View this email in your browser

Today's trust tip: Show you're part of your community during COVID-19

Hi there. Lynn here.

When thinking about what it takes to build trust, it's important to remember that trust involves feelings, not just facts. It involves affective trust, not just cognitive trust. You can't simply persuade someone to trust you. They have to believe it.

Think about who you trust. They are probably people you’ve had an opportunity to get to know and develop a relationship with, right? The same is true when it comes to trust in news organizations. People trust who and what they know and have relationships with.

One part of building a relationship is getting to know each other. You can do this in conversations with your audience. (It's important to invest in interactions.) You can also do this by sharing your brand's values and stories, and by relating to what your community is feeling and going through.

During this pandemic, we're facing many of the same situations our community members are — both individually and as an organization. We have business and workplace challenges. We're adapting to not being able to see family and friends. We're worried about our family's health and grateful to the people whose jobs put them at risk. It's a good time to be part of the conversation that’s happening in the community.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution did that when they produced a video thanking all of the essential workers.

The video had a simple message: thank you. But it was both powerful and relatable. It connected with the community — connected with what they are thinking, feeling and dealing with. It invited them to reflect on their shared strength and gratitude. That helps build a relationship, which in turn can help build trust.

TRY THIS: Share images that demonstrate what your newsroom and your community are going through, and focus on messages that highlight what you have in common. You could do this by creating photo or video slideshows, personal videos of staff or posts on social media. Messages of encouragement, thanks and hope may be a good place to start.

— Lynn Walsh, Trusting News assistant director

More COVID-19 advice: It's vitally important that your community trust your work these days, and we want you to get credit for your public service journalism. In this series of posts, we’ll show you (with language you can copy and paste) how to explain what makes your work credible and how to persuasively ask for financial support.

Steal this idea: Find examples of how newsrooms are earning trust during the pandemic on our website.

Trusting News aims to demystify trust in news and empower journalists to take responsibility for actively demonstrating credibility and earning trust. It is a project of the Reynolds Journalism Institute and the American Press Institute.