Journalism Research That Matters

It is now well-established that the long-time economic model on which the news industry has relied is no longer sustainable. Facebook, Google, and declining levels of popular trust in the media have been major contributors to this situation. Simultaneously, the closure of local media outlets across the country has left many areas without access to regional news, compounded the distance between media and publics, and further eroded civic engagement. Despite the looming crisis in journalism, a research-practice gap plagues the news industry.

This book argues that an underappreciated factor in the news crisis is a potentially symbiotic relationship between journalism studies and the industry that it researches. As this book contends, scholars must think about their work in a public context, and journalists, too, need to listen to media scholars and take the research that they do seriously. Including contributions from journalists and academics, Journalism Research That Matters offers journalists a guide on what they need to know and journalism scholars a call to action for what kind of research they can do to best help the news industry reckon with disruption. The book looks at new research developments surrounding audience behavior, social networks, and journalism business models; the challenges that scholars face in making their research available to the public and to journalists; the financial survival of quality news and information; and blind spots in the way that researchers and journalists do their work, especially around race, diversity, and inequality. A final section includes contributions from journalists about how researchers can better engage on the ground with newsrooms and media professionals.

Val?rie B?lair-Gagnon is an Assistant Professor of Journalism Studies at the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication and affiliated faculty at the Department of Sociology at the University of Minnesota. She is also an affiliated fellow at the Yale Law School Information Society Project. Her research looks at how organizations adapt and respond to technology and how the business of journalism is changing the news media industry and its role. She is the author of Social Media at BBC News and her research has been published in Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, New Media & Society, Journalism: Theory, Practice and Criticism, Symbolic Interaction, Digital Journalism and Nieman Journalism Lab, and Columbia Journalism Review, among others. She is a past fellow at the Columbia University's Tow Center for Digital Journalism and OsloMet Digital Journalism fellow.

Nikki Usher is an Associate Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the College of Media, with affiliate appointments in Communication and Political Science. Her research looks at the connections between elite news media, politics, and technology through the lens of production studies. She is the author of Making News at The New York Times, Interactive Journalism: Hackers, Data, and Code, and News for the Rich, White, and Blue: How Place and Power Distort American Journalism. She is a past fellow at the Columbia University's Tow Center for Digital Journalism and an academic policy fellow with the Open Markets Institute.