This past week’s news of a mob storming the U.S. Capitol, partly because of mistaken beliefs about the presidential election, highlighted one of journalism’s greatest challenges: How can you inform people who don’t trust facts and are hostile toward media?
Local news outlets usually get higher trust marks than “media” in general, but are feeling the effects of distrust even as they try to enlist audiences and communities as engaged members, paying subscribers, and philanthropic supporters. How can new and existing organizations build credibility — including with people who have never trusted mainstream media, and in an age when people trust facts less than before?
We’ll address these questions and others in a breakout workshop on credibility and trust at the NC Local News Summit on Wednesday, Jan. 13, one of four concurrent breakout sessions taking on key questions about how to strengthen local news in North Carolina. Here’s a list:
- Meeting your community’s information needs: How do we determine what information communities really need, and how do we know if we’re providing it? (Facilitators: Fiona Morgan and Philip Napoli)
- Building credibility in an age of distrust: How can local news organizations be more successful in gaining community trust in an era of misinformation, fragmentation and belief bubbles? (Facilitator: Cole Goins; also, Alicia Bell of Free Press and Joy Mayer of Trusting News)
- Multiplying your impact: Can we improve and expand crucial reporting through quality collaborations and smart resource-sharing? (Facilitators: Ryan Thornburg and Shannan Bowen; also, Stefanie Murray of the Center for Cooperative Media)
- New era, new voices: How will new players change how we think about “local news” in 2021 – and how can we encourage even more experimentation? (Facilitator: Katherine Goldstein; also, Tracie Powell of the Racial Equity in Journalism Fund at Borealis Philanthropy)
Registration has been strong for the Summit, and we’re looking forward to a full and lively half-day — here’s the event page.
If you’ve already registered, check your email for a link to pick a breakout session.
If you haven’t registered, here’s the link.
We’ll send the Zoom meeting link on Tuesday, Jan. 12.
If you need help with any of this, email msill@elon.edu.
