Partnering for democracy

Everyone was talking about it — seconds after it finished, the messages flooding my Twitter feed about this particular happening were rampant. The happening itself was exactly 60 seconds, yet was long enough to strike a nerve.

I refer to the advertisement that the Washington Post created, which aired last night during the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl. Narrated by actor Tom Hanks, the advertisement advocated for the pursuit of knowledge, and how journalists near and far are beacons of that knowledge, no matter the cost, the location or the event.

It ended thusly: “Knowing empowers us. Knowing helps us decide. Knowing keeps us free.”

In a time where journalism faces a multitude of challenges, ranging from not only its economics as a result of continual layoffs but also its relationship with the audience as the rhetoric of fake news and enemy of the people becomes the norm, the ad from the Post was an apt reminder of a quintessential value that many Americans hold dear— freedom of the press.

In the midst of the reaction to the Post ad, an industry peer responded to a message circulated from Hannah Wise, the Audience Development Editor at the Dallas Morning News. Wise shared that the Post had retweeted a story one of its reporters had done about a mother who was mourning her third son, after her first two sons died last October.

My industry peer responded to the tweet in a 3 word hashtag: “Partnerships not parachutes.”

Much of the criticism that comes at the doorstep of much of the national media is the bringing in of national correspondents who aren’t familiar with various locations, known as parachute journalism. Much of the output is known for a lack of reliance on local voices — journalists who know their communities in and out and who could better tell a breaking news story and bring it to context.

While parachute journalism has been a norm for many years, Sarah Baird, a freelance journalist, decided that was an issue holding the industry back, and not relying on local journalists to tell their communities’ stories hindered the prospects of restoring overall trust in journalism.

This pivot away from journalism’s norms is essential if trust is to be restored between the journalist and the audience. Indeed, it can boost engagement — positive engagement that can help restore for many why the profession of journalist is crucial to the fabric of modern culture and society — for if people aren’t trusting the content that is put out, people won’t trust the journalists and news organizations producing the content.

Yet, much of the methods that have been signature to the journalism landscape are ingrown — so ingrown that one wonders if there is going to be a shift in the industry for the better — a shift that can allow early career journalists to pursue work in this profession without fear of detouring through it in order to live, a shift that allows journalists to truly take the time to make sense of events, a shift that shows journalists and these national organizations work for every person in every community.

The Washington Post is right that our democracy depends on journalists and the need for a free press, that knowing empowers us, helps us decide and keeps us free — and it is something that, in this new age of media, needs to be shouted from the rooftops. The Post did good to remind the millions of people watching the Super Bowl last night of that.

The Post and other outlets however can take it a step further — work more with local outlets and invest in the journalists in those communities alongside the recognized correspondents in New York, Washington and other media circles — to show that we’re all here to do the same thing and that location is not a hindrance — to create journalism that promotes partnerships, not parachutes.

Democracy depends on it.

Editor’s note: This post was edited for clarity at 2:14pm CT on February 4th.

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