5 Questions for Journalism Expert Lynn Walsh on Trusting News

Lynn Walsh Trusting News project

By Julie Wright —President
Twitter: @juliewright

The public’s lack of trust in news sources is not just a problem for journalists. It is clearly one for public relations professionals and the organizations that they represent too.

To understand what got us to this low point in trusting news and what might be done to restore trust in the media and information, I spoke to Lynn Walsh of the Trusting News project.Lynn Walsh Trusting News

Lynn spent the first 10 years of her career as an investigative journalist and most recently oversaw the NBC San Diego investigative team. She served as president of the Society of Professional Journalists last year regularly speaking on and advocating for journalism ethics and press freedoms. She teaches journalism at Point Loma Nazarene University and recently, took on her new role at Trusting News. It perfectly blends her journalism and digital media experience with her passion for a healthy, thriving free press.

As project manager for the Trusting News project, Lynn works with newsrooms and journalism schools in the U.S. and Canada to conduct news engagement experiments and research leading to new best practices intended to restore trust between news media and news consumers.

Alongside project director and Poynter Institute adjunct faculty member, Joy Mayer, Lynn studies how people decide news is credible and shares that knowledge and actionable strategies that newsrooms can implement. Currently, close to 30 newsrooms are trialing these new best practices with plans to roll out the strategies that show the most promise for change.

Trusting News is funded by the Reynolds Journalism Institute, the Knight Foundation and Democracy Fund.

  1. What is the mission of the Trusting News project?

Our goal is to rebuild trust between journalists and the public and we do that by working with newsrooms helping them be transparent in their reporting and encouraging engagement with their readers, listeners and viewers.

  1. What is driving the lack of trust in media?

The responsibility is on both sides. Both news media and news consumers have been struggling to adapt to the digital news environment and how it changed the relationship between journalists and the public.

Lynn Walsh Trusting News projectIn the past, consumers of news didn’t really have that many options. They got the newspaper from their doorstep or turned on their TV, and the news was delivered to them. Now, they also discover news digitally when they’re searching online or using social media.

News has also become less of a one-way delivery system. People can now respond to your content.

News organizations didn’t do a good enough job of adapting to the changes created by this new digital format. They continued to deliver the news in the format they always have.

For instance, we didn’t do a good job of labeling the content when we moved it over to the digital space—is this a news article, a blog post or an opinion piece? People have no way of telling what kind of content they are discovering digitally and how to filter it.

The public also does not understand what journalist do, how they do their jobs and how the news media works. That means that people aren’t prepared and equipped to decide whether what they’re seeing is news or someone’s opinion.

  1. What can the media do about that?

I think from my personal experience dealing with members of the public, it’s about having conversations, explaining why we chose to cover a story or interview an individual on a subject matter, why we blurred a photo or didn’t use someone’s name. Explain the decisions we make every day.

Labeling is key here. If you have a story that’s an opinion story, don’t call it an op-ed since people don’t know what that is. Label it as opinion. Be clear about labels and make sure that label follows that story online and when shared on social media. Be clear about labels for the people we as broadcast journalists put on air too—not just calling everyone an expert. For instance, what is an analyst? Are they a reporter or giving an opinion?

We need to be honest with our viewers when we are putting someone on who is just sharing an opinion.

  1. How do you see this trust issue impacting professional communicators like PR people and spokespeople?

Unfortunately, where we really are now and have been for a year or more is that people just don’t trust what they’re hearing and reading. It doesn’t just apply when it’s coming from a news organization. It can be coming from a press release on someone’s website or a blog post. People are questioning everything and searching to find information that can disprove it. So, the trust issue doesn’t just apply to news organizations. It applies to all information.

People don’t trust facts anymore. People think that facts can be debated. It extends beyond news.

  1. How do you see things five years from now? Better or worse?

I really hope that five years from now I’m not having to teach people how to build trust, be transparent and build credibility with their audience. I hope we begin to be open about how we are telling our stories, why we chose this person to talk to and not be hesitant to talk to people who are critical of our reporting. If we didn’t include something in a story, I hope that we’d be comfortable going back and telling that side of the story or incorporating that missing viewpoint.

This is a new kind of storytelling. It’s things we’ve always done but just in a more transparent way.

To get there, we need some of the biggest news organizations to buy in. When you look at 24-hour news organizations, this isn’t happening. We need CNN and Fox News to start labeling stories and their experts and pundits properly. Hopefully, they will do a better job of separating for the public what is news content and what is opinion.

So far, that’s not happening.

 

Essential Tips for Producing Effective Digital Content

By Joaquín Enríquez, Communications Specialist

Whether a seasoned writer or an aspiring blogger, crafting noteworthy digital content requires more than technique: it requires a unique mixture of the right tools with a strategy that is unique to your personality or brand. Web copy is scanned or glanced at. Not read. So using the appropriate writing techniques can make the difference between your story being a hit or total flop. Consider adding the following digital tools to your toolkit, they will act as the cornerstone of your digital media strategy:

WRITE CATCHY HEADLINES

You’re busy, we’re all busy. When you write your headline, think about writing for people who are in a hurry. To grab optimal audience interest, it’s imperative to write a compelling headline. Consider incorporating the following attention grabbing techniques to better engage the reader:

  • Give the reader a reason to read/click
  • Create emotion in the reader (tug on their heartstrings)
  • Make an audacious promise
  • Use numbers (Readers don’t want to be kept guessing, so why not set expectations for your content?)
  • Include trending text

You should also avoid using complicated jargon, keep your headline short, and most importantly, write it last–you want to be able to ensure your content is living up to your headline’s promise.

The following example is brief, concise, uses a number, avoids using complicated words, and promises to help improve reader productivity:

WANT YOUR MESSAGE TO STICK?

Now that you’ve grabbed the attention of the audience, interaction and engagement are the keys to maintaining it. Effective interaction asks questions of the reader, uses lists, uses all available resources including hyperlinks and uses the chunking method where the story is broken into parts. To assist your storytelling efforts:

  • Use images: When it comes to visual story telling in new age media, the old adage “a picture is worth a thousand words,” still rings true, as is powerfully demonstrated in the following image:

Digital Media

  • Have a point: NPR’s Scott Simon reminds journalists of something that is easy to overlook- every story must have a point. People should be able to walk away from a story and tell it to others, as he explains in the following video:

SQUEEZE EVERY OUNCE OF VALUE OUT OF THOSE 140 CHARACTERS

Twitter has created a quick and easy way to share information, but with its 140 character limit, it can be tricky to be heard above the crowd. To maximize your tweet’s potential and increase brand visibility, you must be current, use strategic and timely hashtags, add images and not be afraid to share links.

This tweet by Real Madrid Club de Fútbol, is both current and relevant, uses an eye-catching image, includes a hyperlink and encourages fan interaction with the use of hashtags:

“Video of the 20-man squad list for the match against Málaga.”

These essentials should help writers of all levels build a solid understanding of the ways that the Internet has introduced new opportunities for dynamic storytelling. Does your tool box have the power of persuasion, visibility, navigability, objectivity and the focus of writing for a specific web audience? If not, adding these tools should lead to a more flourishing digital career.