Media trust flows partly from transparency — or so the thinking goes. This coming year will be a good one to test that theory, as news organizations dramatically ramp up their efforts to be more open about how they do what they do, and invest energy in transparency’s broader corollary, news literacy.
Trustworthy news organizations follow pretty similar ethics codes. They clearly identify the sources of their information, to the extent possible. They make timely and prominent corrections; they disclose any conflicts of interest, and they tell people who funds their work.
We’ve been assuming all along that most of our listeners and readers and viewers are aware of the best practices that underpin our work. But this past year, it became increasingly apparent that they aren’t, and they are susceptible to counter-arguments designed to discredit us. So in 2018, after several years of listening to journalism’s sages talk about how important it is that we more explicitly explain our processes, we’re finally going to get serious about doing just that.
These actions may be as straightforward as putting a bug on our work to quickly signal our values to news consumers. Or as elaborate as a six-minute video explaining how a big story came about. Audiences are yearning for this information: Last June, nearly 900 people turned out one evening to hear Colorado Public Radio and NPR journalists talk about media ethics and debate how newsroom decisions are made.
Attitudes change slowly. Trust in media has finally started ticking up, ever so slightly, after years of decline. But views on the subject remain politically polarized. These efforts may go the way fact-checking did this year, and quickly get politicized — and made politically suspect — by some with a vested interest in seeing our institutions fail. But whether or not the polls immediately reward our efforts, what choice is there for journalists who, in the end, just want to report honestly and have their work believed? Add it to the job description; this work is necessary, too.
Elizabeth Jensen is the ombudsman/public editor of NPR.
Kawandeep Virdee Zines had it right all along
Lanre Akinola Making noise is not a strategy
Juleyka Lantigua Women of color will reclaim and monetize our time
Mike Caulfield Refactoring media literacy for the networked age
Niketa Patel Live journalism comes of age
Tamar Charney We get serious about algorithms
Eric Nuzum Beyond the narrative arc
Sam Ford The year of investing in processes
Cindy Royal Your journalism curriculum is obsolete
Joanne Lipman Journalists inventing revenue streams
Cory Haik Suffering from realness, pivoting to impact
Michelle Ferrier The year of the great reckoning
Umbreen Bhatti The trust problem isn’t new
Rodney Gibbs Tech workers turn to journalism
Sarah Marshall Loyalty as the key performance indicator
Kyle Ellis Let’s build our way out of this
Emma Carew Grovum Newsroom culture becomes a priority
Mira Lowe The year of the local watchdog
Corey Ford The empire strikes back
Kim Fox Audience teams diversify their approach
Ruth Palmer Risks will grow for news subjects — especially minorities
Raney Aronson-Rath Transparency is the antidote to fake news
Andrew Haeg The year journalists become relationship builders
Imaeyen Ibanga Longform video leads the way
Tracie Powell The muting of underserved voices
Damon Krukowski Reviving the alt-weekly soul
Vivian Schiller Pivot to tomorrow
Dheerja Kaur Fun with subscription products
Laura E. Davis Writing answers before you know the question
Kinsey Wilson Facebook and Google: Help out or pay up
Andrew Ramsammy The year ownership mattered
AX Mina Memes and visuals come to the fore
Aron Pilhofer We can’t leave the business to the business side any more
Alice Antheaume Are you fluent in AI?
Mariana Moura Santos Think local, act global
Hossein Derakhshan Television has won
Joyce Barnathan It will be harder to bury the news
Mandy Velez texting is lit rn, fam
Monique Judge Letting black women tell their own stories
Miguel Castro The arrival of the impact producer
Betsy O'Donovan and Melody Kramer Skepticism and narcissism
Julia B. Chan Looking for loyalty in all the right places
Heather Bryant Building the ecosystems for collaboration
Carlos Martínez de la Serna The new journalism commons
Mi-Ai Parrish Blockchain and trust
Julia Beizer A longer view on the pivot
Caitria O'Neill The new court of public opinion
Vanessa K. DeLuca Women’s voices take center stage
Sydette Harry Listen to your corner and watch for the hook
Michael Kuntz The only pivot that might work
Marcela Donini and Thiago Herdy Collaboration is the way forward for Brazilian journalism
Jarrod Dicker Honesty in advertising
Pete Brown Push alerts, personalized
Claire Wardle Disinformation gets worse
Feli Sánchez The year for guerrilla user research
Matt DeRienzo A recession, then a collapse
Evie Nagy Pivot to mobile video frustration
Taylor Lorenz Social and media will split
Justin Kosslyn The year journalists become digital security experts
