“Essential reading for anyone ready to build the future of news.”
— Sisi Wei
Chief impact officer at CalMatters and The Markup
“A must-read for anyone concerned with the future of American journalism.”
— Sarabeth Berman
CEO, American Journalism Project
The Next Journalism:
How the Press Must Change to Serve Democracy
The crisis of democracy is also a crisis over how people learn about the world beyond their direct experience—in other words, news. In The Next Journalism, Tom Rosenstiel—the acclaimed veteran journalist, researcher, novelist, and co-author of The Elements of Journalism—argues that the roots of journalism’s failure are intellectual, not simply financial or technological. The problem, in other words, is a failed product, not just a disrupted business model.
The book not only explains the nature of journalism’s conceptual failure. It also outlines ten fundamental ways journalism must change to become more useful, trustworthy, and collaborative with the communities it serves.
From redefining news as a service rather than a product, to embracing a more radical transparency, to harnessing AI responsibly, Rosenstiel provides a bold, practical framework for rebuilding a press that empowers citizens instead of alienating them. With case studies, historical insight, and forward-looking ideas, this book offers journalists, policymakers, and readers alike a roadmap to ensuring democracy’s survival in the twenty-first century.
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After The Elements of Journalism, What Comes Next?
For more than two decades, The Elements of Journalism has defined the principles citizens should expect from the press. The Next Journalism takes the next step, showing how those principles must evolve for a fragmented, digital, AI-shaped information age.
If The Elements of Journalism asked what journalism is for, The Next Journalism asks what it must become.
What You’ll Learn from The Next Journalism
Ten fundamental ways journalism must change to better serve the public.
Shift from a Journalism of Attention to a Journalism of Value
The old business model of news was simple. Get people’s attention and rent it to advertisers. Consequently, generations of studies show that most news stories told people about things that were wrong or weird while amplifying the activities of people in power. That model no longer works. The next journalism must focus on helping people live their lives, rather than treating them as passive recipients to be informed or rented out. In short, move from a journalism of attention to one of value.
Journalism Is an Unrecognized Ideology
When charged with bias, most journalists contend they are just doing their job. But that defense tends to only further infuriate critics. What most journalists fail to recognize is that they operate by a professional ideology, a worldview that attracts people to the field and is reinforced in newsrooms. But research shows most Americans are skeptical of some of the core ideas of journalism, such as the belief that you make society better by pointing out its flaws. The first step in fixing this problem is recognizing this ideology exists.
Journalism Must Learn from Psychology
Other professions, such as the health industry, have learned much from behavioral psychology about how to inform patients and help them. Journalism has yet to learn these lessons. Consider that the inverted pyramid news story format is more than 100 years old. The book dives deep into what psychology can teach journalism about how to present information in a way people will accept it. Sadly many recent trends in news are counterproductive.
The “Objectivity” Debate Has Become Counterproductive
In many ways, the debate over objectivity has become more focused on semantics than substance. Is objectivity just another word for neutrality? Or is it a cover for a white male establishment point of view? Or something else? It doesn’t help that the word has multiple definitions. On close examination, however, the combatants in the debate actually agree on what defines good journalism: open-minded inquiry grounded in verification.
News Must Become a Collaborative Intelligence
Twentieth-century journalism treated the public as a passive audience. Twenty-first-century journalism must recognize communities as a source of lived experience, authority, and diverse vantage points. Rather than a threat to professional journalism, the public is better seen as a partner. So are machines and AI. Together, they can make professional journalism stronger, not weaker.
What Is Responsible Use of Journalistic AI?
In the first digital revolution, the dominant attitude of the news industry was to wait and see. The result was disastrous. Journalism must now run toward AI, not wait, or the results will again weaken news. Done right, AI has the potential to empower journalists and citizens alike by helping them better understand their communities.
What Does Journalism as Service Look Like?
