Meet the newsrooms selected to join Trusting News AI literacy efforts

Published on October 7, 2025October 8, 2025 by Lynn Walsh | Reading Time: 5 minutes

Trusting News is excited to share the newsrooms selected to participate in our efforts to help journalists educate the public about artificial intelligence. 

Our research shows both that people want to be educated about AI and that they would welcome that education from journalists. We’ve led the journalism industry in developing transparency best practices around AI use by creating audience research tools, guiding newsroom cohorts through their use and producing clear, practical disclosure and audience engagement recommendations in our AI Trust Kit. Through this next phase of exploration, we will be able to learn what impact AI literacy from newsrooms has on news consumers.

The work is about to kick off in two ways: a newsroom cohort and newsroom innovation grants.

An AI literacy training and research cohort

These 10 newsrooms will participate in the AI literacy cohort, publishing public-facing explainers about AI. They will also attach research to what they share in order to measure audience response. Each newsroom will receive a $2,000 stipend. 

• Bay City News Foundation serves 13 counties spanning the greater San Francisco Bay Area through two public-facing news sites: LocalNewsMatters.org and MendoVoice.com. 
• Conecta Arizona provides news for Spanish-speaking communities in Arizona and the U.S.-Mexico border region through WhatsApp, its website, a radio show, a newsletter and social media.
• Detroit Free Press is a digital and print news organization based in Detroit, covering the City of Detroit and the state of Michigan.
• Factchequeado is a digital and social-first news organization serving Latino communities in the U.S. with a focus on fact-checking, media literacy and misinformation verification.
• FactsMatter NG is a Nigerian non-profit media organization tackling disinformation and promoting media literacy for Nigerians at home and throughout the diaspora.
• KXAN is a digital-first broadcast newsroom based in Austin serving over 13 counties in central Texas.
• Los Alamos Daily Post is a digital and print news organization serving Los Alamos County in New Mexico.
• Metroland Media produces news across 21 community websites and six regional newspapers for communities across Ontario, Canada.
• Southeast Missourian is a digital and print news organization serving Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and surrounding counties.
• Wausau Pilot & Review is a non-profit, digital newsroom serving communities in Wausau and Marathon County in Wisconsin.

AI literacy innovation grants

Five newsrooms will receive a $5,000 innovation grant to launch an AI literacy effort. They’ll receive coaching from Trusting News, along with research support to evaluate audience response to their projects. 

• LINK nky is a digital and print news organization serving communities in Northern Kentucky. The LINK nky team will partner with local libraries and organizations to host a series of free community trainings on AI and media literacy. The project will help Northern Kentuckians understand how AI sources information, evaluate its accuracy, and strengthen trust in local news as a reliable resource for information about AI.
• MLK50: Justice Through Journalism is a digital and print news organization serving the Black working class and poor community in Memphis and Shelby County, Tennessee. The MLK50 team will create an explainer comic that illustrates the environmental justice landscape in Memphis. Lately, conversation in the community has centered on xAI, the world’s largest supercomputer, which is located in Southwest Memphis and is one of many data centers in the area. Using a combination of illustrated maps, data visualization, and portraits of local residents, the comic will illustrate threats and effects on local waterways like Cypress Creek, McKellar Lake, and the Wolf River. The comic will also share the ways people living along these bodies of water interact with and are shaped by them.
• Newtral is a Spanish media and technology company producing news online, on social media, and through video platforms for people in Spain. The Newtral team will create “AI Detectives,” a playful, four-phase learning experience designed to help Spanish high school students spot AI-generated disinformation and develop critical thinking skills. Through interactive challenges, real-world case studies, and guided discussions, students will learn both the risks and responsible uses of AI tools, while strengthening their trust in reliable news sources. By blending game-like activities with fact-checking expertise, the program aims to empower teenagers to become more resilient information consumers — skills that will be vital as they approach their first elections in 2027. 
• USA TODAY is an online and print news company providing national and local news content in the U.S. USA TODAY’s AI innovation initiative will invite local community members to share their personal stories and local histories using AI-powered tools in a guided, web-based experience. Participants will be able to record their voices, then use AI for transcription, editing, and fact-checking, gaining hands-on familiarity with the same technology journalists use in their reporting. By making AI’s role transparent and interactive, the program aims to demystify the technology, foster trust in both the news organization and responsible journalistic uses of AI and empower participants to see how these tools can enhance (not replace) human storytelling.
• We Talk Weekly is a video and digital news organization based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with a coverage area that spans the greater Philadelphia region. We Talk Weekly will launch a community-driven AI literacy project designed to make artificial intelligence understandable and accessible for everyday Philadelphians. Through an engaging panel discussion, video segments, and hyperlocal storytelling, the project will demystify AI’s role in media, civic life, and culture while building trust by centering the voices of underrepresented communities.

We can’t wait to learn alongside these partners and share back how audiences respond to these AI literacy initiatives. To stay up to date on the work these newsrooms do and what we learn, subscribe to our weekly newsletter. To implement our research-based trust-building strategies in your own work, see the list of resources below to make your use of AI ethical and trustworthy.

Resources to help you build trust with your use of AI

All of our AI resources can be found in the AI Trust Kit, including:

• Resources to help you listen. A survey to learn how your community feels about AI and your use of it. A community interview guide to dive deeper into those feelings. Questions to ask to get regular community feedback on your use of AI.
• Resources to help you be transparent. A worksheet to create an AI use policy. A worksheet to create in-story AI use disclosures. Sample language to copy/paste into AI use disclosures and policies. Newsroom examples of AI policies, AI use disclosures and other AI transparency initiatives.
• Resources to help you be ethical. A resource to help spot and disclose AI in content you don’t control. A guide to help you understand how audiences feel about AI use cases in news. A collection of research to help you understand how the public feels about AI.

About how we use data from newsrooms/news consumers

In cohorts like these, Trusting News collects information from journalists and the public to better understand how trust is built between newsrooms and their audiences. We use what we learn to create training resources, share insights, and support journalists. We don’t share personal information or identify individuals or newsrooms without permission. Questions? Learn more about how we use data here or contact us at info@TrustingNews.org.

This work is made possible thanks to support from the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation.