More Important, But Less Robust? Five Things Everybody Needs to Know about the Future of Journalism

"Digital media have empowered people worldwide but also enabled the spread of disinformation and demagoguery and undermined the funding of professional journalism as we know it."

Based on research conducted by the Reuters Institute, this report identifies five trends pertinent to the future of journalism. These trends reflect changes in the way people access news, transformations in professional journalism and the business of news, and changing political environments in some parts of the world. According to the report, these five trends will impact the work of professional reporters and everyone who works with them and relies on them - from the general public to politicians, nongovernmental organisations (NGOs), and private enterprise. Although precise developments differ from country to country - depending on the economic, political, and social context, especially as much of the world's population is still offline, and many governments do not ensure freedom of the press - these five trends are meant to be global and cut across many of these differences.

The report begins by briefly outlining where we are at with digital media and journalism. It explains that as people increasingly rely on search engines, social media, and messaging applications, which help them access, discuss, and share news, they also risk being exposed to false or misleading information often coming from self-interested sources - a shift that risks hurting the political process, civil society, and private enterprise. In this situation, independent professional journalism will be more important than ever in helping people understand the major challenges and opportunities facing society today. However, in the digital world, where traditional media and revenue are declining, the business of news is changing, causing journalism to potentially become less robust, and ultimately incapable of helping the public make sense of their world or holding power to account.

The five trends are briefly summarised below:

1. We have moved from a world where media organisations were gatekeepers to a world where media still create the news agenda, but platform companies control access to audiences - With people increasingly accessing their news through channels provided by platform products and services like search engines, social media, and news aggregators, media organisations no longer have access to the channels through which their news is distributed. In addition, as digital media enables everyone with internet access to publish, news media has to increasingly compete for attention with ordinary users, more-or-less-celebrity "influencers", corporate communications, NGOs, social movements, and politicians.

2. This move to digital media generally does not generate filter bubbles. Instead, automated serendipity and incidental exposure drive people to more and more diverse sources of information - Distributed discovery through digital media is broadening people's news diet. With digital media, unlike newspapers, information now reaches people through, for example, the algorithmic ranking systems driving social media and search engines. Although digital media use is thus associated with more diverse news use, the paper describes how this can also lead to information inequality and political polarisation – risks that are fundamentally rooted in political and social factors but can be amplified by technology.

3. Journalism is often losing the battle for people's attention and, in some countries, for the public's trust - With the amount of information being made accessible through digital media, journalism is at risk of losing out in the competition for attention. As explained in this paper, journalism is facing an increasing loss of interest in news by the public, as well as a loss of confidence and trust in the news. One reason is that many people feel news media are unduly influenced by outside economic and political interests. The low trust creates an environment in which disinformation and populist demagogues can thrive. Attacks on journalism and news media by these and other political and business leaders can in turn further undermine trust.

4. The business models that fund news are challenged, weakening professional journalism and leaving news media more vulnerable to commercial and political pressures - Funding for professional journalism is declining with the continued move to a more digital media environment. This is not just causing retrenchments and less coverage of many important issues, but a less robust business of journalism is more vulnerable to media capture by the state or politically motivated owners, and to pressure from advertisers. For independent, professional journalism that provides a public good to continue, policy intervention could be called for to address market failures.

5. News is more diverse than ever, and journalism is taking on everyone from the most powerful politicians to the biggest private companies - Although factors such as cost-cutting, increased pressure to produce more stories across more channels/formats, and a 24/7 news cycle have led to a large volume of more superficial journalism, the paper makes the point that journalism today is more accessible, more timely, more informative, more interactive, and more engaged with its audience. "Journalists have embraced digital media and evolved various new formats, from deep engagement with readers over joint fact-checking work to cross-national collaborative investigative reporting, that are enabled by new technologies." The role of journalists in confronting corruption amongst public officials, fuelling public debate around platform companies' power and privacy practices, and other issues in the private sector underlines the continued importance of investigative reporting.

The report ends with a look at where the world is heading with digital journalism. These five trends "will help define the future of journalism - more accessible as new platform products and services from augmented reality to voice assistants grow in importance to supplement search engines and social media; less robust as old business models built in twentieth-century media environments erode in twenty-first-century environments; more important than ever as we face complex global problems and the risks of unaccountable exercise of public or private power." To ensure that journalism and news media can play their crucial role, it is therefore important to ensure that they continually adapt to digital media and build a business that is sustainable, and that the freedom of the media is protected.