BRUSSELS — BRUSSELS - In her doctoral research, Bette Dam investigates how a century of journalistic habits has contributed to a persistent imbalance in news reporting. She combines her experiences in Kabul with academic research to highlight this development. At the same time, she explores how these insights can lead to the creation of a new journalistic system. 


A New Model: How Four Layers Are Narrowing the American Press — And How It Could Be Different

A new academic analysis of how a century of journalistic routines led to structural imbalance — and how a new system could emerge from it — is presented by Bette Dam in her PhD defence.

She saw it in Kabul: both on and off the record, sources almost always came from institutions or the government. Outside that bubble, she and a few freelancers discovered that the fear frame of the war was inaccurate, the problem analysis was shaky, and that the Taliban had been bigger and stronger for years than reporting in De Volkskrant or The New York Times suggested.

Dam, who comes from a non-elitist conservative village family, entered academia after writing two books on war and media. There she discovered that what she experienced in the field was no exception. Ever since the early days of American press history – from the Russian Revolution and the Second World War to Vietnam, South America and even recent reporting on AI – the press has relied heavily on official voices. The reflex to seek authority from institutions is persistent.


In her doctoral research, which she will present on 21 November 2025 at deBuren in Brussels, Dam shows how this is caused by four layers that reinforce each other, like crooked roots that also distort the trunk, branches and fruit.
The first layer concerns the creators: Dam shows that for over a century, editorial teams have largely consisted of a select, white, affluent elite. Despite the ideal of journalism, they represent only a small fraction of society. New journalists are integrated through an informal washing process that reproduces the same perspective.

The second layer shows that what journalists think is critical journalism is also done by this select few and therefore remains mainly within Professor Daniel Hallin's spheres of consensus and limited controversy. Debate rarely concerns the legitimacy of policy, but rather details. Divergent stories, such as that there may not have been a war or that the Taliban had surrendered, only appear when political pressure has disappeared.

The third layer is elite sourcing. Because the select few who control the American news media are so homogeneous themselves, they also choose their sources selectively. Early on, for example in the reporting on Palestine and Israel, and still today, as Afghanistan shows, the press relies on a small, elite spectrum of voices. As a result, other perspectives disappear from view or end up at the bottom of the story.

The fourth layer shows that it is no surprise that the stories reaching the public via the American news media mainly reflect an orthodox selection of elite perspectives. Peace efforts and forms of rapprochement are systematically ignored, except when the American elite itself takes the initiative.

The fact that this narrow lens is not widening, and that some academics even call the press stubborn, has led Dam not to write recommendations but to design a completely new journalistic system: the Utopian News Desks, which produce a more inclusive news product. She even questions the A4 article format because of its stereotyping and lack of context. She also introduces a new concept of accountability that does not yet exist today.

As a practical application, Dam launched UNHEARD together with the Tow Centre at Columbia University: not a project, but a communal garden where journalists

Public Defense

On Friday 21 November (4pm-6pm), Bette Dam's public defence of her doctoral thesis will take place at DeBuren, Leopoldstraat 6, Brussels.

More about her research

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