Insights from important journalism figures on the state of news in 2025, as shared by the Nieman Journalism Lab.
This article was originally published by Nieman Journalism Lab and is hereby reproduced by iMEdD with permission. Any reprint permissions are subject to the original publisher. Read the original article here.
As a journalism professor, I often talk with students about the purpose of journalism in a liberal democracy — which I assume the United States to be, at least aspirationally.
I start by explaining what I mean by liberal democracy. It’s a form of governance in which decisions are made based on the will of the people, in furtherance of values such as individual autonomy, equal rights, and justice under law, respect for people’s humanity, and the belief that we have the agency and responsibility to improve our society through civic participation.
Then we talk about why the practice of liberal democracy in the United States matters. It empowers us to achieve the more perfect union that’s envisioned in our Constitution, through the exercise of the five freedoms that are guaranteed in our First Amendment. I argue that the press is an indispensable civic institution, whose purpose in our democracy is to provide everyone with the information they need to make well-informed decisions about their needs and interests.
Of course, this is not an original argument. Political philosophers such as Thomas Jefferson, communication scholars, journalism professors, and journalists themselves have argued some variation of it for many years. But it’s important to center ourselves in this understanding of purpose, as we think about what’s next for journalism — not only in the coming year, but throughout the rest of the decade.
Young journalists, in particular, are deeply concerned about the future. They’re starting their lives in a time of social, political, economic, climatological, and technological disruptions. And they’re starting their careers in a turbulent industry marked by job precarity, an absence of well-being, horrific harassment, increasing threats and physical danger, and a conscienceless corporate focus on maximizing profits.
One way to cope with instability is to have a strong sense of who you are as a person and what your purpose is in life. Some people find these things in religion, or in other traditions. Others find them in philosophy, or through hardships, or in the company of others who share their life experiences.
Wherever you find your sense of purpose and identity, one of the most consequential ways to express it is through your job. Occupations are a means through which we can operationalize who we are and what we value every day. And so, the day after our national elections, with the knowledge that students were processing a range of emotions, I sent them a message to remind them of these things, in the context of journalism in the service of democracy:
I’ve told you since the first day of class that journalists have a lot of power. A lot of power. And if you didn’t understand it then, perhaps you do now. Journalists have tremendous power to inform or misinform, to be brutally honest or to slant, to represent or to misrepresent. And these are feelings felt by people across the political spectrum.
If you are happy with the way the election turned out, and you want to be a journalist, your job going forward is to report the news fairly, accurately, and transparently, and to hold power accountable.
If you are unhappy with the way the election turned out, and you want to be a journalist, your job going forward is to report the news fairly, accurately, and transparently, and to hold power accountable.
Notice how your job is the same either way. And that will never change. Journalism is about truthfully reporting on the state of the world and its implications, and holding power accountable.
And the positive responses to this that I received from students, faculty, and journalists themselves are the basis for the following prediction for journalism.
The newest generation of journalists will not give in to pessimism about whether their profession still matters in an age of cynicism about the press. While they understand how journalism has failed our society, they also know that people who are committed to producing journalism in the public interest have the power to help to repair it.
They are not naively optimistic. The pandemic and other recent events of historical significance have cured them of much of their innocence. They have a level of anxiety that should impress the members of the acerbic generation once defined in part by Prozac Nation, who know their clonazepam and citalopram from their fluoxetine and Wellbutrin.
Nor should we, as scholars like Nik Usher warn, romanticize the effects of journalism on our democracy, as many factors influence its health and energy. But experiencing the stings of leadership and policy errors in 21st-century America has led students to pursue callings whose purpose is to ameliorate them. They want to do the work of reimagining journalism to be more relevant and responsive to the needs of their generation and society — and in the coming years, they will. For them, the cause of a press that serves a useful role in U.S. democracy endures.
Christoph Mergerson is an assistant professor in the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland.
Find a selection of Nieman Journalism Lab’s predictions for journalism in 2025 here.
