Speculative Journalism

“Truth is a matter of the imagination” - Ursula K Le Guin 

The role of journalism is evolving in society where truth has become uncertain. For journalists hoping to tell the most complete story, they may be able to take a lesson from novelists and science fiction writers but does the decision to include fiction in journalism risk jeopardizing journalistic ethics? 

Speculative Journalism engages readers by portraying evidence based outcomes in an imagined future. This genre bending form of reporting has the potential to communicate more thoroughly the context of broad social, cultural and environmental issues by bringing the reader into a sense of where straight data does not go far enough. The concept of speculative journalism began to gain traction in 2018 during a rise in narrative nonfiction and longform journalism and has continued to build momentum in recent years. 

In 2019 the New York Times began running a series of articles called Op-eds from the Future. They enlisted the creative prose of futurists, sci-fi writers, and journalists to address issues we hypothetically face in the future. The series ran a little more than a year with dozen or so entries from writers like Cory Doctorow and Jeff Vandermeer. Topics covered range from the ridiculous, (feral electric scooters around New York City) to addressing significant cultural issues of inequality and artificial intelligence and more. 

The Punk Lit Journal is a place to showcase works of speculative journalism that explores our environmental future through the cultural lens of a changing technological landscape and embraces alternative perspectives of our future.