P. Kim Bui The reckoning is only beginning
Amy King Let’s amplify visual voice
Monika Bauerlein The firehose of falsehood
Lam Thuy Vo Breaking free from the tyranny of the loudest
Yvonne Leow The rise of video messaging
Jassim Ahmad Thriving on change
Cristina Wilson The year of the Instagram Story
Tanzina Vega It’s time for media companies to #PassTheMic
Jennifer Brandel and Mónica Guzmán The editorial meeting of the future
Molly de Aguiar Good journalism won’t be enough
Dannagal G. Young Stop covering politics as a game
Jim Moroney Newspapers have to be good enough for readers to pay for
Andrew Losowsky The year of resilience
Juliette De Maeyer A responsible press criticism
Jim Brady With the people, not just of the people
Tanya Cordrey Finally, the seeds of radical reinvention
Ernst-Jan Pfauth Publishing less to give readers more
Matt Carlson Attacks on the press will get worse
Federica Cherubini The rise of bridge roles in news organizations
Alan Soon The rise of start of psychographic, micro-targeted media
Matt Thompson Here come the attention managers
Pia Frey Address users as individuals
Emily Goligoski Looking beyond news for inspiration
Bill Keller A growing turn to philanthropy
C.W. Anderson The social media apocalypse
Eric Ulken The year local publishers get smart(er) about change
Jennifer Choi Standing up for us and for each other
Kathleen McElroy Building a news video experience native to mobile
Jacqui Cheng Retailers move into content
Felix Salmon Covering bitcoin while owning bitcoin
S. Mitra Kalita The arc of news and audience
Luke O'Neil The end is already here
Kristen Muller The year of the voter
Michelle Garcia Navigating journalistic transparency
Jessica Parker Gilbert Design connects storytelling and strategy
Mario García Storytelling finally adapts to mobile
Rick Berke Value is the watchword
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen The Snapchat scenario and the risk of more closed platforms
Alfred Hermida Going beyond mobile-first
Rodney Benson Better, less read, and less trusted
Renée Kaplan The year of quiet adjustments (shhh)
Christopher Meighan Passive partnership is in the rearview
Ståle Grut Reclaiming audience interaction from social networks
Helen Havlak Keywords, not publishers, power the world’s biggest feeds
Jamie Mottram From pageviews to t-shirts
Marie Gilot No assholes allowed
Hannah Cassius The year of the echo-chamber escapists
Sara M. Watson Feeds will open up to new user-determined filters
Jesse Holcomb Information disorder, coming to a congressional district near you
Borja Echevarría TV goes digital, digital goes TV
Mary Meehan Real lives are at stake in rural areas
Debra Adams Simmons And a woman shall lead them
Raju Narisetti Mirror, mirror on the wall
Millie Tran and Stine Bauer Dahlberg (Hint: It’s about your brand)
Jennifer Coogan The future is female
Mariano Blejman News games rule
Nicholas Diakopoulos Fortifying social media from automated inauthenticity
Carrie Brown-Smith Transparency finally takes off
Craig Newmark Working together toward sustainable solutions
Steve Grove The midterms are an opportunity
Francesco Marconi The year of machine-to-machine journalism
Daniel Trielli The rich get richer, the poor scramble
Alastair Coote The year of self-improvement
Susie Banikarim R.I.P. Pivot to Video (2017–2017)
Nikki Usher The year of The Washington Post
Doris Truong Computer vision vs. the Internet vigilantes
Amy Webb Listen to weak signals
Nushin Rashidian Publishers seek ad dollar alternatives
Joanne McNeil Gatekeeping the gatekeepers
Matt Boggie The intellectual equivalent of the Dead Sea
Pablo Boczkowski The rise of skeptical reading
Sally Lehrman Trust comes first
Corey Johnson The pro-fact resistance
Sam Sanders Shine the light on ourselves
Brian Lam Sketchy ethics around product reviews
Nicholas Quah Stop talking trash about young people
Errin Haines At the ballot, it’s time to count black women
Elizabeth Jensen Show your work
Adam Thomas Sharing is caring: The year of the mentor
Rachel Davis Mersey AI, with real smarts
David Skok Finding an information-life balance
Dan Shanoff You down with OTT? (Yeah, DTC)
Rubina Madan Fillion Unlocking the potential of AI
Lucas Graves From algorithms to institutions
Ray Soto VR reaches the next level
Rachel Schallom Better design helps differentiate opinion and news
Richard Tofel The platforms’ power demands more reporters’ attention
José Zamora Revenue-first journalism
Manoush Zomorodi Self-help as a publishing strategy
Gordon Crovitz Serving readers over advertisers
Charo Henríquez Training is an investment, not an expense
Frédéric Filloux External forces
Jared Newman Venture funding and digital news don’t mix
Trushar Barot The Jio-fication of India
Zizi Papacharissi Women come back
Edward Roussel Eyes, ears, and brains
Will Sommer The year local media gets conservative
Amie Ferris-Rotman More female reporters abroad (please)
Alexios Mantzarlis Moving fake news research out of the lab
Tim Carmody Watch out for Spotify