In the coming year, we’ll see continuing tension between the public and the press over what’s “real” and what’s not. With the president calling journalists in the mainstream media “a stain on America,” it’s safe to say that the “fake news” conversation will persist — and that attacks on the press will, too. It all means that news organizations will have to keep fighting for the trust of a skeptical public, coming up with ways to demonstrate our credibility across all of the platforms on which we publish our journalism.
At Frontline, we believe that one such way is through journalistic transparency. It’s something we’ve long practiced — but now more than ever, we’ve been cracking open our reporting process and offering new, self-directed opportunities to explore, search, and share what goes into building our journalism. As part of our broader Transparency Project initiative, this fall we launched The Putin Files — which made available 56 full-length interviews from the making of Michael Kirk and his team’s documentary, Putin’s Revenge. We published 32 interviews in video alongside transcripts, and 24 interviews in transcript form only — all fully navigable by person, theme, or highlight.
Our goal was not only to make our source material accessible to audiences, but to make it useful. We developed interactive tools that enable readers and viewers to explore annotated transcripts, compare versions of events, and share quotes via social media.
Poynter’s Jim Warren called this endeavor “an admirable move towards transparency.” And while a video and transcript effort like this is unique, there are different efforts at transparency underway at other news organizations — and we hope more will flourish in the year to come. I’m on a new Knight Commission that’s charged with developing ways to deepen public trust in the press and other democratic institutions. Thinking seriously about transparency will be an important part of the equation.
It’s important to note, though, that the burden (and opportunity) of trust-building doesn’t just fall on news organizations, but also on the platforms where people consume our stories. As Emily Bell said earlier this year, “Fake news has become a meaningless and rather dangerous phrase. But the problem of feeling unsure of what to believe and what not to believe, the obliteration of credible brands and the squeezing of all types of content into the same un-delineated window, is very real.” We’ve seen Facebook make moves towards differentiating between verified and unverified stories. Twitter and Google, too. But the problem is massive, and these are just first steps. I hope that in the year to come, media outlets and tech platforms alike will take bigger ones.
Raney Aronson-Rath is executive producer of the PBS investigative documentary series Frontline.
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Monika Bauerlein The firehose of falsehood
Cindy Royal Your journalism curriculum is obsolete
Federica Cherubini The rise of bridge roles in news organizations
Betsy O'Donovan and Melody Kramer Skepticism and narcissism
Jennifer Brandel and Mónica Guzmán The editorial meeting of the future
Juleyka Lantigua-Williams Women of color will reclaim and monetize our time
S. Mitra Kalita The arc of news and audience
Tim Carmody Watch out for Spotify
Edward Roussel Eyes, ears, and brains
Matt Carlson Attacks on the press will get worse
Felix Salmon Covering bitcoin while owning bitcoin
Mary Walter-Brown Show a little vulnerability
Sam Sanders Shine the light on ourselves
Molly de Aguiar Good journalism won’t be enough
Steve Grove The midterms are an opportunity
Emily Goligoski Looking beyond news for inspiration
Joanne McNeil Gatekeeping the gatekeepers
Miguel Castro The arrival of the impact producer
Mi-Ai Parrish Blockchain and trust
Tanya Cordrey Finally, the seeds of radical reinvention
Bill Keller A growing turn to philanthropy
Charo Henríquez Training is an investment, not an expense
Vivian Schiller Pivot to tomorrow
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José Zamora Revenue-first journalism
Rick Berke Value is the watchword
Dan Shanoff You down with OTT? (Yeah, DTC)
Mariano Blejman News games rule
Evie Nagy Pivot to mobile video frustration
Craig Newmark Working together toward sustainable solutions
Alan Soon The rise of start of psychographic, micro-targeted media
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Dannagal G. Young Stop covering politics as a game
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Mario García Storytelling finally adapts to mobile
Jim Brady With the people, not just of the people
Nikki Usher The year of The Washington Post
Adam Thomas Sharing is caring: The year of the mentor
Jacqui Cheng Retailers move into content
Julia B. Chan Looking for loyalty in all the right places
Lucas Graves From algorithms to institutions
Lanre Akinola Making noise is not a strategy
Doris Truong Computer vision vs. the Internet vigilantes
Vanessa K. DeLuca Women’s voices take center stage
Michael Kuntz The only pivot that might work
Juliette De Maeyer A responsible press criticism
Basile Simon We need better career paths for news nerds
Amy Webb Listen to weak signals
