September 2021
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Journalists light candles and pay tribute to Reuters photographer Danish Siddiqui in New Delhi, India, Saturday, July 17, 2021. The Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer was killed as he chronicled the fight between Afghan forces and the Taliban. (Altaf Qadri/AP Photo)


** From the editor
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“When you’re going through hell, keep going.”

Danielle C. Belton, editor-in-chief of HuffPost, cites this advice, often attributed to Winston Churchill, in her piece on how journalism can move forward in an age of disinformation and distrust ([link removed]) . This age of disruption, she argues, is a kind of hell, as society reckons with political polarization, anti-intellectualism[INS: , :INS] and the toxic legacies of colonialism, racism, and sexism.

Of course, it’s not just American journalists who are striving to bring the clarity of fact to issues beset by mis- and disinformation. Vidya Krishnan writes about the independent Indian newsrooms still holding the government to account ([link removed]) , despite a crackdown on the free press by the administration of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. They are also dealing with the ongoing ravages of Covid, which killed 595 reporters as of July, making India among the world’s worst in terms of Covid-related deaths of journalists.

The coronavirus pandemic, the movement for racial justice, and the pervasiveness of disinformation are prompting newsrooms to rethink long-standing norms, as Allegra Hobbs maps out in her exploration of how traditional ideas of neutrality, the use of invasive tracking data, and source relationships with law enforcement are shifting ([link removed]) .

Despite the challenges, Belton remains defiantly optimistic. “The press can’t afford to fall into disarray and depression while reporting on the collapsing world around us,” she writes in her essay, part of our ongoing Lessons from The Pandemic ([link removed]) series. “Not when we’re more important than ever as a beacon of truth in a swamp of mis- and disinformation. This is the time where we put up or will be shut up by the darkness, and I, for one, have no interest in silence.”

As Nieman Reports continues to cover how newsrooms keep going, despite sometimes hellish circumstances, I’m delighted to welcome two new colleagues. Laura Colarusso is our new senior editor, joining Nieman from GBH News, where she was digital managing editor; and Natalie De Rosa, a recent graduate of Amherst College, where she was editor-in-chief of The Amherst Student, is our new assistant editor. You’ll be hearing more from them in future editions of this newsletter.

Sincerely,

James Geary
Editor, Nieman Reports
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** How Journalism Moves Forward in an Age of Disinformation and Distrust ([link removed])
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They say, if you're going through hell to keep going

Read more ([link removed])

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** How School Experiences Varied Widely in the Pandemic. Your Journalism Should Reflect That ([link removed])
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Finding the students and families who can't make it to school board meetings or protests needs to be a top priority for reporters

Read more ([link removed])

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** As the World Changes, Sports Journalism Needs to Keep Meeting the Moment ([link removed])
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The pandemic forced sports departments to go beyond scores and records. That's a change that every newsroom should carry into the future

Read more ([link removed])


** More from Nieman Foundation publications:
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Reporting through privacy and pain to expose the scandal of Black amputations ([link removed])

National Magazine Award winner Lizzie Presser documents the discrimination that leaves Black diabetes patients without easy and affordable care

Read more from Nieman Storyboard ([link removed]) .

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The LA Times' Kevin Merida thinks Los Angeles is "the perfect place to redefine the modern newspaper" ([link removed])
“We don’t have to turn around a whole big ship. We can try things.”

Read more from Nieman Lab ([link removed]) .
Read more from Nieman Reports ([link removed])
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