Trust Tip 50: Use research to persuade colleagues to invest in earning trust

Published on January 28, 2020January 28, 2020 by Mollie Muchna | Reading Time: < 1 minute

It can feel like a luxury to pause and read a study about the news business. Who has the time? Yet researchers can tell us quite a bit about how news consumers behave, what makes them pay for news, what they want from news and what makes them trust and distrust journalism. For example: Nearly half of Americans — 44 percent — believe the press invents negative stories about the president, including 74 percent of Republicans. (Poynter Media Trust Survey 2017) Fewer than half of Americans (44%) say they can think of a news source that reports the news objectively. (Knight Foundation/Gallup, 2018) The majority of Americans think local news organizations are doing very well or somewhat well financially. But if the financial state is explained to them, they say they are more likely to support their local news organizations. (Knight Foundation/Gallup, 2019) Only 24% or Americans say they believe the news media in general is “moral.” But that number more than doubles (53%) when people are asked about the media they use most often. (API/AP-NORC, 2017) More from this edition can be found here and to receive the tips in your inbox each week click here.

Mollie Muchna

mollie@trustingnews.org | + posts

Project manager Mollie Muchna (she/her) has spent the last 10 years working in audience and engagement journalism in local newsrooms across the Southwest. She lives in Tucson, Arizona, where she is also an adjunct professor at the University of Arizona’s School of Journalism. She can be reached at mollie@trustingnews.org and on Twitter @molliemuchna.