Nieman Lab.
Predictions for
Journalism, 2024.
My prediction for 2024 is that journalists will realize that “trust” is a useless metric of their work.
Okay, I’m kidding. I have no expectation that the news media will cease its pointless obsession with trust surveys. It’s not only a distraction but actually harmful. As Nobel Prize winner Maria Ressa has pointed out, authoritarian politicians and corporate giants love to point out how surveys of trust regularly put journalists at or near the bottom of the league.
I don’t have a particular problem with the actual methodology of surveys such as Edelman or the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. (Although any poll that shows the most trusted news media is in China surely must be fundamentally flawed in terms of purpose?) If you asked me whether I trust the “news media,” I would say no. Of course I don’t trust the news media collectively, or automatically. I trust some brands some of the time. So when you ask people if they “trust” a brand that they personally use, they will generally say “yes.” All trust surveys seem to measure is whether you like a particular news organization.
As a journalist (or professor!), I never asked to be trusted. I never trusted anyone else without good reason, so why should I ask the same of the public? In the wake of all the untrustworthy content online, journalists have forgotten that it used to be axiomatic that “you shouldn’t believe what you read in the papers.” In a way, we are now in a better place because good journalism can act as a safe haven in a sea of junk and lies. But that is relative and trust is absolute.
Being trustworthy might be useful. Build a relationship over time where people have expectations that you will deliver relevant, reliable and accessible journalism. That is much more useful than some kind of deferential, instinctive “trust.” Show them your workings, admit and correct your mistakes. Be honest about what you don’t know and listen to what your users say interests them. Try to be diverse, accurate, empathetic, and purposeful. Be constructive as well as critical. Be ethical, moral, and political without being partisan. But don’t run advertising campaigns saying how important journalism is. Don’t advocate for media literacy education on the basis that people are too dumb to realize how great and valuable your work is. First of all, get yourself more literate about technology, your topic, and your public.
Journalists work incredibly hard for scant reward in a precarious profession. They are subjected to endless criticism, abuse, and in many parts of the world, personal physical danger. So it’s not surprising they crave some kind of affirmation. Trust surveys imply it’s possible. Perhaps it is — but don’t hold your breath. News organizations need public support, revenue, and engagement. But they also need to be independent, professional, and prepared to tell unpleasant truths. So in 2024, don’t go looking for trust in surveys. Whenever you’re tempted to use the word, replace it with what you really mean.
Charlie Beckett is founding director of Polis, the journalism think-tank at the London School of Economics.
My prediction for 2024 is that journalists will realize that “trust” is a useless metric of their work.
Okay, I’m kidding. I have no expectation that the news media will cease its pointless obsession with trust surveys. It’s not only a distraction but actually harmful. As Nobel Prize winner Maria Ressa has pointed out, authoritarian politicians and corporate giants love to point out how surveys of trust regularly put journalists at or near the bottom of the league.
I don’t have a particular problem with the actual methodology of surveys such as Edelman or the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. (Although any poll that shows the most trusted news media is in China surely must be fundamentally flawed in terms of purpose?) If you asked me whether I trust the “news media,” I would say no. Of course I don’t trust the news media collectively, or automatically. I trust some brands some of the time. So when you ask people if they “trust” a brand that they personally use, they will generally say “yes.” All trust surveys seem to measure is whether you like a particular news organization.
As a journalist (or professor!), I never asked to be trusted. I never trusted anyone else without good reason, so why should I ask the same of the public? In the wake of all the untrustworthy content online, journalists have forgotten that it used to be axiomatic that “you shouldn’t believe what you read in the papers.” In a way, we are now in a better place because good journalism can act as a safe haven in a sea of junk and lies. But that is relative and trust is absolute.
Being trustworthy might be useful. Build a relationship over time where people have expectations that you will deliver relevant, reliable and accessible journalism. That is much more useful than some kind of deferential, instinctive “trust.” Show them your workings, admit and correct your mistakes. Be honest about what you don’t know and listen to what your users say interests them. Try to be diverse, accurate, empathetic, and purposeful. Be constructive as well as critical. Be ethical, moral, and political without being partisan. But don’t run advertising campaigns saying how important journalism is. Don’t advocate for media literacy education on the basis that people are too dumb to realize how great and valuable your work is. First of all, get yourself more literate about technology, your topic, and your public.
Journalists work incredibly hard for scant reward in a precarious profession. They are subjected to endless criticism, abuse, and in many parts of the world, personal physical danger. So it’s not surprising they crave some kind of affirmation. Trust surveys imply it’s possible. Perhaps it is — but don’t hold your breath. News organizations need public support, revenue, and engagement. But they also need to be independent, professional, and prepared to tell unpleasant truths. So in 2024, don’t go looking for trust in surveys. Whenever you’re tempted to use the word, replace it with what you really mean.
Charlie Beckett is founding director of Polis, the journalism think-tank at the London School of Economics.