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Amy King Let’s amplify visual voice
Michelle Ferrier The year of the great reckoning
Matt Thompson Here come the attention managers
Alexios Mantzarlis Moving fake news research out of the lab
Andrew Ramsammy The year ownership mattered
Eric Nuzum Beyond the narrative arc
Raney Aronson-Rath Transparency is the antidote to fake news
Heather Bryant Building the ecosystems for collaboration
Amie Ferris-Rotman More female reporters abroad (please)
Frédéric Filloux External forces
Mary Meehan Real lives are at stake in rural areas
Rubina Madan Fillion Unlocking the potential of AI
Tamar Charney We get serious about algorithms
An Xiao Mina Memes and visuals come to the fore
Lam Thuy Vo Breaking free from the tyranny of the loudest
Michelle Garcia Navigating journalistic transparency
C.W. Anderson The social media apocalypse
Christopher Meighan Passive partnership is in the rearview
Justin Kosslyn The year journalists become digital security experts
Millie Tran and Stine Bauer Dahlberg (Hint: It’s about your brand)
Nicholas Diakopoulos Fortifying social media from automated inauthenticity
Hannah Cassius The year of the echo-chamber escapists
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Kristen Muller The year of the voter
Umbreen Bhatti The trust problem isn’t new
Laura E. Davis Writing answers before you know the question
Marie Gilot No assholes allowed
Errin Haines At the ballot, it’s time to count black women
Rodney Gibbs Tech workers turn to journalism
Cristina Wilson The year of the Instagram Story
Joanne Lipman Journalists inventing revenue streams
Rodney Benson Better, less read, and less trusted
Kim Fox Audience teams diversify their approach
Zizi Papacharissi Women come back
Mira Lowe The year of the local watchdog
Sam Ford The year of investing in processes
Luke O'Neil The end is already here
David Skok Finding an information-life balance
Ståle Grut Reclaiming audience interaction from social networks
Mike Caulfield Refactoring media literacy for the networked age
Cory Haik Suffering from realness, pivoting to impact
Dheerja Kaur Fun with subscription products
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Pete Brown Push alerts, personalized
Jennifer Choi Standing up for us and for each other
Kyle Ellis Let’s build our way out of this
Nushin Rashidian Publishers seek ad dollar alternatives
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Brian Lam Sketchy ethics around product reviews
Claire Wardle Disinformation gets worse
L. Gordon Crovitz Serving readers over advertisers
Caitria O'Neill The new court of public opinion
Manoush Zomorodi Self-help as a publishing strategy
Trushar Barot The Jio-fication of India
Daniel Trielli The rich get richer, the poor scramble
Caitlin Thompson Podcasting models mature and diversify
Jennifer Coogan The future is female
Will Sommer The year local media gets conservative
Feli Sánchez The year for guerrilla user research
Yvonne Leow The rise of video messaging
Jassim Ahmad Thriving on change
Hossein Derakhshan Television has won
Matt DeRienzo A recession, then a collapse
Julia Beizer A longer view on the pivot
Aron Pilhofer We can’t leave the business to the business side any more
Niketa Patel Live journalism comes of age
Ernst-Jan Pfauth Publishing less to give readers more
Jessica Parker Gilbert Design connects storytelling and strategy
Alice Antheaume Are you fluent in AI?
Marcela Donini and Thiago Herdy Collaboration is the way forward for Brazilian journalism
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Seeking trust in fragmented spaces
Andrew Haeg The year journalists become relationship builders
Debra Adams Simmons And a woman shall lead them
Ruth Palmer Risks will grow for news subjects — especially minorities
Eric Ulken The year local publishers get smart(er) about change
Richard J. Tofel The platforms’ power demands more reporters’ attention
Jim Moroney Newspapers have to be good enough for readers to pay for
Ray Soto VR reaches the next level
Borja Echevarría TV goes digital, digital goes TV
P. Kim Bui The reckoning is only beginning
Imaeyen Ibanga Longform video leads the way
Kinsey Wilson Facebook and Google: Help out or pay up
Jamie Mottram From pageviews to t-shirts
Tracie Powell The muting of underserved voices
Corey Ford The empire strikes back
Emma Carew Grovum Newsroom culture becomes a priority
Andrew Losowsky The year of resilience
Pia Frey Address users as individuals
Rachel Schallom Better design helps differentiate opinion and news
Jared Newman Venture funding and digital news don’t mix
Monique Judge Letting black women tell their own stories
Susie Banikarim R.I.P. Pivot to Video (2017–2017)
Sarah Marshall Loyalty as the key performance indicator
Joyce Barnathan It will be harder to bury the news
Carrie Brown-Smith Transparency finally takes off
Alfred Hermida Going beyond mobile-first
Renée Kaplan The year of quiet adjustments (shhh)
Tanzina Vega It’s time for media companies to #PassTheMic
Taylor Lorenz Social and media will split
Rachel Davis Mersey AI, with real smarts
Jarrod Dicker Honesty in advertising
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