In this week’s issue: This week at The Objective, four new stories. Reporter Jake Pitre talked to internet culture reporters about the dearth of institutional meme knowledge at mainstream newsrooms. The last column from Lewis Raven Wallace on movement journalism’s potential. And from our Civic Media Series, Carla Murphy writes about the pitfalls of assuming students can fill local news gaps while Jennie Rose Halperin covers the role libraries can play as civic media connectors.
Plus, our media round-up features continued clashes over generative AI in newsrooms, CNN betting on prediction market data, a project to help newsrooms preserve their websites, and push-back to a university shuttering student magazines covering fashion and Black culture.
—James Salanga
LABOR, GENDER & SEXUALITY
Do newsrooms need memeologists?
Image by James Salanga. Iceberg photo via Wikimedia Commons and below-iceberg memes via Know Your Meme.
In the age of meme-slop and digital newsrooms shuttering, internet culture reporters say mainstream media is ill-equipped to cover not just trends, but a radicalization that doesn’t look how it used to.
As the mainstream media has routinely given in to “bad faith campaigns, almost every single online culture reporter has been driven out of their newsroom,” User Mag’s Taylor Lorenz told reporter Jake Pitre.
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THE CASE FOR MOVEMENT JOURNALISM
Movement journalism can transform narratives
In his last column making the case for movement journalism, Lewis Raven Wallace says that despite the news outlets trumpeting white nationalist views, aided by a network of think tanks, educational institutions, and powerful churches, “there are always smaller places for each of us to start” telling better stories.
“Transformative media, including journalism, gives meaning to our crappy conditions, and offers alternative visions,” Wallace writes.
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CIVIC MEDIA SERIES
Students plugging local news gaps isn’t sustainable for students, communities, or journalism
A Jersey Bee youth media workshop held at Rutgers University-Newark last year focused on producing a “Student’s Guide to School Board Elections.” Photo courtesy of Nikki Villafane for the Jersey Bee, illustration work by Erik Rodriguez.
For our Civic Media series, Carla Murphy addresses where students fit into the three-way power dynamic between universities, communities, and newsrooms.
“Without addressing institutional power, people expecting college students to ‘fill the gap’ in local news are reifying a cascade of 20th-century inequities,” Murphy writes.
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CIVIC MEDIA SERIES
Libraries are a locus for civic change
The Albany Public Library Washington Avenue Branch. Photo provided by Wikimedia Commons, illustration work by Erik Rodriguez.
Jennie Rose Halperin, for our Civic Media Series, writes about the need to invest in underexplored partnerships between civic media makers and libraries as a clear place of change: “‘Free people read freely’ is a common refrain in the daily work of libraries. Will local journalists and new sources get on board with us?”
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WHAT’S HAPPENING?
A bit more media
⚙️ News unions grapple with newsrooms on generative AI: A third-party arbitrator ruled Politico management violated key union contract stipulations on AI adoption, while Insider Union journalists rallied against “slop journalism” — Business Insider’s planned rollout of generative AI-written stories. (Meanwhile, the Chicago Tribune is suing Perplexity, alleging it is “unlawfully profiting off the trust the Chicago Tribune earned over time.”)
📊 CNN bets on prediction market company Kalshi: Kalshi seeks to “monetize any difference in opinion” by allowing users to bet on any real-time event; CNN will air prediction data related to politics, news, culture and weather, with chief data analyst Harry Enten heading the integration.
📋 New project helps newsrooms preserve digital stories: “Today’s News for Tomorrow” will offer 300 news organizations preservation and web archival training in 2026 and 2027, and the joint effort by Poynter, IRE, and the Internet Archive has opened applications until Jan. 9, 2026.
📑 University of Alabama student media alumni rally around magazines suspended for “unlawful discrimination”: Alums offered to fund Alice Magazine and Nineteen Fifty-Six and wrote a letter to the editor protesting the university’s suspension of the periodicals under Department of Justice anti-DEI guidance — the first known school to make such a decision.
Have a story you think we should include in this section of next week’s newsletter? Let us know here or by responding to this email.
JOURNALISM IN A GRAF
Quote of the week
“Many … corporate media owners have made their choice: They are damaging celebrated news outlets like CBS and The Washington Post out of some combination of personal preference and political expedience. While journalists at their outlets are still producing important stories that reveal the corruption and malfeasance of the Trump administration, it’s anyone’s guess how long they will be permitted to do so.”
Thanks for reading. We’ll have more for you next week.
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