To build trust, news outlets prioritize transparency

Who are you?

Who funds your journalism?

Who controls your news company?

Do you keep community donations in your community?

Do you have a political point of view?

Why do you cover some things and not others?

One of the most actionable steps we can take as news people to counter misinformation and disinformation is to answer questions like these.

In 2024, more news outlets will move beyond the bare-minimum of posting a corrections policy and a corporate address. The news site’s “About” section will come into its own — anticipating and answering public questions not only about what we cover, but how, and how the shape of our business affects what news we deliver and what kind of commitments we make to our communities.

Journalists’ fixation on objectivity will shift to transparency this coming year. The objectivity debate was long overdue and needs to continue in every newsroom. But if kept inside our newsrooms, it can distract from an even bigger imperative: to talk about all aspects of how we do our work, directly with our readers, listeners, viewers — the people we serve. If a reporter has a point of view or a publication promotes a certain perspective, does it matter as much as making sure the perspective is overt and clear, and the reader can tell?

Secrecy in journalism is generally trouble. It runs against the whole purpose of the news, and it works against trust. As journalists, it can be uncomfortable to be transparent. When we expose ourselves, individually and as organizations, we must balance between giving access and considering reporters’ safety. But when we don’t disclose how we work, we can no longer dismiss it as just “inside baseball.” It can be perceived as secrecy.

In this place and time, journalists’ transparency is not only a journalism issue, it’s a public issue with big ramifications for democracy.

Let’s write or record explainers about what we do — the money and people behind our newsrooms, our perspective and approach, our politics if we tilt that way. Make them easy to find on our websites and newsletters. Include open and detailed philanthropy disclosures as well as staff bios, board bios, and links to tax filings. “About” sections have been moving this way, led by initiatives including NewsGuard, the Trust Project, Trusting News, the Journalism Trust Initiative from Europe, and by standards for nonprofit reporting outlined by federal disclosure laws and best practices developed by the Institute for Nonprofit News and the INN Network of more than 425 member newsrooms.

One likely reason more Americans are turning to nonprofit news outlets for election guides and daily news, investigative and deep explanatory coverage, is their level of transparency. Many commercial news outlets are now adopting these practices as well. While transparency isn’t a fail-safe and rarely a perfect solution, it helps people identify credible information and journalists whose work they trust.

The need for more transparency in news is growing for multiple reasons: The collapse of locally owned newspapers, the consolidation of news ownership and control, the spread of philanthropic donations from public good nonprofits to commercial companies and, above all, the ability of artificial intelligence to generate misinformation and disinformation in massive volume and difficult-to-detect forms.

Communications professor Jeff Hancock, founder of the Stanford Social Media Lab, puts journalists’ role in the age of AI in one word: reputation. The media will be the biggest touch point between citizens and AI-generated campaigns in the 2024 elections, and journalists will play a huge role in protecting democracy, Hancock told JSK journalism fellows at a talk in July.

“This is where journalists will matter,” Hancock said. Speaking as a consumer, he said, “I will believe this because this journalist and the organization they represent have staked their reputation on that. And I don’t have time to validate everything that I read. I’m going to offload that on you journalists…There’s going to be a premium on journalism because of it.”

Reputation is trust. And transparency creates an exchange where trust can grow. In journalism, that merits our biggest resolutions for 2024.