Like most people, we’ve been glued to breaking COVID-19 news coverage. We regularly visit local and national news sites for the latest. We also regularly run into a fundamental flaw in how news works: Far too often, breaking news lacks context. And machine-driven approaches to creating context, notably algorithmic linking, can do more to confuse audiences than enlighten them.
In both cases, journalism organizations aren’t fully grasping their opportunity to deliver what news communities crave during this emergency. We need up-to-date news with context. We need it to be comprehensive yet easy to navigate. We need to be able to catch up quickly, not be forced to go hunting for the latest nugget of new information. In an essential way, we need journalism that tweaks some recently adopted practices and requires journalists to think first about their communities.
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