Were reporters too insulated to see Trump's growing support?

America may also be (slowly) moving away from a hierarchical system of journalism, which encouraged aspiring reporters to tromp around the country from job to job, seeking greater prestige and opportunity at publications with higher circulation or viewership, and seeing a bit of the country along the way. A depressed media market makes job-hopping harder, and besides, there are plenty of reporting jobs ripe for the taking in Washington, D.C., or New York.

Hiring standards have also changed. The arrival of the internet—and with it, digital production jobs—has spurred a new hunger for young, cheap talent. A college graduate can leave school and have a decent shot of getting hired at a national publication, an unthinkable proposition just two decades ago. But doing so foregoes the professional hopscotch that often pushed journalists into communities outside their comfort zone, forcing them into contact with people they otherwise would never have met.

Some of these trends might not be easily reversed. But what if Washington newsrooms split up and scattered across the country? This is now logistically feasible, after all. Pretty much any office job can be done remotely; most of my interactions with coworkers are through Slack, an instant messaging client, even though we work in the same building.