Journalists, this is your moment. Please show you’re trustworthy.

Is it possible to overstate how much Americans need journalism right now?

We could have said that was true before the pandemic, of course. Just a month or two ago, our collective focus was on helping the country navigate an especially divisive, complicated election season. The pace and fervor with which journalists were working pre-pandemic seemed like it had grown steadily more intense since 2015.

That election hasn’t gone away. And at some point soon, we’ll need journalists to explain what the rest of the year will look like politically. If there were ever a time to be innovative with our election coverage and focus on being as useful and clear as possible, 2020 is it. Business as usual just won’t cut it.

But with a public health crisis, political coverage takes a quick back burner for most newsrooms. This is life or death, and the people we aim to serve are on the edge of their seats, often hitting refresh on their news sites several times a day as they try to make decisions about their families’ safety and figure out what the future will look like. Consumption of news is high, and so are the stakes.

This is a big moment for journalism.

That doesn’t mean, of course, that our news organizations are on solid ground. As Philp Napoli pointed out in Wired, record consumption of journalism won’t save journalism. Outlets that rely on advertising are working through layoffs, furloughs and decreased print editions. They’re also dropping paywalls, which is the right thing to do from a public service standpoint but it makes it harder to keep “Doing The Work.”

All of this in an information landscape that is complicated and full of pitfalls for both news consumers and journalists. People are skeptical of journalism — sometimes for fair reasons and sometimes based on misassumptions and ignorance about how journalism operates.

At Trusting News, we worry that if responsible journalists don’t take time to explain themselves, news consumers will have more and more difficulty knowing where to turn. They’re consuming more news than ever, but are they making healthy choices? We know journalists are busier than ever (which we’ve been saying since our founding in 2016, yet it keeps feeling true), but newsrooms must take time to acknowledge their communities’ frustrations and questions and be responsive to them.

This is a big moment for journalism.

How our relationships evolve with the people we aim to serve will have long-term effects. At Trusting News we have spent some time thinking about what we most wish mission-driven, ethical journalists would do right now to demonstrate credibility and distinguish themselves from less responsible content producers. We’ve categorized these wishes into four topics:

1. PURPOSE: Want credit for providing a public service? Explain your mission and priorities.

2. CREDIBILITY: Want your audience to find you credible? Show users how you strive for accurate, ethical reporting.

3. MONEY: Need financial support? Talk to your community about the cost of your journalism.

4. ENGAGEMENT: Want a relationship based on trust? Invest in interactions.

We also have created a set of copy and paste templates with concrete steps to take and suggested language to use as you describe your work to your audience.

We know you’re busy, and our goal is to be of the most help to you. So, what’s most getting in the way of trust in your work during these strange times? Please tell us in this quick form, so our work can be grounded in what you need.

More support from Trusting News:

• We send one quick strategy in our weekly Trust Tips newsletter. Subscribe here.
• We have a collection of 11 (and counting) curated Trust Tips for coronavirus coverage. Find those here.
• Our trust coaches are available to talk through your challenges or help brainstorm ideas one on one. Request a session here.
• Want data? We collect research (our own and others’) around trust in journalism. See the slick deck here.
• Want more newsroom examples? Our website has a database of newsroom examples, and we’re drilling down on examples from COVID-19 coverage.

Trusting News, staffed by Joy Mayer and Lynn Walsh, is designed to demystify the issue of trust in journalism. We research how people decide what news is credible, then turn that knowledge into actionable strategies for journalists. We’re funded by the Reynolds Journalism Institute, the American Press Institute, Democracy Fund and the Knight Foundation.