The Atlantic

Podcasting Is the New Talk-Radio

The intimacy of the format has the potential to make listeners feel things—and emotional resonance affects how people perceive information.
Source: Paul Hackett / Reuters

Thinking about what technological innovation has done to journalism in the past two decades can be a dizzying experience. People have more data, better maps, prettier visualizations, more push notifications, faster fact-checking, and so on.

Yet there is a unifying feature behind all of these innovations, and it has to do with the role of media and the public in a democracy.

The news media, the argument goes, must provide the rationally-minded members of the public with enough information for them to see a clear and accurate

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from The Atlantic

The Atlantic8 min readAmerican Government
The Most Consequential Recent First Lady
This article was featured in the One Story to Read Today newsletter. Sign up for it here. The most consequential first lady of modern times was Melania Trump. I know, I know. We are supposed to believe it was Hillary Clinton, with her unbaked cookies
The Atlantic3 min readCrime & Violence
Donald Trump’s ‘Fraudulent Ways’ Cost Him $355 Million
A New York judge fined Donald Trump $355 million today, finding “overwhelming evidence” that he and his lieutenants at the Trump Organization made false statements “with the intent to defraud.” Justice Arthur Engoron’s ruling in the civil fraud case
The Atlantic7 min readAmerican Government
The Americans Who Need Chaos
This is Work in Progress, a newsletter about work, technology, and how to solve some of America’s biggest problems. Sign up here. Several years ago, the political scientist Michael Bang Petersen, who is based in Denmark, wanted to understand why peop

Related Books & Audiobooks