News media is facing a crisis of trust. A majority of the public does not trust most of the news they consume, according to a study published last month by the Reuters Institute.
That’s why editors at Colombia’s El Tiempo and Puerto Rico’s El Nuevo Día – two of the biggest news outlets in their countries – embarked on a two-year process that led them to be certified this year by the Trust Project, an international consortium working toward accountability in newsrooms worldwide.
The two newspapers joined dozens of outlets from around the world that have already received the Trust Project seal, including La Nación in Argentina, Folha de S.Paulo in Brazil and El Comercio in Perú.
"The misinformation circulating on social media and political leaders’s attempts in various parts of the world to discredit good journalism that investigates and checks their abuses of power are threats to a public that needs reliable information," El Tiempo Director Andrés Mompotes told LatAm Journalism Review (LJR). “One way to strengthen readers’ credibility with journalism is by reinforcing transparency practices.”
The process to be more transparent with readers – and receive the Trust Project seal – was arduous and rigorous, editors from El Tiempo and El Nuevo Día told LJR.
Stories now include the reporter’s byline, a brief biography that includes the topics the reporter covers and a link to published articles. In El Nuevo Día’s case, editors redesigned their website.
“It shows the audience that the person writing has authority and expertise,” Carlos Martínez, senior subscriptions editor of El Nuevo Día, told LJR. “It’s not coming from just anybody.”
Another Trust Project requirement is a “behind the story” section. Big stories and investigations now include details on why they chose to report the story, how they reported it, and what evidence and documents they relied on. Reporter Génesis Ibarra Vásquez included those details in an investigation she reported for El Nuevo Día’s series “Las Caras del Crimen.”
According to the recent Reuters Institute study published last month, the most influential factor for people deciding which media to trust is precisely transparency about how the news is made.
“It’s about explaining all the obstacles the reporter faced to get the information,” Martínez said. “And it’s a transparency method for the audience to know everything that was done to get the story."
Media outlets and their journalists must also establish channels to receive feedback from their audience. Both newspapers now make their reporters’ emails visible. El Nuevo Día created and monitors a WhatsApp channel, while El Tiempo has traditional phone lines and a reader’s forum.
Stories are now clearly labeled with the section they’re published in (news, opinion, investigations or others) each publication now has standardized corrections policies, and each outlet has an archive of stories with corrections.
In El Nuevo Día’s case, Martínez said, editors formed a committee with representatives from across the newsroom tasked with creating an ethics guide, which was later debated among all reporters on staff.
Additionally, the family that owns El Nuevo Día disclosed information related to other businesses they own. Yalixa Rivera, deputy director of El Nuevo Día, said LJR they established a protocol to determine when they should disclose information.
“The quality seal [of the Trust Project] tells the audience that the content you’re reading is from a reliable newspaper, verified and cross-checked by a journalist,” Martínez said. “It’s information that seeks to have a balance of voices and opinions.”
For Martínez, the seal is especially important in Puerto Rico’s election year. The launch of their affiliation with the Trust Project coincided with the island’s primary elections this June. And it will be even more important to gain credibility with their audience in this November’s election, Martínez said.
For readers, it may not be obvious that the newspapers now have Trust Project seals. But Google, Facebook, and Bing use trust indicators and signals to label reliable news on their platforms.
International recognition is key. El Nuevo Día has widespread recognition in Puerto Rico, Rivera said, but being prioritized in search engines will help the newspaper gain recognition in other markets.
Getting the Trust Project seal also means that a media outlet meets eight trust indicators, including the reporter’s background as well as local and diverse sources of information.
At El Tiempo and El Nuevo Día, editors also launched campaigns on social media and in their print editions to inform their audiences about the changes they’ll see in their publications – and to explain what the new seal means. The goal is for audiences themselves to determine the quality of news they’re consuming.
“This has allowed us to gather audience feedback and take it into consideration as part of our journalistic process,” said Mompotes of El Tiempo.
At El Nuevo Día, they’ve gotten feedback from sources and advertisers who want to know about the new seal. Rivera said a public relations professional representing a company in a story, asked for a correction. And when the correction was published in a prominent place, the representative was surprised.
“I explained the process, the Trust Project, and she understood,” Rivera said. “It shows you how it is here. Puerto Rico is very small, and everyone knows each other.”
