Journalism after Trump

Abstract

The 2016 presidential election has precipitated a significant crisis in the world of journalism, prompting journalists and media critics to consider the shifts that have taken place in the media ecosystem. Journalists have had to narrate their sense of failure in order to understand it, and to integrate it within their larger worldview and their normative professional commitments. They have had to think about why they failed to see the Alt-Right as an independent and alternative public sphere. They have had to think about how the new media environment has challenged the taken-for-granted epistemological privileges of traditional journalism. They have had to confront the rise of populist discourse, and consider how it challenges journalists’ authority by equating them with elites. In their self-reflection after the election, journalists have sought to update the sacred discourse of journalism and to justify their central position in a democratic society. In order to do this, they have mobilized around a new battle narrative, which foregrounds the collective memory of Watergate and encourages a reconsideration of alliances that might be formed with new media.