Books

Nelson, J.L. & Lewis, S.C. (Under Contract). Why We Distrust: American Skepticism Toward Media, Medicine, and Higher Education. Cambridge: MIT Press.

Nelson, J.L. (2021). Imagined Audiences: How Journalists Perceive and Pursue the Public. Oxford University Press.

peer reviewed Articles

Moon, Y.E., Paik, S.H.W., Roschke, K., Nelson, J.L., & Lewis, S.C. (2025). Engagement + Expertise = Trust? Comparing Pathways to Credibility for Journalism and Healthcare. Journalism and Media.

Nelson, J.L., Lewis, S.C., & Cowley, B. (2025). ‘Money is the root of all evil.’ How the business of journalism shapes trust in news. Journalism.

Nelson, J.L. & Cohen, N.S. (2024). Prepared for Precarity: Toward a ‘Labor Turn’ in Journalism Education. Journalism & Mass Communication Educator.

Nelson, J.L., Wenzel, A., & Crittenden, L. (2024). Impact Through Engagement? A Critical Self-Reflection on the Engaged Journalism Exchange. Journalism.

Ksiazek, T.B., Kim, S.J., Nelson, J.L., Park, A., Patankar, S., Sabalaskey, O., & Taneja, H. (2023.) Distrust Profiles: Identifying the Factors that Shape Journalism’s Credibility Crisis. Media & Communication.

Molyneux, L. & Nelson, J.L. (2023). ‘Let’s not tank the reputation of this organization.’ How newsroom social media policies exacerbate journalism’s labor crisis. Journalism Studies.

Moon, Y.E., Roschke, K., Nelson, J.L., & Lewis, S.C. (2023). Doctors fact-check, journalists get fact-checked: Comparing public trust in journalism and healthcare. Media & Communication.

Nelson, J.L. & Dahmen, N.S. (2023). Appealing to news audiences or news funders? The Solutions Journalism Network’s Revenue Project. Journalism Practice.

Nelson, J.L. (2023). “Worse than the Harassment Itself.” Journalists’ Reactions to Newsroom Social Media Policies. Digital Journalism.

Nelson, J.L. & Schmidt, T.R. (2022). Taking the Audience Seriously? The Normative Construction of Engaged Journalism. International Journal of Communication.

Miller, K.C. & Nelson, J.L. (2022). “Dark Participation” Without Representation: A Structural Approach to Journalism’s Social Media Crisis. Social Media + Society.

Kim, S.J. & Nelson, J.L. (2022). An Integrative Approach to Social Media News Sharing: The Role of Individual and Situational Factors. Journalism Practice.

Nelson, J.L. & Lewis, S.C. (2022). The structures that shape news consumption: Evidence from the early period of the COVID-19 pandemic. Journalism.

Bauer, A.J., Nadler, A.M., & Nelson, J.L. (2021). What is Fox News? Partisan Journalism, Misinformation, and the Problem of Classification. Electronic News.

Nelson, J.L. & Edgerly, S. (2021). The (Ir)Relevance of Audience Studies in Journalism Education. Journalism & Mass Communication Educator.

Nelson, J.L. & Lewis, S.C. (2021). Only ‘sheep’ trust journalists? How citizens’ self-perceptions shape their approach to news. New Media & Society.

Schmidt, T.R., Nelson, J.L., and Lawrence, R.G. (2020). Conceptualizing the Active Audience: Rhetoric and Practice in ‘Engaged Journalism.’ Journalism.

Nelson, J.L. (2020). The Enduring Popularity of Legacy News. Media and Communication.

Ferrucci, P., Nelson, J.L., & Davis, M. (2020). From ‘Public Journalism’ to ‘Engaged Journalism’: Imagined Audiences and Denigrating Discourse. International Journal of Communication.

Nelson, J.L. & Kim, S.J. (2020). Improve Trust, Increase Loyalty? Analyzing the Relationship Between News Credibility and Consumption. Journalism Practice.

Nelson, J.L. (2019, July 12). Currencies cannot change. Social Media & Society.

Ferrucci, P. & Nelson, J.L. (2019). The New Advertisers: How Foundation Funding Impacts Journalism. Media and Communication.

Ferrucci, P. & Nelson, J.L. (2019). Lessons From the Megachurch: Understanding Journalism’s Turn to Membership. Journal of Media and Religion.

Nelson, J.L. (2019). The Next Media Regime: The Pursuit of ‘Audience Engagement’ in Journalism. Journalism.

Nelson, J.L. (2019). The Persistence of the Popular in Mobile News Consumption. Digital Journalism.

Nelson, J.L., & Tandoc, E. (2018). Doing ‘Well’ or Doing ‘Good’: What Audience Analytics Reveal about Journalism’s Competing Goals. Journalism Studies.

Belair-Gagnon, V., Nelson, J.L., & Lewis, S.C. (2018). Audience Engagement, Reciprocity, and the Pursuit of Community Connectedness in Public Media Journalism. Journalism Practice.

Nelson, J.L. (2018). The Elusive Engagement Metric. Digital Journalism.

Nelson, J. L., & Taneja, H. (2018). The Small, Disloyal Fake News Audience: The Role of Audience Availability in Fake News Consumption. New Media & Society

Nelson, J.L. & Lei, R.F. (2017). The Effect of Digital Platforms on News Audience Behavior. Digital Journalism.

Nelson, J.L. (2017). And Deliver Us To Segmentation: The Growing Appeal of the Niche News Audience. Journalism Practice.

Nelson, J.L.  & Webster, J.G. (2017). The Myth of Partisan Selective Exposure: A Portrait of the Online Political News Audience. Social Media + Society.

