"Navigating the News" is Comprehensive, Current and Candid

By Hannah Moore

In today’s environment, we clearly don’t know what to do with all the information we have. The Internet has democratized content creation and in result blurred the lines between ordinary citizen and reporter, news and speculation, facts and fiction, fact and opinion.

Fortunately, SJSU professor Richard Craig gives us the tools to navigate today’s journalism landscape in his newest book: Navigating the News: A Guide to Understanding Journalism. Unfortunately to me (but probably fortunately for Craig), the book research was completed before the world was turned upside-down by the COVID pandemic, a presidential election during said pandemic, essentially an earthquake to the global supply chain, an attempt of radicalized citizenry to overturn a legitimate election and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Despite having more information than ever before, we seem generally less informed than ever before. The rise of social media, corporate greed, Media Bashing As A Political Campaign Fundraiser (outrage is profitable) and the decline of newsroom investment (triggered by the 2007 recession) have all culminated to make today’s media landscape a minefield. More powerful and far-reaching tools than ever, but more voices to wade through and compete with than ever. How do we deal? What happens to journalism?

Don’t get me wrong, the book’s assessments and ideas still hold up and are still relevant. But I feel like they’re more urgent than the book portrays, given what we know now, and in ways that were not anticipated when this book was written. Pre-2020 times seem almost quaint in hindsight.

To be fair, Navigating the News reminds us that despite all the changes to society, the mechanisms of reporting, interviewing and fact-checking have remained remarkably unchanged. However, the way people consume news and the tools of information-gathering have changed dramatically. I appreciate that the book provides tips on how to not only be a savvy journalist but also how to be a savvy news consumer. To become good writers, journalists have to read good writing and be extra skeptical of where they get their own news.

This book does have contradictory information about young people’s news consumption habits. Are today’s aspiring journalists taking extra care to not fall for misinformation, or do they think their Instagram feeds are news outlets? Gerald Seib of the Wall Street Journal says “Young people are starting, as they get more serious, to see it more clearly, at least in my conversations—to have an idea of what the credibility of the force that provided this piece of content to me really is. Because we live in an age in which anybody can mimic journalism, but not everybody practices journalism.” On the other hand, Katie Nelson of the Sioux Falls Argus-Leader says, of her own child, “She will tell me something about something she read and my first question is ‘what was the source?’ And when she hesitates—half the time, she doesn’t even know what the source is. So look at where it’s coming from. Is it coming from what you know is a reputable news organization? … Look at the source.”

These are seemingly opposite takes by different interview subjects. It’s fine if different journalists have different observations here, but a set of current statistics/polls on the matter would have been a good way to put closure on the contradiction.

Another criticism is that while the Economics and Business chapter gave plenty of useful econ-101 concepts that are surely must-knows for journalists on this beat, I found the chapter lacking in insight on what it’s like to be an economics/business reporter. I would love to know what readers want in this type of news, in what format and if these wants have changed in the digital age, as was outlined at greater detail in other chapters.

The Community News chapter by Tamara J. Welter and Michael A. Longinow gets to, in my opinion, the heart of journalism: local news. When catastrophe strikes in a region, local news is typically first on the scene—not national news. This chapter does an excellent job at using anecdotes to illustrate how important it is for journalists who are new to a small-town paper, to become part of the community in addition to a reporter on the community. I wish that the Community News chapter had gone into more detail about the origins of the financial constraints that local news outlets across America face, and what can be done about it, beyond just citizens subscribing to their local newspapers.

The Investigative Reporting chapter by Julie Patel Liss includes a deep dive into various methods and terminology of investigative reporting, including “deep background” and “on the record” and what they entail specifically. I appreciate that this chapter highlighted the conflict between the demand for instant news increasing, while investigative stories typically take weeks or months to complete. It would be helpful for the chapter to include some possible ways for new investigative journalists to deal with these competing forces in the newsroom.

The biggest strength of this book is the discussion of navigating news in this Wild Wild West digital age we’re living in, and the unfortunate effects of the rise of the term “fake news.” This book interviews working journalists who talk about what it’s like to do their jobs with the term “fake news” being thrown around the way it is, and this is an insight I rarely (if ever) have seen. Props to Craig for getting these nuggets because it’s not easy for journalists to speak up about this in the current social-political climate. These candid reflections are a valuable peek into the journalism field of today.

This book makes me realize how much we’ve become outsmarted by our own creation (technology), but makes me hopeful that it doesn’t have to be this way. We can harness and use technology to save journalism, even if that means it won’t be the journalism landscape that your grandfather remembered as a young boy.

Journalism doesn’t have to die, but it has to change and adapt—if it hasn’t already.