Trust is mission-critical, and it’s time to prioritize it
By Joy Mayer and Lynn Walsh
We trained journalists at three back-to-back conferences earlier this month, and one moment stuck out to us as particularly validating and frustrating.
In a room full of newsroom executives, we paused to ask if our strategies for earning trust were impractical. Is there a reason these won’t work, we asked?
The answer from the room was clear: No. The ideas we’re sharing take time to learn, the group told us, but the strategies are important, practical and not hard to execute.
It’s great to hear we’re on track! Also, we feel we must ask next … So why aren’t you doing what we’re suggesting?
Journalists, what will it take to inject more transparency, engagement, responsiveness and clarity of mission into how you do your day-to-day work?
If journalists are not going to address this trust crisis, who will? If it isn’t a critical enough problem now, when will it be? If we’re too busy now, when will we not be? The cost of doing nothing is horrifying to comprehend. It’s time to step up.
Tell your audience you work to be fair and accurate. Describe how you decide what to cover. Explain why you need your community’s financial support. Make your newsroom conversations visible by talking about them publicly. Tell your audience you value their trust and would be grateful for their feedback. (Find a full list of Trust Tips on our website.)
Not persuaded you should invest time in demonstrating your own credibility? Here’s a slide deck that pulls together some key facts about what people think of the industry we’re dedicating our careers to. Start by taking a spin through this new Pew research. And allow us to pull out a key graphic.
Do journalists care about people like you? Do they do a good job reporting important news that serves the public interest? Do they cover all sides of an issue fairly?
Perceptions of journalists’ integrity, professionalism and value as a public service are in bad shape. What are you doing about it?
It’s time to take action.
What’s stopping you? Pick one idea and run with it. And let us help.
- Subscribe to our newsletter to get one tip in your inbox each week and to find out about upcoming trainings and classes. (Applications are due today for our next Trust 101 class.)
- Take advantage of our free one-on-one advice sessions. Ask us how we could help with a specific challenge you’re facing.
- See examples on our website of how our newsroom partners are earning trust.
And if you have advice for us as we work to be useful to journalists as they head out on this journey, please do let us know.
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.
