This weekly Trust Tips newsletter shares quick, actionable tips for how journalists can earn and sustain trust. Subscribe to get it in your inbox at trustingnews.org/newsletter.
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Trust Tips 246: Make your reporting on guns less polarizing
This weekly Trust Tips newsletter shares quick, actionable tips for how journalists can earn and sustain trust. Subscribe to get it in your inbox at trustingnews.org/newsletter.
Trust Tips 244: Explain what sets your coverage apart with your “About Us” page
This weekly Trust Tips newsletter shares quick, actionable tips for how journalists can earn and sustain trust. Subscribe to get it in your inbox at trustingnews.org/newsletter.
Improving climate coverage for trust and understanding
Climate change is one of the most pressing issues of our time, impacting communities and ecosystems worldwide. Yet, when it comes to climate coverage in the media, there’s a growing sense of frustration and despair among audiences.
How one TV newsroom is committing to inclusive reporting
Discussing diversity issues and working to produce news coverage that more accurately reflects and depicts what is happening in your community can be a daunting task. While this work isn’t easy, at Trusting News, we believe it’s essential if you want to build trust with your community, engage with them and keep them informed through […]
Workshop helps journalists celebrate and understand their differences
Journalists, we have to stop assuming people understand the mission, ethics and processes behind our work. We can’t let ourselves get lumped in with perceptions of “the media.” Instead, we need to actively work to ear
See how newsrooms talk publicly about improving diversity in their coverage
Talking publicly about diversity issues can be challenging. But, as with anything journalists do, actions and intentions (especially good ones) are likely to go unnoticed by news consumers.
How to engage and reach new audiences with postcards and snail mail
Listening is a crucial component when it comes to building new audiences. We have research that shows this, but it also makes sense: If journalists want to provide coverage that is relevant and useful to people they aren’t already effectively reaching, they have to first take the time to get a sense of what those people […]
Journalists from around the world are creating products to create transparency and build trust with their communities
Through the Leap innovation training program, The International Center for Journalists and Trusting News challenged journalists to answer this question: What can we build to increase trust in journalism now — and ensure misinformation and polarization do not find a foothold in future spaces?
Build trust by being real, right, objective and part of your community
When it comes to trust, local news organizations have been the bright spot for the journalism community as years of research and polling continue to show people trust in local news content more than national. For many people working in local news, that trend brings comfort, hope and sometimes makes the issue of building trust seem not […]
Make your reporting less polarizing with this Trusting News guide
We’ve worked with partner newsrooms to create and refine a tool for journalists — a checklist designed to make room in the editing process for journalists to be intentional about:
Research insights: What we learned testing an anti-polarization checklist with news consumers
If newsrooms can avoid polarizing writing and editing choices, they may be able to retain and attract more readers from the full political spectrum. That’s the thinking behind a resource Trusting News has been testing and refining.
Advice from journalists: Why and how we’re depolarizing our news
At Trusting News we wanted to see how journalists would feel after committing to using a depolarizing lens with some of their coverage for two months. Here’s what we learned: At Trusting News we rely on newsroom partners as we craft advice for journalists who want to build trust with the people they aim to […]
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 […]
Advice from journalists: Why we’ve invested in listening to people who don’t trust us
There’s no big secret when it comes to building new audiences. There’s no new beat or newsletter that can be created to undo decades of harm news organizations have caused to certain groups of people. And there’s no magic tool journalists can use that will automatically help them earn the trust of and reach their […]
Define and share your mission for covering the election
Instead of keeping all of your election planning and decision-making internal, share what you are doing publicly. Explain the focus of your stories, discuss what issues and races you are prioritizing and why, and talk about the goals of your overall coverage.
How journalism students are using audio boxes to explain their reporting process
Leigh Wright, an associate professor of journalism at Murray State University, worked with students to explain their reporting process by recording short audio clips and embedding them at the top of their stories.
Why the Keene Sentinel disabled commenting on certain Facebook posts
After noticing an uptick of inappropriate comments, personal attacks and misinformation on COVID-19-related Facebook posts, a team at the Keene Sentinel — James Rinker, the digital community engagement journalist, and Cecily Weisburgh, an executive editor — made the decision that it was time to disable comments on posts related to the pandemic.
