Facing the fallout from the presidential election, the rise of fake news, and the stark challenges of covering a presidency that aims to undermine press credibility, the U.S. journalism industry has been positively ballooning with trust-geared initiatives. So much so that it’s become hard for even us to keep them all straight. This guide will hopefully help you detangle Trusting News from the Trust Project and News Guard from the News Integrity Initiative, and more — all projects with valuable missions to go with their incredibly similar names.
The underlying context for trust in news: A Knight-Gallup report this year found that the average media trust score (1-100) for American adults ranged from numbers in the 50s for Democrats to 18 for conservative Republicans. Less than half of those surveyed could identify a news source they believe is objective. This isn’t new: Even before Donald Trump started campaigning, Gallup’s annual poll has shown a decline from 55 percent of Americans saying they had a “great deal/fair amount” of trust in mass media in 1997 to 32 percent in 2016. So, yikes.
Here’s a trustworthy rundown of what trusted trust-initiatives are trying to do to rebuild trust. Trust us.