More former Vox video journalists join the creator revolution

Plus: A look at creator standards

One of the biggest perks of working at Vox for 4+ years was the opportunity to collaborate with and support some of the most creative minds working in journalism today. Two of those minds - Joss Fong and Adam Cole – dropped a trailer last Thursday for a new YouTube channel they’re launching independently tomorrow, May 30th. First, a peek at that channel, Howtown – a show that explains the scientific process by answering the question "How do they know that? Then a few grafs about how Joss and Adam approached orienting the audience in the importance of some core journalistic values.

Setting audience expectations

If intention was a person, that person would be Joss Fong. And if that person had an intellectual twin, that twin would be Adam Cole. Their concept for a new kind of science-infused exploration of the world has been in development for a while. Long enough to work out a lot of early kinks around content strategy, presentation and standards and get it right. 

Without getting into spoiler territory, the first video explores how we know what colors dogs see – question posed by another Vox video journalist turned independent, Cleo Abram. The plan at launch is to drop an episode every two weeks + 2 shorts every week. Two shorts – re: solar storms and dinosaur lips – are already live.

When I found out Joss and Adam were striking out on their own to launch this channel rather than trying to house it within Vox, I knew Howtown would be an exemplar of how to do this right and an ideal pilot launch for Project C to observe and assist in any way possible.

All of those things are true and worth additional posts here, but what I’ll draw your attention to today is the very clear messaging Joss and Adam use to orient their audience in how they do their work. This trailer, the first opportunity they have to capture imaginations and build a following, does that (it’s super sticky and you want to join them on the journey because clearly it will be fun and edifying). But Joss and Adam also use almost half of the trailer to go on the record about how they approach their work. Journalistically. Factually. Without advertiser influence.

They start with sharing their credentials. We learn Adam has a masters in biology while Joss has her own in science journalism and co-founded Vox Video They go on: “Now we’re independent, which means we work for you guys. And we want to tell you our guiding principles so you can hold us to them.” They state them in the video, but also reinforce those principles in the episode description below the player:

Our guiding principles:

ACCURACY

We make sure that the information we present is correct and given proper context, rigorously verifying each fact. We approach the claims we encounter and our own assumptions with skepticism, and try to deliver the fullest version of the truth. When the truth is uncertain, we convey that uncertainty.

​TRANSPARENCY

We share as much as we can about how we research and verify the facts in our videos, giving our audience the tools to evaluate our work. We disclose any relationships, whether with collaborators or funders, that might appear to influence our coverage.

ACCOUNTABILITY

When we make mistakes, we publish corrections. ​

INDEPENDENCE

Our responsibility is to our audience. Decisions about how we report and what we cover are made by us, not by our funders and sponsors. We do not accept money for coverage.

Why?

“Algorithmic feeds have us all consuming more information now than at any other point in history but it's come with so little context on where that information is coming from,” said Joss in a Slack exchange last Friday. “By leading with our principles, which are admittedly some fairly basic norms of journalism, we hope that we'll not only convince audiences that we are a consistently solid source, but also that maybe they should expect the same practices from any other creator delivering news and information.”

Right fucking on. Practicing and evangelizing about these norms is key.

Luckily, Joss and Adam aren’t alone in centering a rigorous process. They’re lining up next to others who are also making it clear that while borrowing a lot of moves from how creators build audience and revenue, those norms Joss spoke about above are foundational to what is ultimately sent out into the world. You can see that in one of Cleo Abram’s early Huge if True videos where she clearly describes her sponsorship policy or hear it in this conversation where Marques Brownlee (aka MKBHD) describes his own innate editorial standards.

If you have examples of how journalism standards shine through in creator journalism, share them with us in the comments. Also, deeply interested in where you see any gaps. And, as always, send me your favorite examples of creator journalism in the wild!

Expect a link dump later this week. For now, let’s all dive in to Howtown.