Community Engagement & Trust

Bringing reporters and residents together to listen and learn builds trust for news outlets while forging the social connections that help communities thrive.

Each year, these guides are our most popular and shared content on social media. They’ve also really helped us to grow our audience and develop deeper trust and connection with our readers year round.

About three quarters of Americans report a sense of non-belonging in their local communities. If people don’t feel a sense of affinity within their neighborhoods, […]

How Factchequeado is working to close the gaps in the information needs of the Spanish-speaking population in the United States.

You cannot improve journalism — much less engagement, trust and inclusion — without building structures that hold news workers and outlets accountable for their actions.

A community advisory committee can help a newsroom in various ways, from informing a newsroom on specific topics to helping guide news coverage.

True or untrue, fair or unfair, what is being shared is the perception you are dealing with in the community. Learning about this is why you are there.

At the API Local News Summit on Rural Journalism, Community and Sustainability in Tulsa, journalists noted one skill they had and could leverage more and one skill they needed to develop to be better conveners, facilitators and connectors. Four categories of skills stuck out that local journalists and news leaders need to better and more impactfully embrace these new roles.

Good convening requires strong facilitation skills, influential and empathic leadership skills, and different listening skills than an interview — things many journalists likely didn’t learn or anticipate when they signed up for the job. To be good conveners, local media need resources and opportunity to equip their journalists with these skills.

When we looked at the latest research on how Americans view news about elections, we noted several findings local media especially may want to use to start conversations about how they gain trust this year with their community.