‘Democracy Beats’ in US Journalism – But What Does This Even Mean?

The final speaker in this Future of Journalism 2023 conference session is Karen Assmann, who begins with Nieman Lab’s prediction that ‘democracy beats’ (journalism in defence of democracy) were soon coming to US journalism – a prediction made in 2021 and then again in 2022, yet still barely realised. Journalism has of course long been seen as a pillar of democracy, yet what this means is hardly ever fully explained – this is a folkloristic view, for the most part.

Instead, what political journalism (in the US) means is often simply horse-race reporting, and there have been long-standing calls (going back even to Herbert Gans in 1989) for changes to the beat structures of newsrooms; in addition to democracy beats, there have also been calls fro dedicated climate beats in recent decades, for example. So how do news outlets currently define what they mean by ‘democracy beats’, then?

Some 18 news outlets and related publishers discussed the creation of democracy beats, yet none clearly defined what they meant by them: there is a general patriotic stance (of ‘explaining America to itself’); a focus on defending voting rights; defending against media personalities, social media provocateurs, conspiracy theorists, and foreign influence operations; general commitments towards redefining the news and engaging more directly with the community. This is presented as impartial and bipartisan, yet at the same time it is obvious that the threat is from the Republican far right and that there is a need to stop being neutral.