Demonstrate credibility and build audience trust
The American Press Institute partners with Trusting News, a program run by engagement strategist Joy Mayer, to help newsrooms demonstrate credibility and actively earn their audiences’ trust. Trusting News offers one-on-one coaching for journalists looking to improve trust issues, and partners with newsrooms to experiment with innovative ways of building trust.
API also partners with the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research to form the Media Insight Project, which conducts research on American news consumers and the evolution of public opinion about the media.
Another important facet to API’s work on trust is helping newsrooms better listen to their audiences. API has gathered expertise in this area, and in 2019, thanks to a grant from the News Integrity Initiative, was able to offer hands-on mentoring to newsrooms looking to better understand their communities.
Try these resources from API for building trust:
- Subscribe to Trust Tips, a newsletter from Trusting News that offers one quick, actionable strategy each week for earning trust.
- Check out our collection of resources on listening to your audiences, especially those who have been marginalized or misrepresented in the past.
- Read our survey research that shows that not all Americans share journalists’ core values, and why this actually points us to a better way to build trust with audiences across the political spectrum.
- Read our report on how a culture of listening strengthens reporting and relationships.
- Read our report on how journalists can better cover neglected communities, using empathy as as important tool for relationship-building.
- Check out our research on what American news consumers and journalists do — and don’t — understand about each other, and what makes people trust and rely on news.
- Browse through our collection of resources on building trust on Better News, a repository of curated tips and case studies addressing common newsroom challenges.