisting top-down journalism. Despite nostalgia for modernism, another news philosophy will not mark an end to democracy.
Highlights
In spring 2009, students at the Northwestern University journalism school developed Stats Monkey, software to turn sports scores into a news story, like this one: “Northwestern held off a late comeback bid by Georgetown to defeat the Hoyas 5–3 Friday
News stories about automation focused on whether software would help or replace reporters and editors, a theme the trade press picked up after Wired magazine predicted a “robonews tsunami” based on Narrative Science claims that computers would win a Pulitzer within five years and write “more than 90 percent” of news within fifteen years
The understandable job fears highlight a gap between the aims for modern news and its reception among audiences
Summary
In spring 2009, students at the Northwestern University journalism school developed Stats Monkey, software to turn sports scores into a news story, like this one: “Northwestern held off a late comeback bid by Georgetown to defeat the Hoyas 5–3 Friday. The public service mission behind modern news rests on unstable ground as long as news fails to resemble other knowledge work such as law or medicine. Would citizens benefit from reliable news that modern practice aims to achieve and that automated news might deliver?
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