Today's trust tip: Here's how to start writing trust language into stories
Hi there. Lynn here.
The best place to explain the "why" and "how" of your journalism is where you already have your audience's attention — in the story itself. It's not complicated to do, but it does involve bringing some new questions and routines into your work. Here are some practices that newsrooms we work with have adopted.
First, when deciding what information to include, think about what you know about your audience's perceptions. What assumptions do users typically make about your work? Then ask yourself these questions:
- Why should the audience care about this story?
- Why did you do this story? What question(s) did you set out to answer, and why does your audience need those answers?
- How did you work to be fair and respectful to your sources?
- What decision did you grapple with, or what was especially tricky abut this story?
- What ethical framework guided your decisions on this story? (Think about policies and norms around sourcing, anonymity, diversity, visuals, financial independence and political independence.)
- How do you plan to follow up on this story, and how can readers offer feedback and input?
Once you have an idea of what you are going to discuss and share with your audience, it's time to start writing.
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