Transparency helps news outlets rise above digital din

Today’s readers don’t always know where to turn when they’re looking for local news. With so many options, and so many sources of misinformation, it’s not easy to know which news sites are credible and which are incredi-bull.

By Mark Stencel, JournalList

That’s why the Texas Press Association partnered last year with JournalList, a national nonprofit  news transparency program.

The process is deceptively simple. It is based on a system of short “trust files” designed to elevate reliable reporting across a wide range of digital platforms. These text files serve as a mechanism for search engines, social media services and other digital gateways to recognize and elevate reputable news outlets -- and avoid promoting other sites that spread mis- and disinformation disguised as news.

TPA is one of seven state press and broadcast associations across the United States that have joined JournalList so far.

As of the start of 2023, JournalList had 528 news industry members. That included 509 publishers, one media vendor, and 18 media trade associations -- such as Digital Content Next, the Alliance for Audited Media and the Association of Alternative NewsMedia. The connections generated by the trust files posted to date ultimately cross-reference one another, producing a combined ecosystem of nearly 4,000 media outlets, associations and vendors.

Nearly a third of the Texas member publications have set up trust.txt files on their sites. Those files provide the “machine-readable” information that the major tech companies need to automatically highlight your reporting and commentary. But for a system like this to work at scale, JournalList and its partners need to enlist your help in posting more of these trust files.

You can help by reaching out to JournalList so we can work with you to produce and post your trust files. We know that many news organizations only have limited tech support. That’s why we are at your service to help. Often that means working with the vendors who host and operate much of your digital infrastructure.

This is an important initiative for many small media outlets that focus heavily on local and community news. But major state and regional news organizations play an important role, too. That’s why JournalList is also reaching out to larger media companies in Texas and elsewhere to take advantage of their shared editing and publishing tools. Newsrooms that work on the same technology can accelerate the adoption of our trust files, and that in turn calls attention to the entire transparency process.

In addition, JournalList is working with industry organizations to test ways that trust.txt files can potentially generate funding for news outlets of all sizes whose credibility with the public is valuable to digital marketers and digital advertisers.

So why should you participate? What’s in it for your news organizations?

If your news organization is doing good work, and you want your work to be noticed, you need to make it easy for the search engines, social networks and advertisers to understand who you are and who you are affiliated with. The big digital platforms make decisions with data. If you are a member of a news association like TPA, that’s data. If you have social channels you control, that’s data. But right now that data is pretty much invisible. The trust.txt system makes that data visible.

Our relationships with one another define us, whether that’s through TPA or any number of other related journalism associations and companies. These relationships reflect the networks that tie our industry together, even news startups and new nonprofit news initiatives that have their own associations.

Yes, it is true that others can post trust files of their own. But those bad actors will not have the same professional connections and affiliations that we do. In fact, those disconnects will reveal bogus news sites as outliers -- if not out-and-out liars. Then we will be one step closer to giving our readers the trusted news they want and need.

Mark Stencel is the executive director of JournalList and co-director of the Duke Reporters’ Lab. He can be reached at Mark@JournalList.net.