Trump Supporters Like Journalists Once They Trust Them
Here’s a small but pertinent example….

Hundreds of op-eds seethe about the cultural divides, echo chambers and out of touch elite, all written for the clicks. Introspection, even self-flagellation, is probably a healthy instinct after being so wrong about this past election, and many journalists have done a good job articulating the problems of a polarized society.
But after being complicit in cementing America’s political silos, journalists seem content with a few thousand words of fiery catharsis before going back to business as usual. There is a perception, however, that bridging the divides is more activism than it is journalism. Spaceship Media is proof that this narrative is not true.
Spaceship Media was founded by two journalists who wanted to generate dialogue between divided communities. This past year, of course, was apt. Their big-first project was connecting 25 Californians who voted for Hillary Clinton, with 25 Alabamians who voted for Donald Trump. All 50 participants were women.

Jeremy Hay, co-founder of Spaceship, said that once the 50 participants were identified, they were asked to articulate four things:
1)How do you view yourself as a Clinton/Trump voter? 2) How do you view the people on the other side? 3) How do you think people on the other side view themselves? 4) How do you think the people on the other side view you?
They were then given their own arena to communicate with one another, and when dealing with the personal lives of adults with drastically different backgrounds, Facebook becomes the default platform. Spaceship created a Facebook group, and the two communities began to go at it. The tone of the conversation became tense at times, obviously.
This is where journalism steps in. Spaceship Media played two critical roles in this project: they moderated as was needed, and they fact-checked as was needed.
The result was a heated dialogue that was focused, civil and evidence-based. Spaceship intervened when there was confusion over the facts, which happened from both sides. But generally, the 50 women took “immediate ownership of the group”, according to Hay, which was the best thing that could have happened.
A few of the women even started another Facebook group independently of Spaceship, once the project ended. So the conversation continues. I suggest reading this story from AL.com, the local newspaper that helped find the 25 Alabama women, if you’re interested in hearing the details of the project.
None of the participants changed their party-affiliation during the Spaceship experiment, but everyone seemed to reach an understanding. What I found the most interesting was that the California-based, non-profit that was run by journalists, avoided the label of “liberal-bias”.
The women from Alabama accepted when Spaceship proved one of their assertions to be wrong. So members of the media can fact-check without being liberal stooges after all. Then what makes Spaceship different than cable news moderators?
The answer for Hay boiled down to establishing “trust”. Journalists always talk about building trust in order to gain access with important government officials or business tycoons. It turns out the same rule applies for the American public.
Are the people behind Spaceship Media journalists or political activists? There are probably some members of the media who would answer “yes” to this question… but it seems like the 50 women in the California-Alabama experiment would disagree.