{"id":11541,"date":"2021-04-15T11:09:04","date_gmt":"2021-04-15T15:09:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newsmediaalliance.org\/?p=11541"},"modified":"2024-12-20T17:58:33","modified_gmt":"2024-12-20T22:58:33","slug":"study-reframing-article-headlines-messages-around-reader-values-can-help-build-trust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsmediaalliance.org\/study-reframing-article-headlines-messages-around-reader-values-can-help-build-trust\/","title":{"rendered":"Study: Reframing Article Headlines, Messages Around Reader Values Can Help Build Trust"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
izusek \/ E+ via Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Most journalists see their profession as one that can do good in the world. They profess that their role is to \u201ccomfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable,\u201d while movies like “Spotlight” and “All the President\u2019s Men” portray them tirelessly pushing to bring the truth to light. But these portraits don\u2019t fully reflect today\u2019s reality: There is an increasing distrust in \u201cmainstream\u201d journalism in the U.S. and abroad. The Media Insight Project recently investigated<\/a> Americans\u2019 perceptions of the core values that underlie journalistic inquiry and found that they are not \u201cuniversally embraced,\u201d which may be one of the reasons that distrust in the media seems intractable.<\/p>\n

In the study, the Media Insight Project \u2013 a collaboration between the American Press Institute (a News Media Alliance foundation affiliate) and the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research \u2013 tested the public\u2019s attitudes on five core values of journalism: care versus harm, fairness versus cheating, loyalty versus betrayal, authority versus subversion, and purity versus degradation.<\/p>\n

The findings are stark \u2013 only \u201c11 percent unreservedly embrace all five of the journalism principles tested and these people tend to be politically liberal.\u201d Of the five values, a majority of respondents (67 percent) support only one: \u201cthe idea that more facts get us closer to the truth.\u201d A mere 29 percent agree that \u201ca good way to make society better is to spotlight its problems.\u201d<\/p>\n

The research was based on Moral Foundations Theory, which examines how different people, regardless of their demographic qualities or political views, respond to different moral values. Researchers grouped study participants into four clusters, and only one of those had a partisan bent. The other three clusters were mixed, with the key determining factor being how much they agreed with different journalism tenets.<\/p>\n

Despite these somewhat discouraging findings, The Media Insight Project pointed out that journalists can use the findings from the study to frame their work to engender more trust among readers. When researchers revised<\/a><\/span> the headlines and lead sentences of stories to more heavily focus on certain moral values, readers from all four clusters liked and trusted the revised stories more than the originals.<\/p>\n

While thinking about audiences in this new way may be difficult for journalism organizations, it may benefit them beyond increasing trust. The researchers looked at how to ask respondents for financial support for journalism organizations, and as with the core values, moral leanings also played a large part. Messages highlighting journalists\u2019 watchdog role may resonate strongly with journalists themselves, but they may not be the most successful in terms of reaching the broadest group of supporters. Unsurprisingly, messages that highlight specific moral values resonate best with groups of people who prioritize those values \u2013 people who prioritize care responded best to messages about journalism caring for the vulnerable, for example. Organizations should test their subscription appeals similarly to the framing experiment to determine how best to grow their subscriber base.<\/p>\n

Generating trust among readers in \u2013 and support in the community for \u2013 journalism is one of the most important tasks the news industry faces. However, using this research, news organizations can effectively begin to plan for the future. The first step is to commit to understanding readers better (e.g., What do they believe? What moral values do they hold?) Once journalists have that information, they can use it to shape how they do their work. Whether organizations want to grow their subscription business, recommit to their audience post-pandemic, or reach the next generation of readers, understanding their audiences\u2019 moral leanings and how to frame them will give good journalism a solid footing for the new age.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Media Insight Project recently investigated Americans\u2019 perceptions of the core values that underlie journalistic inquiry and found that they are not \u201cuniversally embraced,\u201d which may be one of the reasons that distrust in the media seems intractable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":8793,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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