October 23, 2025 | NPR Public Editor
When journalists don’t have access to historical tools, and don’t have that impetus to go and check out things, they are presenting news that is really not informing the public. And nobody wants to do that.
Melita Garza, Associate Professor and Tom and June Netzel Sleeman Scholar in Business Journalism
When news stories ignore the past, the audience sometimes struggles to fully understand the issue. Because of this, history professors stress the importance of incorporating historical context into news coverage of current events. Doing so enables journalists to bring forth a more complete and informed story, which benefits the audience.
Melita Garza, associate professor and Tom and June Netzel Sleeman Scholar in Business Journalism, stressed the importance of including current events within the context of historical background in this installment of the News Literacy Edition of the NPR Public Editor. In her research, Garza says she has seen journalists declare something “unprecedented” when what they reported on was not, in fact, unprecedented.