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.
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Jared Newman Venture funding and digital news don’t mix
Daniel Trielli The rich get richer, the poor scramble
Betsy O'Donovan and Melody Kramer Skepticism and narcissism
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Carrie Brown-Smith Transparency finally takes off
Amie Ferris-Rotman More female reporters abroad (please)
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Pia Frey Address users as individuals
Bill Keller A growing turn to philanthropy
Helen Havlak Keywords, not publishers, power the world’s biggest feeds
Tanzina Vega It’s time for media companies to #PassTheMic
Jennifer Choi Standing up for us and for each other
Craig Newmark Working together toward sustainable solutions
Felix Salmon Covering bitcoin while owning bitcoin
Frédéric Filloux External forces
Emily Goligoski Looking beyond news for inspiration
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Cristina Wilson The year of the Instagram Story
Steve Grove The midterms are an opportunity
Vanessa K. DeLuca Women’s voices take center stage
José Zamora Revenue-first journalism
Rachel Schallom Better design helps differentiate opinion and news
Rick Berke Value is the watchword
Jarrod Dicker Honesty in advertising
Heather Bryant Building the ecosystems for collaboration
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Jassim Ahmad Thriving on change
Tim Carmody Watch out for Spotify
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Kristen Muller The year of the voter
Caitria O'Neill The new court of public opinion
Claire Wardle Disinformation gets worse
Errin Haines At the ballot, it’s time to count black women
Kim Fox Audience teams diversify their approach
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Seeking trust in fragmented spaces
Eric Nuzum Beyond the narrative arc
Manoush Zomorodi Self-help as a publishing strategy
Alfred Hermida Going beyond mobile-first
Aron Pilhofer We can’t leave the business to the business side any more
Kathleen McElroy Building a news video experience native to mobile
Lucas Graves From algorithms to institutions
Yvonne Leow The rise of video messaging
Brian Lam Sketchy ethics around product reviews
Tanya Cordrey Finally, the seeds of radical reinvention
Matt Thompson Here come the attention managers
Jennifer Coogan The future is female
Raney Aronson-Rath Transparency is the antidote to fake news
Nicholas Diakopoulos Fortifying social media from automated inauthenticity
Kyle Ellis Let’s build our way out of this
Basile Simon We need better career paths for news nerds
Alexios Mantzarlis Moving fake news research out of the lab
Mira Lowe The year of the local watchdog
Amy King Let’s amplify visual voice
Sydette Harry Listen to your corner and watch for the hook
Ruth Palmer Risks will grow for news subjects — especially minorities
Adam Thomas Sharing is caring: The year of the mentor
Justin Kosslyn The year journalists become digital security experts
P. Kim Bui The reckoning is only beginning
Andrew Ramsammy The year ownership mattered
Lam Thuy Vo Breaking free from the tyranny of the loudest
Elizabeth Jensen Show your work
C.W. Anderson The social media apocalypse
Luke O'Neil The end is already here
Dheerja Kaur Fun with subscription products
Cory Haik Suffering from realness, pivoting to impact
Kinsey Wilson Facebook and Google: Help out or pay up
Carlos Martínez de la Serna The new journalism commons
Nikki Usher The year of The Washington Post
Jacqui Cheng Retailers move into content
Pete Brown Push alerts, personalized
Joanne McNeil Gatekeeping the gatekeepers
Taylor Lorenz Social and media will split
Sally Lehrman Trust comes first
Vivian Schiller Pivot to tomorrow
Hannah Cassius The year of the echo-chamber escapists
Mario García Storytelling finally adapts to mobile
Rodney Benson Better, less read, and less trusted
Nicholas Quah Stop talking trash about young people
Matt Boggie The intellectual equivalent of the Dead Sea
Cindy Royal Your journalism curriculum is obsolete
Andrew Haeg The year journalists become relationship builders
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Ståle Grut Reclaiming audience interaction from social networks
Caitlin Thompson Podcasting models mature and diversify
Mary Meehan Real lives are at stake in rural areas
Julia Beizer A longer view on the pivot
Marie Gilot No assholes allowed
Pablo Boczkowski The rise of skeptical reading
Miguel Castro The arrival of the impact producer
Julia B. Chan Looking for loyalty in all the right places
Zizi Papacharissi Women come back
Alan Soon The rise of start of psychographic, micro-targeted media
Christopher Meighan Passive partnership is in the rearview
Damon Krukowski Reviving the alt-weekly soul
Imaeyen Ibanga Longform video leads the way
Richard Tofel The platforms’ power demands more reporters’ attention
Lanre Akinola Making noise is not a strategy
Ray Soto VR reaches the next level
Tamar Charney We get serious about algorithms
Borja Echevarría TV goes digital, digital goes TV
Corey Ford The empire strikes back
Jim Brady With the people, not just of the people
Juliette De Maeyer A responsible press criticism
Rodney Gibbs Tech workers turn to journalism
Sam Sanders Shine the light on ourselves
Emma Carew Grovum Newsroom culture becomes a priority
Alice Antheaume Are you fluent in AI?
Raju Narisetti Mirror, mirror on the wall
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen The Snapchat scenario and the risk of more closed platforms
Matt DeRienzo A recession, then a collapse
Federica Cherubini The rise of bridge roles in news organizations
Jesse Holcomb Information disorder, coming to a congressional district near you
Rubina Madan Fillion Unlocking the potential of AI
Mike Caulfield Refactoring media literacy for the networked age
Doris Truong Computer vision vs. the Internet vigilantes
Jennifer Brandel and Mónica Guzmán The editorial meeting of the future
Molly de Aguiar Good journalism won’t be enough
Susie Banikarim R.I.P. Pivot to Video (2017–2017)
Eric Ulken The year local publishers get smart(er) about change
Matt Carlson Attacks on the press will get worse
Gordon Crovitz Serving readers over advertisers
Nushin Rashidian Publishers seek ad dollar alternatives
Sam Ford The year of investing in processes
David Skok Finding an information-life balance
Monika Bauerlein The firehose of falsehood
Trushar Barot The Jio-fication of India
Rachel Davis Mersey AI, with real smarts
Dan Shanoff You down with OTT? (Yeah, DTC)
Michael Kuntz The only pivot that might work
Amy Webb Listen to weak signals
Renée Kaplan The year of quiet adjustments (shhh)
An Xiao Mina Memes and visuals come to the fore
Mary Walter-Brown Show a little vulnerability
Niketa Patel Live journalism comes of age
Mi-Ai Parrish Blockchain and trust
Joyce Barnathan It will be harder to bury the news
Dannagal G. Young Stop covering politics as a game
Jamie Mottram From pageviews to t-shirts
Tracie Powell The muting of underserved voices
Michelle Garcia Navigating journalistic transparency
Sara M. Watson Feeds will open up to new user-determined filters
Charo Henríquez Training is an investment, not an expense
Millie Tran and Stine Bauer Dahlberg (Hint: It’s about your brand)
Corey Johnson The pro-fact resistance
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Debra Adams Simmons And a woman shall lead them
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Laura E. Davis Writing answers before you know the question
Monique Judge Letting black women tell their own stories
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