Transparency
How news organizations are asking for audience support in the time of coronavirus
Many news organizations with paid subscriptions are removing barriers to their coronavirus coverage as a public service, and putting that content in front of their meter or paywall. Pairing messaging about the free coverage with a subscription offer is a great way to remind readers the value of journalism while prompting them to support their […]
How can photojournalists build trust through their work? 7 good questions with T.J. Thomson
In the social media age, we are inundated with visual information — yet we know very little about how and why these images are made, especially in journalistic contexts. This can be a huge barrier to establishing trust between visual journalists, their subjects, and the people who consume their work. Dr. T.J. Thomson is a […]
Ask audiences what questions they have about your reporting
What do readers wish they understood about your reporting — and what do these gaps mean for your efforts at building news literacy and trust? These questions, which the Center for Media Engagement at the University of Texas at Austin tackled in our latest research, reveal that people want journalists to dig more deeply in […]
How journalists are using DocumentCloud to support facts in their stories
Anti-press sentiment, fueled in no small part by President Trump, has left news organizations looking for new ways to bolster lagging trust. One way to increase trust is to improve the transparency of newsrooms by making journalists’ information-gathering processes more visible to the public. Some newsrooms are accomplishing this by using DocumentCloud, an online platform […]
Americans and the News Media: What they do — and don’t — understand about each other
This research was conducted by the Media Insight Project — an initiative of the American Press Institute and the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research A key factor in the erosion of Americans’ trust of their news media is a failure to communicate — we have a public that doesn’t fully understand how journalists […]
What the public expects from the press (and what journalists think)
The public and journalists expect the same things from the news media. The public just doesn’t think it’s getting it. What do people want from journalists? Above all, the public says it wants accuracy — for the media to verify and get the facts right. Fully 87 percent rank that as extremely or very important, […]
Liz Spayd calls for the NYT to be more transparent in why substantial story edits happen
“Readers, I believe, are far more sophisticated than they’re given credit for and want more transparency in stories that are shapeshifting before their eyes,” New York Times public editor Liz Spayd writes. “When changes affect a story’s overall tone or make earlier facts obsolete, or when added context recasts a story, readers should be told.” […]
When journalists get their info from social media, audiences find the reports less credible
Press conferences, interviews, telephone calls — these are the traditional ways in which journalists source their stories. Today, however, many more options are available. From Facebook to Twitter to Google, journalists have many new ways to track down information to inform their reporting. But what do audiences think about these techniques? Do readers think social […]
Dan Rather expresses concern about the transparency of Facebook’s algorithms
In a note on Facebook, Dan Rather expressed concern about the transparency of Facebook’s “mysterious algorithms,” while noting the benefits of Facebook for news : “I … worry about the opaqueness of Facebook and its mysterious algorithms. My team and I try to figure out why some posts seem to ‘hit’ and are shared thousands […]
How Mother Jones went undercover to reveal ugly truths about for-profit prisons
The magazine has published its 35,000-word investigation of a Louisiana for-profit prison, based on reporter Shane Bauer’s four-month stint as a prison guard. The magazine walked up to the line of accepted journalism ethics: reporters shouldn’t lie or misrepresent themselves as they pursue a story, writes media columnist Margaret Sullivan. “Undercover reporting becomes necessary,” the […]