ABSTRACT
Traditional journalism and the legacy press have undergone a profound and prolonged crisis. Technological transformations over the past two decades have disrupted commercial journalism’s business model and given the power to produce and disseminate information to anyone with a cell phone. At a deeper level, public distrust in the news media has been rising for decades; among some Americans, it has now curdled into hatred and even physical attacks on journalists, egged on by a president (Donald Trump) bent on undermining the press’s legitimacy. Amid a rising sense that the country has entered a “posttruth” era, this chapter argues that the legacy press cannot maintain its authority merely by leaning into conventional journalistic norms (e.g., objectivity) or by winning back conservative voters in the short term. But journalists may be able to reframe their influence by building deeper and more intimate connections with the communities they serve.
