Bluesky thread on the US media and Mamdani, written by a Stockholm University journalism professor here in Sweden
1) NYT Mamdani story reminder that journalism needs to stop using Trump, Fox News, Musk as alibis for declining trust in news. Self-inflicted wounds also played big part: (1) lack of critical self-examination of the industry of journalism; (2) lack of transparency; (3) excessive self-congratulation.
— Christian Christensen (@chrchristensen.bsky.social) 2025-07-07T14:35:21.128Z
2) Anyone who has paid attention to journalism knows very little time/energy is given by news organizations to the critical investigation of the industry of journalism. An institution with massive political, social, economic power is bypassed. Of course. Who wants to damage their own brand?
— Christian Christensen (@chrchristensen.bsky.social) 2025-07-07T14:36:09.399Z
3) Post-9/11 coverage of Iraq? 2016 coverage of Trump? Ignoring massive poverty? Saying "Mistakes were made" years later isn't critical. WHY mistakes were made? HOW journalism functions? The IMPACT of poor coverage on society, politics, economy? That's a critical examination.
— Christian Christensen (@chrchristensen.bsky.social) 2025-07-07T14:36:40.215Z
4) News orgs usually blame shortcomings on individual failure: it was "bad journalism" or "poor decision-making." A few “bad apples.†But failure is often systemic: a result of the process, not in spite of it. Journalism always looks for bad apples in the news basket. It needs to look at the basket.
— Christian Christensen (@chrchristensen.bsky.social) 2025-07-07T14:37:28.853Z
5) When CBS boss Les Moonves said this about Trump, it was the most honest explanation ever for how structure impacts content. But we don't see stories about how profits drive news coverage because journalism is part of the system it is meant to monitor, and that rarely works.
— Christian Christensen (@chrchristensen.bsky.social) 2025-07-07T14:38:16.939Z
6) So, transparency. A failing of journalism has been an unwillingness to explain to citizens how news works. And I mean literally. What's the process -- from start to finish -- for making news? Simple knowledge of how news is made would, I think, counter a great deal of lies and mistrust.
— Christian Christensen (@chrchristensen.bsky.social) 2025-07-07T14:38:57.140Z
7) Journalism isn't the Manhattan Project. How it works isn't some national secret. But there's a lot of ignorance and misinformation out there. News outlets would gain a lot, I think, from informing citizens on the process of news work...and even involving those citizens from time to time.
— Christian Christensen (@chrchristensen.bsky.social) 2025-07-07T14:39:55.510Z
8) Yes, it's one thing to tell citizens about the day-to-day practice of news work, but something else to honestly explain how news orgs make money. Like social media giants explaining how algorithms work, any why. But even an acknowledgement of central role of profit in most news would be a start.
— Christian Christensen (@chrchristensen.bsky.social) 2025-07-07T14:40:48.646Z
9) Finally: Self-congratulation. After 2016, many news orgs like WaPo used Trump’s victory to pontificate about importance of journalism to society. Conveniently omitting, of course, how they played a major part in mainstreaming candidates they now say hurt democracy. And look at them now.
— Christian Christensen (@chrchristensen.bsky.social) 2025-07-07T14:42:17.183Z
10) For decades, journalism leveraged history to justify its status, cultural position and power. But, maybe it's time to forget Watergate. Self-importance, especially when looking backward, won't win over skeptical, jaded citizens. Tell them what journalism WILL do, not what it DID do.
— Christian Christensen (@chrchristensen.bsky.social) 2025-07-07T14:43:25.470Z
11) If news/journalism wants to maintain trust of citizens, or reconnect with citizens who have lost that trust, a start is to admit this isn't something that's only the result of Trump or Fox News. Journalism has self-inflicted wounds. Like what the NYT did. They're curable, if there's a will.
— Christian Christensen (@chrchristensen.bsky.social) 2025-07-07T14:44:16.689Z
12) I live in a country, Sweden, with both non-profit public broadcasting & healthy private news media sector. For-profit news produce good stuff. But public broadcasting still the most trusted…by far. Part of reason, I suspect, is no ads AND transparency. Accountability. Books are open. It matters.
— Christian Christensen (@chrchristensen.bsky.social) 2025-07-07T14:54:27.726Z