A Crisis Point for Democracy: Journalism and the 'View From Nowhere' — Join Jay Rosen, Associate Professor of Journalism at New York University, and the Byline Supplement Team for an Exclusive Q&A

Why is journalism failing our democracy? Join the Byline Supplement team next Wednesday at 6pm UK time to find out why

Professor Jay Rosen. Photo: Everett Collection Inc/Alamy

The United States and the UK are both bracing for seminal elections later this year – the results of which are expected to be defining moments for potentially differing reasons. 

While the Conservative Party is preparing itself for heavy defeat in the UK general election, with all major polls consistently projecting a Labour Government; in the US, the return of Donald Trump hangs over the future of American democracy itself. 

As Britain is expected to turn its back on the incompetence and corruptions of the incumbent Conservative Government of the past 14 years, a perhaps significant proportion of Americans is still toying with the idea of electing a President found to have incited a “multi-part conspiracy” to overturn a lawful election result, which saw insurrectionists filtering through the Capitol carrying Confederate flags.

In both cases, there has been much discussion in recent years of how we got here. What has gone wrong in our society and politics to have enabled the disruptive Brexit and Trump eras? Is it possible to ‘go back’? And to what?

A key part of this analysis, too often underplayed, is the role of our media. Instead of occupying the position of a mere ‘neutral’ player, it has considerable influence in shaping our politics through shaping how people see what politics is about. Even if this privileges a type of journalism that attempts to ‘transcend’ the realities of how politics plays out, as is all too often the case in America.

In the United States, no public figure has explored the limitations of the American press – and its problematic ‘view from nowhere’ – like Jay Rosen, Associate Professor of Journalism at New York University.

We’re thrilled that Rosen will be joining an exclusive Byline Supplement Q&A, to dissect how the approach of American journalism is leaving its democracy existentially vulnerable, with Byline Times Editor Hardeep Matharu and Political Editor Adam Bienkov, who will also be considering the parallels and divergences closer to home, where the established press – from influential tabloids to revered broadcasters such as the BBC – exhibit structural problems that transcend any one election result, having effectively merged into a ‘political-media’ class.

Join us for what will be a stimulating and urgent discussion on Wednesday 15 May at 6pm (GMT) by registering here below: