Guest Essay

Perspectives from outside experts—bringing fresh insights on the challenges and opportunities at the intersection of journalism, technology, and society.

Showing 1 – 12 of 15 Posts

  • The Hardware of Democracy: Upgrading Journalism’s Next Operating System

    We are navigating a fundamental shift in how people consume and verify reality. The modern crisis of trust stems from an architecture that has outpaced our collective ability to process information…we now have the opportunity to serve as the engineers…

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    Letters From the Field

    From Afghanistan and Nigeria to Ukraine, journalists speak of exile, legacy, and resilience.

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    Integrating Emerging Technology in Newsrooms Must Preserve Journalistic Agency

    In interviews with more than 70 journalism professionals, Emilia Ruzicka found that daily journalists are being left out of conversations about the future of AI in the field.

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    Rethinking the Donor Playbook: What 30 Years of Media Development Have Taught Us

    Donor assistance alone is not enough to sustain journalism around the world. The “Fourth Estate” ideal cannot exist without also having strong business models and sustained political investment.

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    It Takes More than Facts: Understanding the News Avoidance Gap

    In many cases, news avoidance is a response to news outlets’ outdated model: The content and its format no longer align with how consumers actually ingest facts and information today, and so fails to meet users’ needs.

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    We Just Lost Our Best Chance in a Generation to Expand Media Freedom

    A US retreat from international media assistance will set back the global movement for media freedom by years. The gap left behind will not be easy to fill. The movement, however, can be sustained by fortifying its roots. In time,…

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    Stories of Success at a High Price: Accountability Journalism in the Largely Autocratic MENA

    The ICFJ Knight Trailblazer Award that I received in Washington on November 14 in many ways symbolizes my life-long mission to encourage accountability journalism and equip journalists throughout the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) with the tools to practice…

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    Media, Technology, and Civic Institutions are Up to the Task of Dealing with Negative AI Generated Election Content

    In a discussion that’s often overwhelmed by bad news, whether of the media or despair about manipulated content, there are glimmers of hope that show all of us how there can be a better and effective way forward into the…

  • Impacts of the Digital Services Act on Critical Voices in Serbia

    Civil society organizations (CSOs) based in the Western Balkans have raised concerns about the impacts of the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) on the region. For successful implementation, the DSA requires the operational independence of state-level institutions.

  • Journalists Have Yet to Build Products With AI

    News organizations need to start building their own solutions if they want to stay ahead of new disruptive tools being pushed by tech companies.

  • Winter in the Deep, Deep South – A Challenging Season for Broadcast Media in Australia and New Zealand

    Is New Zealand, a nation of five million people, the canary in the media coal mine? A society that can no longer support viable local broadcast businesses amid the rise of multinational digital platforms that produce no content but dominate…

  • The Ticking Clock: Rethinking Journalism’s Core in an AI-Driven World

    At SXSW, Hacks/Hackers explored AI’s impact on journalism, from envisioning a future media landscape to fears of job displacement. With journalism facing financial woes, there’s urgency to embrace AI.