The panel at the University Club addressed the future of the media and information landscape -- both within and beyond politics.
Martin Gurri, an author and former CIA analyst who focuses on the relationship between politics and the media, was joined by Annenberg School of Journalism Director Gordon Stables and New York Times national political reporter Adam Nagourney. The talk was moderated by Robert Shrum, who directs the Center for the Political Future.
Gurri wrote an article in The Free Press last October with the following attention-grabbing headline: “I Refused to Vote in the Last two Elections. Now, I’m Voting for Trump.” He talked about how he believes a changing media, information and internet landscape has provided a new kind of public platform for people to feel heard and mobilize politically.
“I think the public now has a voice which it never had before, and it has people that it looks to that are not institutional people. You know, Joe Rogan is just him right? He’s not sitting at the top of the New York Times hierarchy. And so he gets embraced by a lot of the public as well,” said Gurri.
Gurri wrote about this phenomenon taking shape in his 2014 book, “The Revolt of the Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millenium.” He updated the book after Donald Trump was first elected.
Shrum didn’t shy away from questioning Gurri on some of the ideas he shared. Shrum said conversations like the one held today with Gurri help to cut through some of the chaos of this political moment, especially on college campuses.
“We are living in a chaotic time in terms of information, in terms of governance, in terms of people’s faith in democracy, and we have to begin to sort this out, and conversations like this aren’t going to do that by themselves, but they help us to start that process,” said Shrum.
Stables, from Annenberg, said he sees Gurri’s work and perspective as historical and free-ranging, and important for understanding the political and media climate today, which he describes as “very unsettling.”
Stables also spoke about how legacy media and news organizations will have to transform in the years ahead due to the rapidly changing media landscape. This will have an effect on the career and workplace options available to future journalists, like those studying at Annenberg.
“I think the biggest thing that I would encourage is [to] keep that spirit of looking for [and] wanting to work for an organization that is forward thinking, both about its editorial policies and about its entrepreneurial policies,” said Stables.
Even if cable news and other traditional news outlets are struggling, there may still be hope for a media landscape that provides new platforms and avenues for information for all. But, according to Gurri, what that media landscape will look like is hard to predict, especially with the rise of AI.