Why journalism needs a generalist epistemology

Abstract The “generalist turn,” where different disciplines are recently discovering the merits of knowledge breadth, is a favorable zeitgeist for journalism to turn an alleged weakness, its generalism, into an epistemic strength. However, to become “synthesizing minds” and integrators of knowledge in an era of siloization and hyper-specialization, journalism needs more robust generalism. The current article suggests that journalists are a unique type of “reactive generalists” who face asymmetric pressures toward excessive breadth and scarcity of depth. This mechanism shapes not only the weaknesses of their knowledge but also some of its potential strengths. An initial framework for a generalist epistemology in journalism is presented, where all journalists are placed on the generalist spectrum. The article offers specific measures required to develop an epistemically defensible generalism, learning mainly from two role-models: general practitioners in medicine and “neo-generalists.”