51吃瓜

Moderated by College 51吃瓜 Dean Tracy Sulkin, panelists included journalism faculty and alumni:听

• Leon Dash, Professor and Swanlund Chair, Department of Journalism; 1995 Pulitzer Prize Winner for Explanatory Reporting while at听The Washington Post
• Colleen King, Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Journalism; Director of the Richard and Leslie Frank Center for Leadership and Innovation in Media; former Executive Producer for MSNBC鈥檚听The 11^th听Hour with Brian Williams 听
• (BS 鈥�68, MS 鈥�72, journalism), Chief Correspondent at听The Washington Post听covering national politics, the presidency and Congress
• (BS 鈥�08, journalism), Executive Editor and Co-Founder, Block Club Chicago, an award-winning, reader-funded nonprofit newsroom focused on Chicago鈥檚 neighborhoods

The webinar was a continuation of a College 51吃瓜 series launched in Fall 2024 called 鈥淏ridging Divides: Conversations on Media and Disagreement.鈥� 

Read excerpts from 鈥淓ngaging in a Divided Society鈥� below. Note: Answers have been condensed for length and clarity.

Sulkin: It strikes me that a threshold that we discuss a lot is the lines between news versus commentary. And many see the lines between those two as becoming increasingly blurred. I wonder what your thoughts are about the extent to which that seems a useful theoretical divide, and then what the consequences are of the blurring of those lines.

Dash: News columns are very clear that they are news columns, and I try to point that out to the students, in terms of understanding what a news column is. An opinion column is very, very different from a news column, in which you have a lot of leeway to express your opinion. I think social media has blurred the lines between what is considered news and what is considered an opinion. But I think the conventional publications have continued to distinguish between the two and keep them separated.

Lulay: I think Twitter/X and TikTok are full of opinions. We鈥檙e in a period where newsrooms are rapidly disappearing and we鈥檙e in an era that the world really needs more truth tellers. Something I鈥檝e seen, engaging with readers for a long time, is that readers on the whole really aren鈥檛 able to distinguish between news-driven reporting and opinions on the Op-Ed page, and I think that that damages trust.

Balz: One of the things we鈥檝e noticed is that commentary and opinion writing draws a huge audience. And we know that because of the siloed nature of how people get their news, that people seek out opinion journalism that conforms with their points of view. And in the in the digital age, particularly when you鈥檙e looking at a homepage for鈥攚hether it鈥檚 the Washington Post or the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal鈥攖he commentary pieces are right there smack next to the news pieces. In a printed paper, the opinion pages are in a separate place. They鈥檙e clearly marked. But in a sense the, the presentation has helped to blur the lines.

Sulkin: We鈥檝e been talking about the public鈥檚 trust in the news and looking at polling about what people think about the media. There鈥檚 been a slow decline in trust in all sorts of institutions over the past several decades, with the news media being part of that. Pew reports that over three-quarters of Americans and majorities from both political parties think that news organizations tend to favor one side or the other. Yet large majorities also say that news coverage keeps politicians from doing things that they shouldn鈥檛. So that scrutiny, that watchdog role, still holds. What are your views about what would help the public to regain trust, if we think it鈥檚 been lost, or where could we build on some of those pockets of trust?

Lulay: I鈥檓 really happy to be in a local newsroom these days. I think we can make a real impact in terms of trust. Trust is built from the ground up and there鈥檚 no better place to build relationships with readers than in a local newsroom. Rebuilding trust in our city is key to why Block Club was founded.

When we started this newsroom, there was a study that trust, particularly on the South and West sides of our city鈥攖hese are under-resourced areas of our city鈥攖rust was at an all-time low with the media. And that was because of generations of the media either only reporting on crime or chaos that happened in those neighborhoods, if they ever showed up at all. At Block Club, instead of covering a traditional beat like courts and education in such a big city where there鈥檚 too much going on, our reporters are assigned to two to three contiguous neighborhoods. And when they鈥檙e covering a smaller area like that, they really are able to build close relationships with readers, which we believe ensures the news that we鈥檙e reporting not only reflects what they most care about, but also leads to a more accurate portrayal of their neighborhood.

King: I would say it鈥檚 very tricky because the skills that we teach our students to cover Chicago and maybe go work for Stephanie [Lulay] are not different than skills I would teach up-and-coming reporters to go work with Dan [Balz]. I think people are turning off the news in large part because it always seems like bad news right now. So perhaps we can be more creative in our angles, but I also think transparency is a big part of reporting. And being honest in what we know and what we don鈥檛 is a big part of it, too. You know, it is our job to hold people accountable; that鈥檚 why we do what we do. Hopefully over the course of time, people can see that our reporting holds up and is fact-based and we鈥檙e just trying to report the truth as best we know it.

Balz: Repairing the decline in trust is a very difficult job that we can鈥檛 do in and of ourselves as news organizations. What鈥檚 happened in terms of the decline of trust is a societal-wide problem. Just as the polarization of the country is a societal-wide problem. And it will take time to begin to overcome that. We have a role to play in that. There are things we can do about that. Colleen [King] is exactly right. Transparency is important. The idea of being open about what we know and what we don鈥檛 know is important. But we also have to do what we鈥檝e always done, which is to be aggressive in our reporting and follow that wherever it leads us and live with the consequences of that. Our first obligation is to find the truth to the best that we can find it on any day or week.

Sulkin: We had Chuck Todd visit the College 51吃瓜 in December right before he announced that he would be departing NBC News after a long career there. I think a narrative thread he was pulling was that local news is the cure to what ails the news ecosystem. I think part of the argument was that maybe if folks have the opportunity to engage with local news, that helps with some spillover to how they think about national news. But the growing news deserts mean a lot of folks don鈥檛 have local news. As we are preparing students and launching them out into their careers, Colleen and Leon, what are we doing to correct some of these news desert issues?

Dash: My emphasis with my students is fact-based reporting. It鈥檚 a no-no in my classes when they say, 鈥業 assume鈥� or 鈥業 think.鈥� I say you shouldn鈥檛 be 鈥榓ssuming鈥� and you shouldn鈥檛 be 鈥榯hinking鈥� anything. You should know. If you don鈥檛 know, you should say you don鈥檛 know.   And transparency is a big part of that. Being honest and upfront. I don鈥檛 even know how you overcome this divide in this society today. But in terms of conventional journalism, fact-based reporting is very, very important and transparency is also very important.

King: And I would say we鈥檙e training our student journalists to learn all kinds of skills. Our students are leaving our universityknowing how to podcast and write, do audio and video journalism, and write online or for print news outlets. So they could really drop in anywhere and cover any community they want to. While we鈥檝e got many who want to return home to the Chicagoland area, or make it big in New York or LA or Washington, we do encourage them to think about covering smaller communities鈥� at least getting a start there鈥攁nd understanding what it鈥檚 like to cover a community where you do get to know your audience and the people you鈥檙e covering and in government as well.