Here’s some good news for a change: even in a time of extreme political polarization, people trust local news. Here in Colorado, a recent state-wide survey by Corona Insights confirms that 84 percent of Coloradans are “somewhat confident” or “very confident” that their local news media will give them full, fair, and accurate information. This is consistent with national polling, which shows, in survey after survey, that people trust local news at a much higher rate they do national news sources.

Unfortunately there’s bad news, too. With the rise of social media, and the decline of advertising dollars that once filled coffers at local newspapers, we’re in danger of losing the very sources of trusted information that we need so badly. …

By Nancy Watzman & Stephanie Snyder

Over the past several weeks, a network of interviewers has been sitting down one-on-one with Coloradans to learn about what they’d like to see from arts and culture news coverage in the state. What excites them about the arts scene? How do they get their information? What prevents them from enjoying the arts as much as they’d like?

Our team has conducted nearly three dozen interviews so far. Our subjects range in age from 18 to 76, come from different racial and ethnic backgrounds, and hail from across Colorado — from Pueblo to Denver to Grand Junction. …

At one dinner toward the end of my Dad’s life, he turned to me and said, “I’m glad I’ll die before the last newspaper does.” He was a reporter after all — he thought the word “journalist” was too fancy — and he could see where this story was going.

His beloved Cleveland Plain Dealer, where he spent some 20 years working himself up from the police beat to national political correspondent, was a hazy reflection of what it once was. …

What is the Knight Commission on Trust, Media and Democracy?

The Knight Commission on Trust, Media and Democracy was established by the Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program and the Knight Foundation to examine the decline in Americans’ trust of democratic institutions, particularly the media, over the last 40 years. Made up of 27 individuals including current and former members of government, media, business, nonprofits, academia, and the arts, the commission met throughout 2018. The Commission will release a report and recommendations in February 2019.

Research informed discussion

The Knight Commission began the year with evidence of widespread, deep, distrust in the media as well as of extreme polarization in the American people.

The Commission gathered more evidence–and thought-provoking nuance–throughout the year with research sponsored by the Knight Foundation and thoughtful commentary from the field. At meetings across the country, commissioners listened to expert testimony and discussed thorny problems. …

Scholars and advocates worry that growing lack of trust in democratic institutions and the media is a stubborn problem with no easy solutions. Recent public-opinion surveys reinforce those concerns, showing that mistrust not only has a strong correlation with partisanship, but extends to people who are not particularly political. At the same time, survey results show belief in the value of the First Amendment and a strong desire for news that can be trusted.

Partisanship drives trust in institutions

Americans’ satisfaction with U.S. democracy depends on which political party they identify with. That’s the most stark finding from the 2018 American Institutional Confidence Poll, a survey of 3,000 online respondents conducted by YouGov June — July 2018, with support from the Knight Foundation. Indeed, partisanship explains more about people’s faith in democratic institutions any demographic characteristic–young, old, geography, race, and so forth. Researchers found that 76 percent of Republicans are satisfied with democracy right now, compared to 44 percent of Democrats. Republicans have lower trust in the media than Democrats do, and Republicans trust the executive branch more than Democrats do. It may seem like common sense that the people who identify with the party in power will trust the government more than those whose party is on the outs, note the researchers. But scholars have long held that “one of the keystones of strong democracies is…considering democratic institutions as legitimate, no matter which party currently occupies the particular office,” write Sean Kates, Jonathan M. Ladd, and Joshua Tucker in The Washington Post’s Monkey Cage on the findings. “[A] large number of our respondents harbor not a sober disagreement with current policy, but a far more deeply felt distaste. That reinforces an overall picture of citizens deeply riven by partisanship in a way that undermines confidence in U.S. …

In November 2017 at the New York Public Library, members of the Knight Commission on Trust, Media and Democracy met to begin listening, debating and thinking about the crisis in trust we are facing. And a year later, they met at the same location, a public library devoted to learning, to put finishing touches on the final report and recommendations that the Aspen Institute, which has been running the effort, will release in early 2019.

Why a commission and why now? The urgency of the crisis in trust in the media, and the damage that does to democracy, has been well documented over the course of the year here. …

Daily life is an exercise in trust. I trust that when my doctor tells me I need surgery it’s her best judgment that I do, based on the evidence available to her. I trust that the investment advisor who oversees my retirement funds is acting in my interests. I trust that the real estate agent who sold me my house did not hide any information from me. It’s not that my trust is blind–I seek second opinions and read financial disclosure documents. …

At a July 2018 meeting in Aspen, Colorado members of the Knight Commission on Trust, Media and Democracy dove into the most difficult part of their task. They’re sifting through the information they’ve collected, the testimony they’ve heard, and bringing their collective expertise to bear to develop recommendations on what we can do as a society to improve trust in the media, and in so doing, our democracy.

While the final recommendations are a work in progress, they are clustering around four themes that overlap and reinforce one another. We’d like to know what you think. Here’s how to comment.

Reinvention

The virtual collapse of profitable models for the local news business opens a vacuum where bad actors can manipulate systems and disinformation flourishes. One way to foil them: crowd out bad information with good. A citizen with access to high quality news reporting from trusted sources is one less likely to be manipulated. The good news is that in recent years, innovative new models have sprouted for financing successful local news organizations. But these are not nearly enough to meet the vast need. …