Go past familiar talking points and get curious about what everyday people think

Trusting News embedded in a statewide program with the Oklahoma Media Center

Discussing diversity issues and working to produce news coverage that more accurately reflects and depicts what is happening in your community can be a daunting task. While this work isn’t easy, at Trusting News, we believe it’s essential if you want to build trust with your community, engage with them and keep them informed through […]

Talking publicly about diversity issues can be challenging. But, as with anything journalists do, actions and intentions (especially good ones) are likely to go unnoticed by news consumers.

Listening is a crucial component when it comes to building new audiences. We have research that shows this, but it also makes sense: If journalists want to provide coverage that is relevant and useful to people they aren’t already effectively reaching, they have to first take the time to get a sense of what those people […]

Through the Leap innovation training program, The International Center for Journalists and Trusting News challenged journalists to answer this question: What can we build to increase trust in journalism now — and ensure misinformation and polarization do not find a foothold in future spaces?

Instead of keeping all of your election planning and decision-making internal, share what you are doing publicly. Explain the focus of your stories, discuss what issues and races you are prioritizing and why, and talk about the goals of your overall coverage. 

Leigh Wright, an associate professor of journalism at Murray State University, worked with students to explain their reporting process by recording short audio clips and embedding them at the top of their stories.

After noticing an uptick of inappropriate comments, personal attacks and misinformation on COVID-19-related Facebook posts, a team at the Keene Sentinel — James Rinker, the digital community engagement journalist, and Cecily Weisburgh, an executive editor — made the decision that it was time to disable comments on posts related to the pandemic.

The work of journalists is telling other people’s stories. It’s what we do every day. Why then are we so uncomfortable telling our own stories? Maybe it’s because we learned in journalism school that it’s not about us, but about our subjects and our readers instead. Maybe we’re just shy. (I’ve heard from many of […]

If you’re a journalist who has faced criticism about national coverage published in your new products but not produced by your journalists, you’re not alone. Far from it, actually. We regularly hear from local newsrooms frustrated and overwhelmed by complaints related to the wire coverage they publish. Some local newsrooms we work with have said […]

It may sound simple enough: Tell your audience who you are and what you value. But for some reason, journalists and newsrooms find themselves either struggling to put those explanations into words or burying them somewhere on their website where few people find them. Two newsrooms of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (a large, international news organization) wanted […]

We know from user research that news consumers value depth. We also know that people say they want to see evidence of fair reporting and thoughtful decision-making.

When journalists tell stories through visuals, there are a lot of options for where to turn. There are also a variety of ways to capture a photo, edit a video, and share visual content. The bottom line: A lot of decisions are made by journalists and newsrooms related to the types of visual content they […]

How Ju-Don Marshall and staff at WFAE in Charlotte have helped turn the station’s operations around to be an engagement-centered newsroom.

Here’s how partner station WCPO got on the record about the changes they made to their mugshot policy with their audience — on air and online.

Here’s how Mike Canan at WCPO hosts AMAs (also called ask me anythings) with their station’s TV viewers on Facebook.