Toronto Star joins global Trust Project
Initiative aims to guide audiences to reliable, credible news sources
At a time when global trust in journalism is at a crisis point and the media literacy gap between news organizations and their audiences seems never wider, the Toronto Star is taking concrete steps to be more accountable and transparent to you, its readers. On Tuesday, the Star announced that it is formally a partner in the Trust Project, a global consortium of news organizations working together to improve trust in journalism. The project, led by award-winning journalist Sally Lehrman and hosted by Santa Clara University’s Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, aims to foster trust by helping to guide audiences to reliable, credible news sources and making it clear to readers when they have found them. With Tuesday’s announcement, the Star joins more than 30 other credible news companies, such as the Washington Post, the Economist and the Globe and Mail, in participating in the Trust Project.
“We keep saying journalism matters, but we weren’t showing how, or why, or what journalism actually is. That was the inspiration for our own trust project, which began in May 2017. And it was the inspiration for being part of this larger effort to be transparent and accountable on all kinds of fronts,” said Star Editor Irene Gentle. The Star’s internal trust committee, an ongoing initiative made up of employees across Torstar, has overseen the creation of a dedicated Trust page, a larger glossary of Star news terms, new conventions on story labelling, and a weekly trust feature looking at the various ways the Star does its journalism.
“The Star has long had a very deep commitment to responsible, public service journalism. We have a public editor, independent from the newsroom for people to voice complaints to. We are part of National Newsmedia Council, an independent body that oversees and adjudicates journalism complaints. We have a code of conduct. We have ethical discussions on what we do and how we do it every day, sometimes multiple times a day. We know this, but we weren’t telling our story,” said Gentle.
In the global Trust Project, participating media organizations agree to follow certain disclosure standards, known as Trust Indicators, developed by news executives around the world following dozens of interviews with readers that sought to discern what audiences value in news.
The indicators essentially present a variety of information about the publication that readers have said is important, such as ownership structure, executive makeup, mission statement, ethics, sources of funding, and journalistic standards and policies. The indicators also include clear labels to help readers better distinguish between news, opinion, analysis and sponsored content, as well as biographical details about reporters that highlight their expertise and track records.
Participants also state any commitments to presenting more diverse perspectives, citations and references for published statements of fact, and information about why certain stories were pursued and by what means.
Lehrman likens the Trust Indicators for news to the equivalent of nutrition information.
“It’s like a nutrition label that you would get on a piece of news,” Lerhman said in an interview. “Maybe you care a lot about ethics. Maybe you care a lot about the author’s expertise. Maybe you care a lot about the organization as a whole. So, you will get all these pieces of information and you can make your own decisions about what news you want to trust.”
How does this all translate into what Star readers will experi- ence? For starters, at the bottom of every article published on thestar.com, readers will now find links to three trust-related features: a more visible “Report an Error” button, a link to the Star’s journalistic standards guide and a link to the organization’s “About Us” page.
In recent months, the latter two features have undergone substantial revision overseen by Public Editor Kathy English.
Behind the scenes, the Star’s development team has been working on updating and standardizing internet markup language that will help the Trust Project’s tech partners — Google, Facebook and Bing, to name just a few — better guide audiences to trusted sources.
Email your questions or comments to the Star’s trust committee at trust@thestar.ca.