Accuracy is the foundation of trust
A new report finds it’s the single most critical reason why people trust a news organization
On the walls of the Atkinson Foundation, two floors above the Toronto Star’s newsroom, hangs a painting that provides vivid evidence of this organization’s longtime commitment to credibility.
It depicts a Norman Rockwell-like idealized view of the newsroom of the “Evening Star” in 1899, when the legendary Joseph E. Atkinson was at the helm as publisher and proprietor. It shows about a dozen journalists — men in waistcoats, bow ties and eyeshades — sitting at wooden tables, pencils in hand, with newspapers and books strewn about. A lone woman in a long dress, her hair in a topknot, walks among them carrying a stack of papers.
On the wall hangs a poster adorned with gold stars and words that proclaim the mission of “A Paper for the People”: “Brightness, Accuracy, Enterprise.”
I had an opportunity to see this piece of art only recently. Given my role for the past nine years as “guarantor of accuracy” on the many platforms on which the Star publishes these days, it delighted me so to see this image that paints a picture of the importance of accuracy all those 117 years ago, when Atkinson was building his newspaper.
I thought about it this week while reading a new study on what makes people trust and rely on the news. The central finding of this report, done by the U.S.-based Media Insight Project, a collaboration of the American Press Institute and The Associated Press NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, was unsurprising: Accuracy is the single most critical reason why people trust a news organization.
“Accuracy is the paramount principle of trust,” the study states. “Eighty-five per cent of Americans rate it as extremely or very important that news organizations get the facts right, higher than any other general principle.”
The study also found that transparency (defined as the idea that news organizations explain the way they gather and report the news) is very important to building trust. So too is “balance,” defined as “reporting that provides different views.” Readers also highly value timeliness (that a news report provide you with the latest news and information), and clarity (that a report be concise and gets to the point).
Indeed, all of that does not sound a whole lot different from the imperative that the 1899 Evening Star provide brightness, accuracy and enterprise.
This study does reveal information important to today’s media business facing a revenue squeeze as advertisers spend more with digital giants such as Facebook and Google: When readers trust a news organization, they “engage” with it in ways that matter to the future of the news business.
“Those news consumers especially concerned with trustworthiness are also the most likely to report that they take valuable actions — such as paying for news, spreading news to friends and following the source on social platforms.
“Trust is an important differentiator for building an audience.”
While the report’s central thesis seems to me to be old news, there is much interesting research in the report about how audiences gauge the trustworthiness of news on new digital platforms, including websites, apps and social media.
It tells us that the rise of social media, in particular, has contributed to public distrust in media.
“When it comes to trust, many people who receive news from these social media platforms consume it with skepticism,” it says. “Social media news consumers do not generally trust the news they see there.”
I have been following media credibility studies since 1985 when I was a reporter for the Star sent to API for a professional development seminar. On our agenda that week was a then brand-new research report done by the American Society of Newspaper Editors titled, “Newspaper Credibility: Building Reader Trust: A National Study.”
I have never forgotten what I took away from that illuminating session: the reality that if journalists mess up such basics as spelling names correctly, readers really do wonder what else we got wrong.
A multitude of studies have since made clear that the media has a deepening credibility problem. This report again finds low levels of confidence in all media.
As with many previous studies, it also points to a time-honoured means of building trust: publishing corrections when we are wrong.
“Several people said that owning up to mistakes and drawing attention to errors or mistakes can show consumers that a source is accountable and dedicated to getting it right in the long term,” it states.
As “Kimberly,” one of the women interviewed for this report, stated, “We all make mistakes. If an outlet is wrong and is transparent about it and they screwed up, if they say I messed up and take ownership that makes me trust you more.”
Indeed, trust matters. Always has, and always will. publiced@thestar.ca