These newsrooms are finding out what conservatives think of their local journalism
I wonder so many things about how people who lean right perceive journalism.
Do you see concerns and issues from your own life reflected in the news?
What do you think journalists/news organizations get wrong about conservatives?
What is most important to you when deciding whether a news outlet is trustworthy?
Those are some of the questions we’re sending local journalists into their communities to ask. They will use a survey and interview guide we created with our research partners at the Center for Media Engagement. The research team, led by Gina Masullo and Marley Duchovnay, will share the themes and insights we gather in a public report this summer.
In previous posts, we laid out some challenges for the industry around the political divide in trust and talked about how this interview project will work.
Why this focus, at this time? We are continually asking newsrooms to look at where they could improve their relationship with their communities, and who they might be alienating or leaving out of their coverage. Those broad efforts continue and will overlap with this project. There are many reasons people have for feeling like the news is not made for or by people like them, and we want to have more a complex understanding of how people of different ethnicities, ages, socioeconomic groups, geographies, education levels and world views perceive journalism.
When it comes to reaching people across the political spectrum, the bottom line for me is this: If we are to thrive in our service to democracy (as well as financially), we need to more deeply understand and thoughtfully address the wide chasm of trust that corresponds with political views.
We believe listening is the first step and we invite you to join us on the journey. Here is a version of the interview guide any journalist is welcome to use. Throughout a similar project a few years ago, we heard from journalists that they were excited to have a chance to just sit and talk about the news with community members, separate from reporting a specific story. They said the experience was refreshing and enlightening.
If you use the guide, please keep in touch! Let us know what the process is like and what you learn.
In selecting newsrooms to participate in our research project, we assessed journalists’ thoughts about what they are hoping to learn, and we looked for diversity, related to geography, community size and platform. We are interested to see how answers differ in various parts of the country, in urban vs rural environments and among public radio listeners vs weekly newspaper readers vs metro TV viewers.
Thanks to these newsrooms** for being a part of our project:
- BenitoLink, Hollister, CA
- Bucks County Courier Times, Middletown, PA
- Burlington Free Press, Burlington, VT
- Carlsbad Current-Argus / Alamogordo Daily News / Ruidoso News, Carlsbad, NM
- Carolina Public Press, Asheville, NC
- Chattanooga Times Free Press, Chattanooga, TN
- Cincinnati.com/The Enquirer, Cincinnati, OH
- Dallas Morning News, Dallas, TX
- Documented NY, New York, NY
- Iowa Falls Times Citizen, Iowa Falls, IA
- Jefferson City News Tribune, Jefferson City, MO
- KCUR, Kansas City, Mo
- KIVI, Nampa/Boise, ID
- New Hampshire Public Radio, Manchester, NH
- Northeaster, Minneapolis, MN
- Redding Record Searchlight, Redding, CA
- The Alpena News, Alpena, MI
- The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Atlanta, GA
- The Current, Lafayette, LA
- The Day, New London CT
- The Intelligencer, Doylestown, PA
- The Journal Gazette, Fort Wayne, IN
- The Mercury, Pottstown, PA
- The Oklahoman, Oklahoma City, OK
- Victoria Advocate, Victoria, TX
- WCPO, Cincinnati, OH
- WITF, Harrisburg, PA
** The list has been updated as newsrooms have committed to the project and to being listed publicly as part of it.
We can’t wait to share what we learn. And we’d like to hear from more journalists interested in re-engaging with right-leaning news consumers. If you’d like to be kept in the loop about future elements of this project, let us know here.
Trusting News 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. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook. Subscribe to our Trust Tips newsletter. Read more about our work at TrustingNews.org.