Telling our story can have an impact on our bottom line
The work of journalists is telling other people’s stories. It’s what we do every day. Why then are we so uncomfortable telling our own stories? Maybe it’s because we learned in journalism school that it’s not about us, but about our subjects and our readers instead. Maybe we’re just shy. (I’ve heard from many of […]
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 […]
Bring more diversity to your newsroom staff with these interview questions
Whose voices are missing in your newsroom? Would you like to have them involved in sharing the stories you tell about your community? If so, does your hiring process allow you to learn about the views and experiences that inform how job candidates approach their work?
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 […]
How one investigative news team explained their goals, mission and reporting process
We know from user research that news consumers value depth. We also know that people say they want to see evidence of fair reporting and thoughtful decision-making.
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 […]
People don’t assume journalists have ethics. Here’s how you can highlight yours.
Do journalists have solid ethics? It’s a question that, depending on who you ask, will probably result in very different answers. Ask a room full of journalists, and they will probably say, “of course we do.” Ask a group of students (something I do often) and you’re likely to get mixed answers — eventually landing […]
Here’s what people with low trust in news learned attending a morning TV news meeting
Research with WCPO helped unlock insights into how TV news stations could rebuild trust with their audience by having them attend a morning TV news meeting.
What PolitiFact learned about making money and earning trust
When journalists practice transparency around their processes, their goals and their values, news consumers tend to respond positively. Sometimes, they even spend more money on journalism. That’s the case with an experiment we ran this summer with PolitiFact. We divided the audience of their weekly email newsletter into segments to test two things: In both […]
How can news products help build trust in news?
The latest data from Gallup shows less than four in 10 U.S. adults say they have “a great deal” (7%) or “a fair amount” (29%) of trust and confidence in the media to report the news “fully, accurately, and fairly,” while more than six in 10 have “not very much” trust (29%) or “none at all” […]
Journalists, it’s time to talk about our biases
What do journalists tend to have in common, and what about us is the same or different from the communities we serve? To put a finer point on it: Who are journalists as human beings, and how do our own experiences inform the news we produce? These questions are central to the work we’re doing […]
What does “fairness” in news stories actually look like?
News consumers often say they want stories that “just give me the facts” and “include both sides.” When asked what they’re looking for in responsible journalism, at the very top of the list for news consumers will be one word: balance. (At least, it’s at the top of the list from 81 user interviews conducted by Trusting […]
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 […]
Reinvent your crime coverage to build trust
Do your public safety stories paint an accurate picture of life in your community? This post guides you through an assessment that will help you move toward coverage that builds trust.
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 […]
How listening to the community transformed this Charlotte newsroom
How Ju-Don Marshall and staff at WFAE in Charlotte have helped turn the station’s operations around to be an engagement-centered newsroom.
Create an effective “About Us” page
This step-by-step guide walks newsrooms through creating an effective “About us” page that will help them earn trust and demonstrate transparency.
If you let your readers in on your process, they might just surprise you
This post was written by Newsroom partner Jennifer Hefty. Most of us have heard the chorus. You know the one I’m talking about. “How could this article be so biased?” “How could they get x, y, and z so wrong?” “Why are these reporters insisting on dividing us instead of bringing us together?” “Clearly, these […]
If you’re doing solutions journalism, don’t forget to tell your audience
If your news organization is providing your audience with the solutions journalism they want, you should make sure they know that. Trusting News can help.
Here’s what a newsroom survey reveals about the public’s confusion, frustration and trust
How one newsroom’s audience survey revealed public misunderstandings, frustrations, and curiosity about the newspaper.
We changed our approach to using mug shots online and on-air then told our community why
Here’s how partner station WCPO got on the record about the changes they made to their mugshot policy with their audience — on air and online.
‘More complete and relatable:’ What research finds about how a TV newsroom can earn trust on air
Research by Trusting News and the Center for Media Engagement found that TV newsrooms can build trust with their audiences by explaining why a story is covered.
I do Q&As with viewers on Facebook, and here’s why it’s worth it
Here’s how Mike Canan at WCPO hosts AMAs (also called ask me anythings) with their station’s TV viewers on Facebook.
Investigative team’s “trust nuggets” inject transparency into long stories
How one investigative newsroom team strategically employed ‘trust nuggets’ to inject transparency into their stories and build trust.
“Explain your process” box improves perceptions of news organization
A new study from the Center for Media Engagement at the University of Texas at Austin found adding a box explaining your story process can improve a user’s perceptions of a news organization. The research was done on behalf of Trusting News and completed this month. The goal of the testing was to see whether adding explanations […]