We are living “in a place where anybody can say anything they want”: Jay Rosen

Jay Rosen is a media critic and writer. He is also a journalism professor at New York University. He was a keynote speaker at the EMERGE Conference. EMERGE magazine editors Aansa Mirza, Leyah Mirza and Danielle Edwards had a chance to sit down with Rosen to explore the current state of journalism and discuss the role facing up-and-coming journalists.

How has journalism changed? 

“We’re still learning to live in a world where anybody can say anything they want. It’s a bit of a shock to those who were raised in a world of gatekeepers who could, to some degree, police public discourse. There in a way isn’t any police any more.”

Have you seen any recent progress towards strengthening the media’s relationship with the public? 

“There is widespread recognition that the relationship between the public and the press is not in great shape. I’m working with a publication […] that is in a way starting over with a different kind of relationship between the readers and the writers. It’s a Dutch publication called The Correspondent and they are financed completely by membership fees that people pay because they believe in the journalism that The Correspondent does and as a result, they have no ads, no sponsors, no click bait, no traffic goals. And they have a very strong relationship between the readers and the writers.”

At the EMERGE conference, we are talking about reinventing the industry and the role of young journalists in the media. What do you have to say to these young journalists? 

“I say: welcome, we need you. We need you because the old ways of doing things don’t work. And there are new powers that are emerging, new Goliaths in the media jungle.”

The interview and video with Jay Rosen have been edited and transcribed by Aansa Mirza.