In a bid to assure their users of the reliability of the content and to fight fake new, several media outlets, as well as Facebook, Twitter and Google will use so-called “Trust Indicators” which will appear as symbols in online journalism. The social media giants want to reverse the declining trust of the Americans in news they see on social media, USA Today reports.
“As a news consumer, I want news I can trust. I want to be able to read a piece of news and know who’s behind it, where the information comes from, and the reporting values of the news organization,” said Craiglist founder Craig Newmark whose philanthropic fund is supporting the project is called “The Trust Project.”
The project was begun two years ago by journalist Sally Lehrman. It is based in Santa Clara University’s Markkula Center for Applied Ethics.
“In today’s digitized and socially networked world, it’s harder than ever to tell what’s accurate reporting, advertising, or even misinformation. An increasingly skeptical public wants to know the expertise, enterprise, and ethics behind a news story. The Trust Indicators put tools into people’s hands, giving them the means to assess whether news comes from a credible source they can depend on,” Lehrman said.
More than 75 news organizations including The Washington Post, Mic.com, The Economist, The Globe and Mail, Trinity Mirror, the Independent Journal Review, German news agency DPA, and Italy’s La Repubblica and La Stampa will put a Trust Indicator next to their news. Facebook, Twitter, and Google were recently charged that they helped the spread of fake news amid investigations into the alleged Russian meddling in U.S. presidential election. An icon will now appear next to articles in Facebook News Feed and when you click on it, you can read information on the standards of the organization and the background of the journalists.
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