Journalism Today. Nov 8, 2024

By Matthew Leake

??? 3 top news stories

1. What just happened? As the dust settles a lot quicker than expected after Donald Trump won the presidential election, we heard from a panel of scholars, pundits and journalists on what lessons we can learn – why Harris lost, Trump’s appeal, what’s next and more. You can watch back the event that we co-hosted with Oxford University’s American Institute and read seven key takeaways by our colleague Eduardo Suárez . | Read

• A quote. Republican strategist Mike Murphy told our online and offline audience that “In many ways, it was a normal election. Up to 70% thought things were going in the wrong direction, so we had an angry electorate ready for change. That usually means that the party in power gets wiped out. Prices touched voters and Trump made incredible inroads amongst Latinos and working class voters. For regular voters, big, simple stuff counts.”

2. The media battleground. During the event, panellists discussed how campaigners used the media differently than in previous elections, often resorting to hyper-niche podcasts that attract younger audiences, and how areas underserved by traditional news have been linked to the rise of Trump. | Read

• A quote. “After the election, I’ve been thinking a lot about who’s actually reading good quality news, and who actually does need to get it,” said Clare Malone , a writer at the New Yorker. “Not everyone is going to read a New Yorker story. In fact, very few people will. So how does that reporting trickle down into cable news and maybe even into TikTok? We have to think about the way our citizenry is actually consuming news.”

?? The ‘podcast election’. Our Acting Director Mitali Mukherjee spoke to BBC 5Live yesterday on some of the underlying trends in US media and how this is reflected in the candidates speaking to some of the biggest podcasters like Joe Rogan and Alex Cooper. | Listen to the clip

3. TV ratings. 42 million people tuned in to TV election coverage in the peak hours between 7 and 11pm, down 25% since 2020. Well over half of these viewers, 24.4 million, were aged 55 and over. Fox News Channel led the way again, but its numbers were down significantly since 2020, like other networks, reflecting the fragmentation of news habits. MSNBC’s viewing numbers beat CNN for the first time. | Read

• Top streamers. On streaming platforms, viewers watched 84 million hours of Election Day content, peaking at over 9 million viewers. YouTube took the lion’s share at 80% with Rumble (13%) and Twitch (5%) quite far behind. Fox had the most streaming viewers among mainstream news organisations at over 1.1 million, followed by NBC News (617,000). Individual streamers including Dan Bongino, Steven Crowder and Hasan Piker also had 100,000s of viewers. | Read

?? Chart of the day

?? Paying for news. Of those who don’t currently pay for online news, large proportions still say they would be unwilling to pay anything, according to our Digital News Report. There is room for growth in markets that already have high levels of subscription, such as Finland, where half of non-subscribers would consider paying up to €10 per month. | Read our chapter on subscriptions

?? Coffee break

“The press has a lot to learn about what people’s genuine concerns are,” former Washington Post editor Martin Baron tells media columnist Sullivan Margaret . | Read

Violent attacks against Bolivian journalists covering anti-government protests must be investigated say the Committee to Protect Journalists. In one instance a noose was tightened around a journalist’s neck. | Read

“Do we accept that indeed genocide is happening… and yet remain silent?,” wrote LA Times’ owner Patrick Soon-Shiong on the paper's decision to refuse to endorse a presidential candidate. | Read

The Washington Post is telling its workers to return to the office five days a week from next year to achieve that “great office energy”. | Read

?? One piece from our archive.

Covering conflict. The conflict in Burkina Faso has seen thousands killed and two million displaced. Five journalists have been killed and six have gone missing. In this project by our Journalist Fellow Oumar ZOMBRE , he looks at how journalists sent to report on the frontline have been prepared for their assignments. Despite 83% of journalists he polled being sent to cover the conflict, 73% had received no training for the risks involved, 65% reported exposure to traumatic imagery or events, and yet 63% had never heard of PTSD. | Read

_________

?? Sign up for our newsletter now

To ensure you get everything we do, sign up for the Reuters Institute's newsletter. Original reporting, evidence-based insights, online seminars and readings are sent twice a week. | Sign up now