For years, advocates of innovation have said journalism must shift from being a product to being a service for the public. Easy to say. But what does it mean? Actually, it’s happening and the many examples in this book offer inspiration and models. The result is a different kind of journalism, one engaged in offering people solutions and making sure they get what they need.
Reinventing the Interview
Journalists need to reimagine the most basic element of their work—the interview—and transform it from a transactional exchange for getting quotes into a journey of discovery and understanding. Drawing on techniques of great journalists and other fields, the book offers concrete examples of how to do this.
What Is the Nature of Trust in News?
Nothing is more central to the crisis in news than the decline in trust. But most journalists don’t fully understand this trust relationship. Decades of scholarship have found that trust in news has three essential elements. Journalists must be competent. They must be accountable. But the public must also believe the journalist is benevolent—that is, well-intentioned. The current attempts to solve the trust crisis have all but ignored this last element.
Journalism for All
To what degree can we still have a public square with shared facts? The book takes a deep look at the degree to which we still do agree on core facts, especially outside politics. The results are more optimistic than you might think. The solutions are not simple, but they are possible.
From the Reviews
“Acclaimed journalist and novelist Rosenstiel presents thoughtful strategies to cope with this increasingly fragmented media landscape. Using illustrative case histories to support his theories for rethinking journalism’s best practices, Rosenstiel stresses the importance of understanding how information is processed and used by the public…. Rosenstiel’s thoughtful analysis will resonate with anyone concerned with the future of the press.”
— Booklist Online
Rosenstiel “presents a solid case that news organizations’ problems are bigger than they realize… backed by concrete ideas.” The Next Journalism is a “roadmap for rejuvenating journalism in a fast-moving fragmented world.”
— Kirkus
“Intriguing…. Rosenstiel proposes 10 changes essential for delivering” a new “service-focused journalism…. Throughout, Rosenstiel packs in much useful guidance for working journalists.” The Next Journalism “gives scribes and stringers much to consider.”
— Publishers Weekly
“The Next Journalism” is not comfortable reading for those of us who do what we do because we believe we are serving society by advocating for the public’s right to know. However pure the intention, Rosenstiel says, journalists need to do a better job of “reading the room.”
— Cecile Wehrman, The Journal
Advance Praise
Tom Rosenstiel has a habit of writing books that are must-reads for practicing and aspiring journalists—and for anyone who aims to understand the field. With The Next Journalism, he does it yet again. In this urgent call for journalists to rethink their mission and craft, Rosenstiel solidifies his reputation as a leading thinker on how journalists can deliver better work and earn greater public confidence.
— Martin Baron, former executive editor, The Washington Post
Rosenstiel offers an urgent intellectual framework for the reinvention of journalism as a public service. He makes a clear case for a press less driven by attention and more focused on helping people navigate their lives. The result is a vision of journalism that is more relevant to people—and more vital to our democracy. A must-read for anyone concerned with the future of American journalism.
— Sarabeth Berman, CEO, American Journalism Project
A high-stakes roadmap for relevance. In The Next Journalism, Tom Rosenstiel replaces industry despair with a grounded hope in what must come next. By bridging deep research with practical examples from newsrooms already pushing boundaries, Rosenstiel provides the answers we’ve been looking for, and the historical lessons we can’t afford to ignore. Essential reading for anyone ready to build the future of news.
— Sisi Wei, chief impact officer at CalMatters and The Markup
Tom Rosenstiel has spent a lifetime in and around journalism, but he is not playing defense in this engaging, hopeful, and helpful book. He is as interested as anybody in transforming the news into the public good we want and need it to be. Taking examples from across the country, he offers up frameworks, examples, and models of new and exciting ways news can better serve us as individuals and as a society—without abandoning the values that make journalism fair and worthy of our collective trust. If you want more from our media and are ready to pitch in, read this.
— Sarah Alvarez, founder of Outlier Media and James B. Steele Chair of Journalism Innovation at Temple University
Contact
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