Future of Journalism – a series by the Alliance for Journalists' Freedom Alliance for Journalists' Freedom

Media outlets are experimenting with ways to attract younger audiences, as the under 35s snack instead of grazing on smartphones across their multiple networks for news. They also have the lowest trust in media, according to a Reuters Institute report. 

How can media gain the trust of younger audiences? How can they inspire loyalty? Is it true that younger audiences don’t consume long-form content?    

For our #FutureOfJournalism series, the AJF's Chair Peter Wilkinson talked to Phoebe Connelly, director of Next Generation Audience Development at the Washington Post.

Watch this interview on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYf3MwSfQ20

John Cook created Cranky Uncle to fight misinformation. He’s a scientist and reporting those complexities is not easy. Take climate change. How might journalists have covered climate change in a more nuanced way – without giving so much weight to a tiny contrarian minority? What lessons can be learned from the way media covered Covid-19 vaccines? 

For our #FutureOfJournalism series, the AJF's Chair Peter Wilkinson talked to Cook, a research fellow with the Monash Climate Change Communication Research Hub.

Watch this interview on YouTube https://youtu.be/s_UnvWmoaH4

A journalists' job, in part, is to shine light into dark corners. But how can they be effective when increasingly readers don’t read beyond the headline, and headline writers are driven by clicks? How can journalists cover disinformation and avoid becoming vehicles for it? 

For our #FutureOfJournalism series, the AJF's Chair Peter Wilkinson talked to Claire Wardle, co-founder and director of the Information Futures Lab at the US-based Brown University which is focused on fixing the way misinformation harms people.

Watch this interview on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSBMdlXXPFU 

The digital revolution brought an end to the glory days of most print publications. However, journalism’s ability to reach larger audiences has never been better than now. How can legacy media rethink their role and attract younger readers who are less loyal to news brands? Is it time to redefine journalistic objectivity? Is using individual brands of journalists a better way to gain the trust of audiences?

For our #FutureOfJournalism series, the AJF's Chair Peter Wilkinson talked to Raju Narisetti, Head of Global Publishing at McKinsey&Company. Previously, he was a journalist and held management roles with the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, News Corp, amongst others.

Watch this interview on YouTube https://youtu.be/mtGF4OjQOgU

Where does journalism fit into the metaverse? And what is the metaverse beyond a concept? Well, it’s tomorrow’s internet -- a convergence of virtual and augmented reality, artificial intelligence, blockchain, digital currencies, and 5G. It is predicted to reshape the way people live, work and play, and with immersive content, how we get, or experience, new information.   

For our #FutureOfJournalism series, the AJF's Peter Wilkinson talked to Zillah Watson, a London-based consultant on VR and immersive content. Previously, she had a long career with the BBC as a producer, digital strategist, and, most recently, as the head of the VR Hub.

As newsrooms become more complex, journalists will be increasingly negotiating with a variety of experts: data harvesters, social and digital geeks, product developers, content executives and marketing specalists.

So how should the media bosses rethink their strategies? And can an increasingly smarter focus on audiences help journalism thrive and, ultimately, be more trusted?

In 2019, former journalist, Anita Zielina, founded an executive program in news innovation – a kind of MBA for media managers -- at City University of New York. Now, she’s leaving the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, where she is the Director of Strategic Initiatives, to start her own media consultancy based in her hometown of Vienna.