“Joy” may not be the first word that comes to mind when you think about journalism. In some ways, that makes sense: Journalists report emotionally exhausting stories, manage the at-times hostile audience members, and navigate long working hours. Recent academic research has explored much of that. But we’re missing something essential in all of that...
The lakeside location, historic churches, and pretty cobbled streets of Ohrid in North Macedonia draw hundreds of thousands of tourists each year. But the city’s status as a UNESCO-protected gem has not defended it from rampant overdevelopment and corruption. When notorious local politician and businessman Nefi Useini began to illegally build a pizzeria near an...
Atlanta — If you are a U.S. news publisher, you likely know that your traffic from social media has fallen — the question is just how much. Social analytics platform Chartbeat has some answers. Social’s share of traffic to the 700 U.S. news sites that are Chartbeat clients has dropped by a third since January 2023,...
Talk about a hat trick. ABC News, NBC News, and CBS News all saw gains in total viewers and in the advertiser-coveted Adults 25-54 demo for the week October 7. As with the morning shows, Hurricane Milton likely contributed to the rise in viewership for the evening broadcasts. ABC News and NBC News particularly benefitted...
New York City Mayor Eric Adams’s indictment on federal corruption charges in September has kept local news outlets busy. And for at least one, the work is paying off. In Hell Gate NYC’s second annual report, published on Friday, the worker-owned New York City news outlet said its subscription revenue increased by 8% in September,...
The Beacon, a prominent Midwestern news nonprofit that began publishing news coverage in Kansas City in 2020 and expanded to Wichita in 2021 with almost $4 million raised from local philanthropy and the American Journalism Project, is shutting down its Wichita newsroom three years after its launch. “Our vision hasn’t changed. We’re thinking beyond our...
There’s one question I get every time I give a talk. I’m a curator of political history at the Smithsonian Institution, and when I discuss the deep history of political division in our country, someone in the audience always asserts that we can’t possibly compare past divisions to the present, because our media landscape is...
Pop culture, viral dances, and comedy are big on TikTok. News and politics? Not so much. A new report from the Pew Research Center finds that Americans on TikTok follow very few politicians, journalists, or traditional media outlets. In fact, the typical U.S. adult on TikTok follows zero accounts in those categories. For the new...
As journalism struggles through a now decades-long decline in economic stability and public trust, academics who study journalism have grown increasingly focused on finding ways to improve the profession. The signs of this shift are everywhere. Academic conferences and groups focused on journalism research have recently launched awards meant to recognize scholars who successfully bring...
Want to check out some new conspiracy theories? Social media is a great place to find them. But will it make you believe them? That’s the question asked by a new working paper looking at conspiracy theories surrounding the Donald Trump assassination attempt on July 13. (Gotta love it when academia moves quickly!) It suggests...