Nelson, J.L., Lewis, D.A., & Lei, R. (2017). Digital Democracy in America: A Look at Civic Engagement in an Internet Age. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly.

Nelson, J.L. & Webster, J.G. (2016). Audience Currencies in the Age of Big Data. International Journal on Media Management.

Nelson, J.L. & Lewis, D.A. (2015). Training Social Justice Journalists: A Case Study. Journalism & Mass Communication Educator.

other publications

Nelson, J.L. & Cohen, N.S. (2025, February 26). Journalism school needs to do more to prepare students for the hard parts. Nieman Journalism Lab.

Nelson, J.L. (2025, January 3). A Front-Row Seat to Polarization. Columbia Journalism Review.

Nelson, J.L. (2024, December 10). Journalists embrace transparency about the business side. Nieman Journalism Lab.

Nelson, J.L., Wenzel, A., & Crittenden, L. (2024, October 3). Journalism scholars want to make journalism better. They’re not quite sure how. Nieman Journalism Lab.

Nelson, J.L. (2024, July 24). Biden dropped out. Is the news media to blame? The Conversation.

Nelson, J.L. (2024, July 10). Why are journalists obsessed with Biden’s age? It’s because they’ve finally found an interesting election story. The Conversation.

Nelson, J.L. (2024, June 26). Journalism’s trust problem is about money, not politics. The Conversation.

Nelson, J.L., Sanderson, Z., & Lewis, S.C. (2024, March 12). People trust themselves more than they trust the news. They shouldn’t. Columbia Journalism Review.

Nelson, J.L. (2023, December 13). Journalists abandon social media, and news audiences follow (eventually). Nieman Lab.

Moon, Y.E., Roschke, K., Nelson, J.L., & Lewis, S.C. (2023, October 11). People’s (mis)trust of doctors can help us understand their (mis)trust of journalists. Nieman Lab.

Nelson, J.L. (2023, April 24). Tucker Carlson’s departure and Fox News’ expensive legal woes show the problem with faking ‘authenticity.’ The Conversation.

Nelson, J.L. (2022, December 18). Despite it all, people will still want to be journalists. Nieman Lab.

Miller, KC. & Nelson, J.L. (2022, November 16). How can newsrooms improve when it comes to their social media policies? Diversify their leadership. Columbia Journalism Review.

Miller, A. & Nelson, J.L. (2021, December 17). Health Care and Journalism Are Facing the Same Crises. Slate.

Nelson, J.L. (2021, December 2). A Twitter tightrope without a net: Journalists’ reactions to newsroom social media policies. Columbia Journalism Review.

Nelson, J.L. Lewis, S.C. (2021, July 1). “I’m always skeptical”: Sixty news consumers discuss their mistrust in the news. Columbia Journalism Review.

Nelson, J.L. (2021, March 3). News organizations that want journalists to engage with their audience may be setting them up for abuse. The Conversation.

Nelson, J.L. (2021, March 1). The unknowable news audience. Slate.

Nelson, J.L. (2021, February 3). The case for journalistic humility. Columbia Journalism Review.

Nelson, J.L. (2020, March 26). Coronavirus: News media sounded the alarm for months – but few listened. The Conversation.

Nelson, J.L. & Ferrucci, P. (2020, January 10). ‘When money is offered, we listen’: Foundation funding and nonprofit journalism. Columbia Journalism Review.

Nelson, J.L. (2019, December 17). How do audiences really ‘engage’ with news? Columbia Journalism Review.

Wenzel, A. & Nelson, J.L. (2019, June 18). We listened to academics and practitioners talk about engaged journalism. Here’s what we learned. Tow Center for Digital Journalism.

Nelson, J.L. (2019, February 7). Journalism needs an audience to survive, but isn’t sure how to earn its loyalty. The Conversation

Nelson, J.L. (2019, January 23). What is Fox News? Researchers want to know. Columbia Journalism Review

Nelson, J.L. (2018, April 30). The audience engagement industry struggles with measuring success. Columbia Journalism Review

Nelson, J.L. (2017, November 29). Membership in News Literature Review. The Membership Puzzle Project

Nelson, J.L. (2017, November 3). How Perceptions of the News Audience Shape Pursuits of the News Audience. Tow Center for Digital Journalism.

Nelson, J.L.  (2017, January 31). Is ‘Fake News’ a Fake Problem? Columbia Journalism Review

Nelson, J.L. & Webster, J.G. (2016, May 20). Audience Currencies in the Age of Big Data. MediaShift

Nelson, J.L. (2015, September 30). Digital News Audiences Shift to Mobile as Platform Widens Margin vs. Desktop. Digital Content Next

Webster, J.G. & Nelson, J.L. (2015, May 15). Accounting for Attention Minutes as Currency. Digital Content Next

Book Chapters

Nelson, J.L. (2020). And Deliver Us to Segmentation: The Growing Appeal of the Niche News Audience. In K. Hess & R. Gutsche, Jr. (Eds.), Reimagining Journalism and Social Order in a Fragmented Media World. New York, NY: Routledge.

Nelson, J.L. (2019). The Elusive Engagement Metric. In M. Carlson (Ed.), Measurable Journalism. New York, NY: Routledge.

Nelson, J.L. (2019). Measurement Uncertainty in the Pursuit of Audience Engagement. In D. Grady (Ed.), The Golden Age of Data: Media Analytics in Study and Practice. New York, NY: Routledge.

Webster, J.G. & Nelson, J.L. (2016). The Evolution of News Consumption: A Structurational Interpretation. In M. Mortensen, J. Ørmen & J.L. Jensen (Eds.), News Across Media. New York, NY: Routledge.