Explanatory journalism

Explanatory journalism or explanatory reporting is a form of reporting that attempts to present ongoing news stories in a more accessible manner by providing greater context than would be presented in traditional news sources.^[1][2][3] The term is often associated with the explanatory news website Vox,^[1][4][5] but explanatory reporting (previously explanatory journalism) has also been a Pulitzer Prize category since 1985.^[6][7] Other examples include The Upshot by The New York Times, Bloomberg Quicktake, The Conversation, and FiveThirtyEight.^[8]

Relation to analytic journalism

Journalism professor Michael Schudson says explanatory journalism and analytic journalism are the same, because both attempt to "explain a complicated event or process in a comprehensible narrative" and require "intelligence and a kind of pedagogical flair, linking the capacity to understand a complex situation with a knack for transmitting that understanding to a broad public."^[9] Schudson says explanatory journalists "aid democracy."

See also

• Analytic journalism
• Investigative journalism
• Narrative journalism
• Opinion journalism
• Pundit

References

1. Mann, Thomas E. (29 February 2016). "Explanatory journalism: A tool in the war against polarization and dysfunction". Brookings Institution. Archived from the original on 12 November 2019. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
2. Zhang, Qifan (28 February 2016). "Explaining the news builds audience for it". News Literacy 2016. NYU Arthur L. Carter Institute. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
3. McDermott, John (17 March 2014). "Explaining what's behind the sudden allure of explanatory journalism". Digiday. Archived from the original on 24 May 2020. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
4. Bercovici, Jeff (12 May 2014). "Why Do So Many Journalists Hate Vox?". Forbes. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
5. Jaffe, Harry (30 May 2014). "How Explanatory Journalism Wants to Spell It All Out for You". Washingtonian. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
6. "Explanatory Reporting". The Pulitzer Prizes. Columbia University. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
7. Sterling, Christopher H., ed. (2009). "Appendix A. The Pulitzer Prizes". Encyclopedia of Journalism. Vol. 6. SAGE Publications. p. 1877. ISBN 978-0-7619-2957-4.
8. Wihbey, John (December 12, 2014). "Journalism-school reform in the context of wider media trends". Journalist's Resource. Retrieved October 11, 2021.
9. Schudson, Michael. (2008). Why democracies need an unlovable press. Cambridge, UK: Polity. ISBN 978-0-7456-4452-3. OCLC 228224817.

External links

• How explanatory journalism informs and engages audiences, online course organized by the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas
• Explanatory journalism: What it is and how to do it, The Fix Media