New posts

Use quick summaries to make your news approachable

Published on by Lynn Walsh

In our recent program around confronting news avoidance, newsrooms in the cohort heard how people felt very overwhelmed by the news, both by its volume and content. These news avoiders told our partner journalists they wanted news that felt more basic — and as one newsroom put it, simply helped people “with important civic processes.” How can […]

Journalists, talk about the lens you bring to reporting

Published on by Mollie Muchna

Journalists go to great lengths to eliminate any semblance of bias. This often entails taking precautions like not sharing too many personal details online or with sources. But of course, who we are as people affects how we do journalism — whether we’re talking openly about it or not. Our values, experiences, ethics, and surroundings all influence […]

Act on on Reuters latest trust research in these 3 ways

Published on by Mollie Muchna

New research from the annual Reuters Digital News Report highlights factors that influence people’s trust in news. According to the report, transparency and fairly reflecting communities in coverage are critical when it comes to being seen as a trusted news source. The study focused on eight specific factors known to affect trust, chosen by Reuters […]

Talk about your shrinking staff

Published on by Mollie Muchna

Recent research released by Pew confirms that many people do not understand the financial crisis that local news is in. The survey found that most adults (63%) think their local news outlets are doing “very well or somewhat well” financially. This, of course, is far from our reality as journalists. (We all remember the bleak […]

Journalists, address misinformation head-on

Published on by Mollie Muchna

At Trusting News, we’re often asked how journalists should handle misinformation. This is not surprising, given how both the public and journalists agree it’s a major issue. But research shows that as much as journalists think it’s a problem, they rarely address it in their reporting. (In this Pew study, two-thirds said almost none of […]

Learn about news avoiders with this guide

Published on by Mollie Muchna

Note: This is the first installment of a three-part newsletter series on News Avoidance. Read part two, Tell news avoiders these things about your journalism, and part three, Adapt your products for news avoiders in three ways. The more people tune the news out, noting that it doesn’t feel relevant or important for their lives, […]

Add transparency on air in these 4 ways

Published on by Lynn Walsh

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

Published on by Mollie Muchna

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

Published on by Mollie Muchna

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)

Published on by Mollie Muchna

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

Published on by Joy Mayer

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

Published on by Mollie Muchna

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

Published on by Lynn Walsh

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

Published on by Lynn Walsh

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.

Published on by Lynn Walsh

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

Published on by Joy Mayer

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.

Published on by Joy Mayer

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 […]