Breaking and Remaking News for a New Reality
Despite a crisis of trust, surging populism, and falling revenues, journalism’s purpose has never been clearer
Alan Rusbridger was editor in chief of the Guardian from 1995 to 2005. He is now principal of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, and chair of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.
In a world of fake news and information chaos, we need more journalism. That was the elevator pitch — at least, inside my own head — as I embarked on a book about the revolution in news which is still ripping through our industry with the force of a Category 5 hurricane.
We’ve now stood on the brink of this existential crisis long enough to be frightened. A society that cannot agree on a factual basis for discussion or decision-making cannot progress. There can be no laws, no votes, no government, no science, no democracy without a shared understanding of what’s true and what isn’t. Of course, a commonly agreed basis of facts is only the beginning. Societies with no independent source of challenge or scrutiny are also not to be envied.
And so, I argued to myself, it should be obvious that we need to go back to journalists for the answer. We knew you’d miss us when we were (almost) gone. Now that you know how dark the world can…
