Donald Trump claimed he would be a “dictator” on “day one.” His team has reportedly prepared more than 100 executive orders. He promised to close the U.S.-Mexico border, launch a mass deportation program, pardon Jan. 6 defendants, impose steep tariffs on foreign imports, bar schools that teach critical race theory from receiving federal funds and end the war in Ukraine — all within the first 24 hours.
The pace of news will be relentless, and if Trump’s first term is any guide, the media will be in his crosshairs. So it’s best to prepare. Below are six tips to ground you as you prepare for the year ahead.
1. Focus on your mission
You can’t cover it all — and that’s OK. Decide now which issues are most important and develop a framework for coverage, including how you will measure success. In November, I wrote about the importance of developing a mission statement — a driving question that centers your work around the needs of your community and holds those in power accountable regardless of party. If you haven’t done this already, do it now!
If you are a reporter, get on the same page with your editor. If you’re an editor, help your reporters hone their mission and build a source network and story list that helps them achieve it. If you’re a newsroom leader, set clear priorities. Then stick with them! Your mission, short enough to fit on a Post-it note, will let you know when and how to cover him — and when to take a pass.
Here’s another exercise that might be helpful: Imagine you and your colleagues are getting together for celebratory beers at the end of the year. What are you toasting? Work toward that toast.
2. Get out of the office (or your house)
Where will you be, physically, when Trump takes the oath? Consider this a first step in carrying out your mission. Whether your beat is immigration, education, public safety or climate, get out of the office and watch the inauguration with people who will be personally impacted by his policies — and check in with them regularly over time. Make the rounds with local government and business leaders. Do this in person. Showing up not only leads to tips — and great stories — but it builds trust and can ameliorate loneliness. Most importantly, being out and about will mean less time scrolling and more time in touch with your mission, working toward that celebration at the end of the year.
3. Hunt aggressively for small wins
Strive for small successes. It’s been 40 years since social psychologists noted the power of this approach. “The massive scale on which social problems are conceived often precludes innovative action because the limits of bounded rationality are exceeded and arousal is raised to dysfunctionally high levels,” psychologist Karl Weick wrote in 1984. The solution, he suggested, was to break them up “into smaller, less arousing problems” so that “people can identify a series of controllable opportunities of modest size that produce visible results.”
The word “visible” is key. These wins don’t have to be big but both you and your audience have to see them. Small wins are opportunistic. They do not necessarily take on the biggest actor (Trump, for example), but the one most likely to immediately act. They are empowering because they demonstrate change is possible. The aftermath of Southern California wildfires presents many opportunities for small wins. There will be opportunities to watchdog the relief effort and push for improved forest management practices, fair insurance policies and sanctions against disaster profiteers.
4. Ready your legal defenses
Preparation is a key to sanity. Writing in the New York Times, reporters David Enrich and Katie Robinson described the ways news organizations large and small are steeling themselves for potential attacks, from moving source communications to encrypted messaging services to refraining from storing sensitive documents in the cloud services owned by big tech companies, such as Google and Amazon.
Two steps even small newsrooms can take are securing adequate liability insurance (the Institute for Nonprofit News has a good primer) and lining up pro bono counsel for prepublication review on sensitive stories. Attacks by Trump on high-profile outlets will likely inspire “copycat cases” against local media and independent journalists, said Thomas Burke, a partner at Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, which recently co-founded ProJourn, a new organization that provides pro bono legal counsel to news outlets serving news deserts, rural communities, historically marginalized communities and audiences whose first language is not English.
Consider reaching out now, before any crisis. ProJourn’s intake form is here. ProJourn also provides public records support, as does the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.
5. Build a community of resilience
You can’t do this alone. Imagine you are a soldier about to be deployed on a four-year tour of covering the United States during a relentless news cycle. Before soldiers are sent to war, they are provided predeployment resilience training, which includes help building a “Circle of Support” — family members, friends, and mentors — who they can be in touch with both while overseas and when they are back. Who is in your “Circle of Support” for the next four years?
A trusted, reliable newsroom team is equally critical. For decades, military psychiatrists have known “unit cohesion” to be a major factor in preventing post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and suicidal ideation. In one recent study, researchers from six universities surveyed thousands of soldiers before and after deployments to Afghanistan. The more soldiers believed they could rely on members of their unit for help, the more they trusted their line leader, the more respected they felt, the less likely they were to screen positive for a psychological illness. Forming a tight-knit “band of brothers and sisters” at work with mental health dividends in the stressful period to come.
6. Pace yourself
Amid the fusillade of news that marks the opening of Donald Trump’s administration, it’s important to remember that he will be in office for four years. You will be no good to anyone if you burn out in the first month. Be sure to take care of yourself. Exercise. Sleep. Find joy elsewhere in your life — even as you work through adversity to accomplish your mission.