Survey results: Journalism creators want shared standards

Project C and Trusting News asked what rigor looks like and found a shared desire for more guidance

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Back in September, in conjunction with Trusting News, Project C fielded an informal survey to get a sense of attitudes about standards and ethics for creator-model journalism – the kind of work and people I write about here at Project C every week.

The results are in and, not surprisingly, our 60 respondents overwhelmingly agreed on the need for a shared standard for responsible, fact-based independent creator journalism and the need for more research, programming and training to figure out how this all might work in a way that feels grounded but not limiting.

The survey was just the beginning of the work Trusting News and Project C want to undertake to push for both development and adoption of a solid set of standards, and maybe even a form of certification that can give consumers a way to recognize trustworthy information. Over the coming months expect updates as our next steps take shape. For today, though, let’s use the survey results as a jumping off point to talk about a few things: why this is important, current examples of good standards in action and what happens next.

Why this all matters

Really, the name of my partner in this endeavor says it all: Trusting News is what this is all about. We’re at an inflection point where we see scales starting to tip, especially for Gen Z and Gen Alpha, who are turning more frequently to independent creators than legacy (both print and digital) news brands to make sense of the world around them and decisions for how they navigate life. The trustworthiness of these new independent sources are increasingly called into question, especially by the legacy news organizations who see their audiences gaze drifting elsewhere.

Just this week, Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos (whose own outlet is at the center of a massive trust wobble) invoked indie journalists as a reason for why legacy media is more important, in his view, than ever. “Many people are turning to off-the-cuff podcasts, inaccurate social media posts and other unverified news sources, which can quickly spread misinformation and deepen divisions," wrote Bezos in a note to readers.

Putting aside Bezos’ motivation here, he’s not entirely wrong. We should be asking this question continually and understand that the answer must evolve over time: what constitutes credible, fact-based journalism? True objectivity is almost impossible, for institutions like The Washington Post (full disclosure, I worked there for 11 years) and for the individuals I write about here at Project C. What keeps us all in the realm of trust, though, is an agreement around a shared set of ideals, or boundaries. It’s the same thing that makes society function – a shared understanding of right and wrong.

We also need to trust consumers to understand where journalism ends and content creation becomes just that. Subscribers should take Taylor Lorenz at her word when she says, “I don’t want to be a full-time writer. I want to be an Internet personality.” The Internet, and social media platforms where most of this content lives, aren’t divided into neat sections labeled “News” and “Opinion.” The rules will be fluid and the trust quotient will be determined by a combination of both the producer’s and consumer’s perception of where each creator falls along a spectrum that might run from hard news to opinion to Internet personality to …?

That spectrum is what Trusting News and I hope to help map out for creator journalism now.

Who’s doing it right or… ?

The good news is that there are TONS of examples of creators doing it right. From Howtown’s first trailer in which Joss Fong and Adam Cole clearly define their advertising policies to Casey Newton, whose always available ethics policy makes clear not only Platformer’s corrections process but even specifics of Newton’s ownership of Vox Media stock, we have a wealth of creators to look to for inspiration.

“You have to be wildly honest,” says Under the Desk News’ V Spehar. “I put ‘ad’ right on the page and tell my audience when I’m promoting something. It’s all about transparency.”

All those creators fall closer to the traditional journalism side of the spectrum, so defining a clear set of standards for them will be easy. But to take a harder example, we need more time to think about how to define boundaries for creators like the wildly successful tech gadget reviewer Marques Brownlee, who early on in his YouTube career posted this fabulous close up look into his own ethics, but has since drifted more and more over to the influencer side of the spectrum with brand collaborations and even a recent kerfuffle over his release of a wallpaper app that many of his critics felt violated the trust of his audience. The rules of most newsrooms would preclude Brownlee from brand collabs, but should the boundaries be different for someone like Brownlee who is more akin to the NYT’s Wirecutter product review site, which itself monetizes reviews with affiliate links? If so, what do those rules look like?

What’s next?

Project C will continue to collaborate with Trusting News’ Joy Mayer and Mollie Muchna, specifically around:

• How to standardize and help creator journalists have access to best practices around ethics, transparency and aggregation — and use those standards to build trust, reach and engagement with audiences. 

• How large platforms, tech and media companies can work alongside creators and journalists and reward those who are willing to be transparent about their ethical standards.

• How newsrooms can embrace this new type of individual-branded journalism within their news organizations to better engage people who tune out of the news and feel left out of civic life more broadly.

If you want to know more or are interested in funding any of this work, reach out to me at liz@projectc.biz or Joy and Mollie at info@trustingnews.org.