Journalism as a social service

It’s Thanksgiving Day, 2022. Nearly everyone in the U.S. is commemorating the holiday. Most are gathering with friends and family, some for the first time since the start of the COVID pandemic, combatting a rising epidemic of loneliness and alienation plaguing every community in the country.

When they turn on NPR’s morning news roundup, they’re greeted by the host’s very first words: “Some families will have an empty seat at their Thanksgiving tables today, including those who lost loved ones in the mass shooting at a Virginia Walmart this week. Who are the victims? And what were their last moments like?”

Sensationalism has been a cornerstone of the U.S. news media since the late 19th century, when journalism industry patriarchs William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer built empires by prioritizing attention-grabbing news, increasing the value of newspapers to advertisers instead of subscribers. They went on to become some of the wealthiest people of the time.

Metropolitan and regional newspapers followed Hearst and Pulitzer’s leads before the U.S. news industry began to conform to professional standards like “objectivity” to appeal to the broad audiences that attract advertisers.

More than a century later, U.S. news media continues to be driven by a culture of attention-seeking breaking news, combative investigations, and beat reporting primarily focused on deficits and conflict. “If it bleeds, it leads” is often true, even in publicly funded newsrooms or those that label themselves a “public service.”

Breaking news and deficit-centered reporting can be useful, but it largely fails to address the social-emotional needs of communities, including things like helping people develop healthy identities, build supportive relationships, set and achieve goals, and make empathetic, thoughtful decisions.

That’s why a new standard for journalism is emerging: journalism as a social service.

At The Jersey Bee, we’re early entrants into this field, building technology and systems to use journalism to solve problems in our commitment to modeling local news as a public utility through its sister project, Info Districts.

The Jersey Bee follows a theory of change that focuses on improving public health outcomes and building capacity for civic engagement in our community. In an audience survey, 75% of respondents said they take civic actions as a result of our reporting — actions like voting or volunteering, meeting someone new, attending a community meeting, or accessing aid and resources.

The Jersey Bee’s virtual reference desk is an intake form for community members with specific questions. Info needs surveys, ecosystem mapping, and community engagement inform what we report. Collaborations allow us to partner with social service providers to ensure we can direct people where they need to go and provide reporting on issues that matter to the people we serve. We reach people through newsletters, social media, a website, a calendar, zines, text messages, events, canvassing, and trainings. We then use those channels to ask people what they want to know. So, the cycle continues.

Journalism as a social service is about helping people and communities become the best versions of themselves. That’s something another 100 years of Pulitzer Prizes will not achieve. But that is what people helped by your journalism will value.