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Weekly actionable tips for journalists to earn and sustain trust

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.
While keeping the writing tips above in mind, think about what language you can use to help people better understand how journalism works, what your newsroom values and how you work to be fair and accurate.

This could include focusing on the following elements in your story:
  • Why this story is important to the community. Emphasizing a word like "local" can help.
  • Asking for feedback from the community. Ask people for specific feedback, including what may have been left out or what questions they still have.
  • Highlight updates. If a story is a follow-up, explain that. Tell your community you brought this important story to them before and now are updating it.
  • Discuss ethical decisions. If you are not naming someone or showing someone's face, explain why. If you decided not to include an interview or went to great lengths to get comments from someone, share that.
  • Show the breadth of coverage. If you value context and fairness, say that and then show it. This is true when it comes to sources too.
More tips and examples of stories that include transparency language are in this handout
 
Lynn Walsh, Trusting News assistant director
April 13, 2021
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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

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