About the project
The 32 Percent Project is a research initiative at the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication that’s trying to figure out why trust is journalism is so low — and what can be done to rebuild it. To explore these questions, our research team hosted a series of community workshops in public libraries across the country, plus one local diner. Our goal was to listen to what community members had to say, and then use those insights to help journalists do their jobs better.
The work is funded through a grant from Agora Journalism Center
Meet the researchers
Lisa Heyamoto is a narrative journalist and journalism educator based at the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication. Her research, teaching and creative work focuses on community-building through storytelling. Before joining the SOJC faculty, Lisa was a reporter and columnist at The Sacramento Bee and The Seattle Times. She holds an M.S. in Literary Nonfiction from the University of Oregon and a B.A. from the University of Washington in Journalism and English.
Todd Milbourn is an investigative reporter and co-director of the journalism master’s program at the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication. Milbourn joined the SOJC after more than a decade as a daily journalist, which included stints as a television news producer, magazine editor and a reporter for The Sacramento Bee and other newspapers. He holds an M.B.A. from the University of Oregon, where he studied entrepreneurship and innovation, and a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Minnesota.
Learn more about trust
The 32 Percent Project is one of several initiatives exploring trust and the news media. Lots of fascinating work is happening at the moment and there’s a real spirit of collaboration. If you want to learn more about the dynamics of trust — and strategies for building it — from a different perspective, here are a few worthwhile projects to check out:
The Trusting News project, led by Joy Mayer, partners with newsrooms to test specific trust-building strategies.
The Trust Project, led by Sally Lehrman, focuses on improving the user experience with news in a way that bolsters trust.
Housed at CUNY, the News Integrity Initiative is bringing together journalists, academics, technologists to explore innovative ways to improve civic discourse.
Arena is a project based at the London School of Economics that focuses on combating disinformation, which can thrive in low-trust societies.
The Knight Commission on Trust, Media and Democracy is a collaborative effort exploring falling trust across civic institutions.
Also worth checking out is the Gather platform. It’s home to journalists, academics and community leaders exploring how to build trust through community engagement. (They helped fund this research)
The team at 32 Percent Project is interested in collaboration. If you’ve got an idea, don’t hesitate to reach out!
