Add transparency on air in these 4 ways

More people get news from TV than from radio or print. And when it comes to access to news across diverse communities, it’s also true that local TV is more preferred by people of color in the U.S. than newspapers or digital-first local news. It’s free, and it’s widely available. Thanks to research, we know TV newsrooms can […]

Use viral photos as a chance to explain visuals

Lots of people question whether the images they see online are real or not. These concerns are not new, but with the rise of AI, this uncertainty around legitimacy has only increased.   Just a few weeks ago, Kate Middleton’s altered family photo fanned major online conspiracies and a slew of misinformation about what was going on with the […]

Meet the 2024 Advancing Democracy newsrooms working to transform their political coverage

We’re excited to kick off another year of the Advancing Democracy fellowship, a virtual fellowship for newsrooms to transform their political and election coverage.  More than 70 journalists across 20 newsrooms will participate in this nine-month fellowship. The fellowship is run in partnership with us at Trusting News along with Hearken and Solutions Journalism Network. […]

Step-by-step guide: How journalists can talk to people who don’t trust news (and build trust doing it)

If you’re a journalist wanting to reach more diverse audiences, especially audiences that have been historically ignored or underserved by your newsroom, a lot of that work starts with laying a foundation of trust. Without understanding the assumptions that have led to distrust and the roadblocks that exist in creating sustained relationships, it’s almost impossible for […]

Explain your goals, process and integrity when covering mass shootings

The news is tragic, and it’s unfolding in an all-too-familiar way. Innocent people have died. Society tries to make sense of the shooter’s motivation and mindset. People and organizations express outrage and sympathy. Paths forward are offered as if they’re simple solutions. Actual change and progress feel incremental or nonexistent. And journalists try to document […]

How newsrooms can better explain (and sometimes edit) wire coverage while being transparent with their audiences

If you’re a journalist who has faced criticism about national coverage published in your new products but not produced by your journalists, you’re not alone. Far from it, actually. We regularly hear from local newsrooms frustrated and overwhelmed by complaints related to the wire coverage they publish. Some local newsrooms we work with have said […]

How a large global newsroom is building trust using video, surveys, Facebook and more

It may sound simple enough: Tell your audience who you are and what you value. But for some reason, journalists and newsrooms find themselves either struggling to put those explanations into words or burying them somewhere on their website where few people find them. Two newsrooms of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (a large, international news organization) wanted […]

Build trust with your photos and videos

When journalists tell stories through visuals, there are a lot of options for where to turn. There are also a variety of ways to capture a photo, edit a video, and share visual content. The bottom line: A lot of decisions are made by journalists and newsrooms related to the types of visual content they […]

Polarizing, oversimplified reporting causes mistrust. Let’s work on that.

Journalists’ use of catch-all phrases, generalized descriptions and labels can make people feel oversimplified and placed into one-size-fits-all categories. This can be true for organizations people belong to, for religious groups, for different opinions, for causes people support, for racial groups, for age groups, for ethnic groups, etc. Rather than painting complex, nuanced pictures of […]

New research shows how journalists can connect with conservatives and right-leaning audiences

At Trusting News, rather than accepting distrust in journalism, we work to better understand it so we can help journalists actively earn trust. We believe healthy democracies depend on civic dialogue and a shared set of facts. We also believe local news can play an especially important role in bridging conversations across political divides. With […]

Journalists, hold yourself accountable for earning the trust of BIPOC communities. This rubric will help.

In our work with newsrooms, there are ideas we recommend that are almost universally applicable when it comes to demonstrating credibility and earning trust with a community. They include doing a better job explaining journalism ethics, a newsroom’s mission, funding, the reporting process and our integrity. At Trusting News we train journalists on transparency and […]