Making data-driven recommendations to newsrooms requires strong research partnerships. Here’s how to build them.

The American Press Institute recently completed a yearlong project to outline opportunities to improve local journalism and limit polarization — specifically by enabling news leaders and non-news experts to inform each other’s work. Below is a reflection from Joy Mayer, executive director of Trusting News, an independent organization previously co-hosted by the Reynolds Journalism Institute and American Press Institute. It outlines one way each party can help the other: partnerships that inform practical resources for journalists.

View the full report or download the PDF here.

 

At Trusting News, we’re in the business of pushing an industry to change. We want newsrooms to transform some fundamental aspects of their mindsets, their priorities, their routines and their traditions.

But change is risky. It’s understandable that when we suggest something new, a journalist’s response is often: How do I know that’s a good idea? And it’s thrilling when we’re able to say: Because we have data that demonstrate it.

The basic questions that are the foundations of our work are only answerable by experimentation and study. What signals can journalists send that their work is credible? Are trust-building strategies perceived differently by different segments of the population? What kinds of interactions with low-trust audiences are helpful to both journalists and members of the public? What does the public want to know about how journalists operate?

Since the early days of Trusting News, we have collected questions like that, recruited newsrooms willing to spend time experimenting and found research partners who share our curiosities and interests.

We like to say that we learn in public. We acknowledge what we know and what we don’t know. We consider our work to be always iterating, and we share what we’re learning as insights evolve. That commitment is crucial to our ability to make data-driven recommendations to the journalists we serve.

When this three-way partnership is done well, all parties are excited by both the process and the results.

1. Journalists, who are under pressure to evolve and have limited capacity for measuring the success of their work, are thrilled that researchers want to help them learn something useful.
2. Researchers, who often don’t have natural connections to working journalists, are happy to have a path into newsrooms willing to experiment.
3. At Trusting News, we end up with data that both informs our trust-building strategies and can show the impact they have. And we can be more effective in urging newsrooms to change when we’re continually testing new ideas.

Sometimes our work with research and researchers is more complementary than collaborative. When the Oklahoma Media Center commissioned statewide research on the local news ecosystem, we asked how journalists would be empowered to act on the research. That led to a training and coaching program in which we suggested strategies based on the findings and worked with newsrooms to adopt them.

Sometimes the research partnership is more straightforward and transactional. For example, when we worked with a TV station to develop a second version of a previously aired story with trust-building language added, we hired the Center for Media Engagement to conduct focus groups with viewers to determine which was preferred.

But the most fulfilling partnerships are when all three parties influence and benefit from the work. For example: We wanted to test what happened when journalists engaged one-on-one with people who have low trust in the news. What themes emerged from the conversations? Did the journalists find them useful? Did members of the public appreciate the experience, and did their perceptions of journalists change?

We worked with research partners Sue Robinson and Patrick Johnson to develop an interview guide to steer those conversations. We recruited journalists to participate and paid them stipends so they could devote the time. The journalists recorded the conversations, which were then analyzed by the researchers. The researchers conducted focus groups with the journalists afterward and sent follow-up surveys to the members of the public who participated.

What we learned: People have more trust in news and report being more willing to pay for the news after just one conversation with a local journalist. Journalists said they gained insights into how they could reach audiences they hadn’t been reaching and reported feeling more connected to their community. Based on the insights, we produced a step-by-step guide to earning trust through one-on-one conversations, and a Trust Kit on the importance of listening more broadly.

We’re in the middle of a similar partnership now with researcher Benjamin Toff, studying how newsrooms should disclose their use of artificial intelligence, alongside partner newsrooms.

Here are some things that can help make the relationship work well for everyone:

1. Identify what all parties most want to know, and make sure there’s enough overlap to be satisfying. The work can produce both scholarly insights and actionable strategies if all are willing to work together.
2. Find researchers who value practical application, not just new knowledge, and are willing to move at the speed of news. Some early attempts at partnership got stuck in different ideas about when to begin (next semester might not be soon enough) and when and how to share findings (waiting until after findings appear in a scholarly journal to share with the industry isn’t practical).
3. Find journalists willing to invest extra time asking big-picture questions, and pay them if you can. It’s hard to exaggerate the time pressures journalists are under, and taking on extra duties to accommodate research is not always possible. They need the buy-in of their leadership, and they need to be given the capacity to fully participate. Even modest stipends can help ensure they won’t drop out partway through the project.
4. Figure out who will serve as a connector and translator. The Trusting News staff have all been working journalists. We’ve also learned to speak the language of researchers. We serve as a point of connection and project management, keeping things on track. We also help researchers and journalists communicate in ways that are relatable and understand each other’s needs and obstacles.

The news industry needs a lot more of this kind of work. As newsrooms struggle for survival, we need continual insights into how we can provide a better public service, reach people we’re not reaching and stay in business.

Joy Mayer is the founder and executive director of Trusting News, a project that studies how people decide what news to trust and helps journalists and the public understand each other. She and her team train newsrooms on strategies for demonstrating credibility and actively earning trust.