Three ways local newsrooms can build trust and credibility
Transparency, openness and harnessing proximity to your audience are key
This is an extract from “Shifting Practices for a Stronger Tomorrow: Local Journalism in the Pacific Northwest” (2019), published by the University of Oregon / Agora Journalism Center. Read the Executive Summary, a list of five emerging themes covered in the report, tips for managing resources, serving underserved communities, and tips for ensuring newsroom diversity.
Trust in journalism has ebbed and flowed in recent years. The causes of this are complex and myriad. Trust levels can be determined by people’s life experiences, such as how/where people grew up and their demographic affiliations. as well as how they identify politically. But it may also be a consequence of a more complex information environment.
Audiences have access to tremendous amounts of misinformation at the touch of a button. In a world of information proliferation, the concept of being a “paper-of-record,” may feel outdated. Journalists and news outlets certainly need to earn trust. They cannot take it for granted.
Statehood Media’s Kevin Max expressed the view that the journalism industry, and journalists in general, struggle to market themselves properly. “We ask kids to go…
