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What We Think We Know and What We Want to Know: Perspectives on Trust in News in a Changing World

Benjamin Toff, Sumitra Badrinathan, Camila Mont’Alverne, Amy Ross Arguedas, Richard Fletcher, Rasmus Kleis Nelsen

Oxford: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (2020), 26 pp.

"Trust in news has eroded worldwide. According to the Reuters Institute’s Digital News Report 2020, fewer than four in ten people (38%) across 40 markets say they typically trust most news. While trust has fallen by double digit margins in recent years in many places, including Brazil and the Unit ... ed Kingdom, in other countries more stable overall trends conceal stark and growing partisan divides. Why is trust eroding, how does it play out across different contexts and different groups, what are the implications, and what might be done about it? These are the organising questions behind the Trust in News Project. This report is the first of many we will publish from the project over the next three years. Because trust is a relationship between trustors and trustees, we anticipate focusing primarily on audiences and the way they think about trust, but we begin the project by taking stock of how those who study journalism and those who practice it think about the subject [...] We focus on media environments in four democracies – Brazil, India, the United Kingdom, and the United States. These countries encompass both the Global South and North, with a range of cultural heterogeneity and political practices that vary in their partisan and populist tendencies. For our purposes, one of the most important differences across these countries is in how audiences have integrated digital and social media practices into how they consume news. Whereas public social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter have rapidly become key conduits of information in democracies worldwide, many of those we interviewed pointed to the popularity of encrypted messaging services like WhatsApp, specifically in Brazil and India, which have combined with deficits in digital literacy to serve as a ‘breeding ground’ for misinformation and disinformation (Chakrabarti et al. 2018). As Irineu Machado, head of content delivery at UOL (Brazil), told us, audiences increasingly ‘distrust organisations who traditionally’ cover news and ‘distrust information in general’, and some rely not just on public social networking sites but also private groups and messaging applications [...] This report is divided into two main sections. First, we outline important lessons from existing research and practitioners’ observations on trust in news. Second, we identify outstanding questions that we expect will guide our project in the years ahead." (Introduction) more

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Corruption and Informal Practices in the Middle East and North Africa

Ina Kubbe, Aiysha Varraich (eds.)

London; New York: Routledge (2019), xii, 240 pp.

"This book investigates the pervasive problem of corruption across the Middle East and North Africa. Drawing on the specifics of the local context, the book explores how corruption in the region is actuated through informal practices that coexist a ... more

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Silence, Screen, and Spectacle: Rethinking Social Memory in the Age of Information

Lindsey A. Freeman, Benjamin Nienass, Rachel Daniell (eds.)

New York; Oxford: Berghahn (2014), viii, 249 pp.

"This volume addresses the tension between loud and often spectacular histories and those forgotten pasts we strain to hear. Employing social and cultural analysis, the essays within examine mnemonic technologies both new and old, and cover subjects as diverse as U.S. internment camps for Japanese A ... more

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Trauma Journalism: On Deadline in Harm's Way

Mark H. Massé

New York; London: Continuum (2011), ix, 229 pp.

"The role of journalists in covering trauma and tragedy isn’t new. Witnessing acts of violence, destruction and terror has long been the professional responsibility of countless print and broadcast reporters and photographers. But what is new is a growing awareness of the emotional consequences of ... more

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Working with the Media on Gender and Education: A Guide for Training and Planning

Amy North, David Aduda, Andiwo Obondoh, Lutfer Rahman, Shamima Pervin

Beyond Access;Oxfam;Africa Network Campaign on Education for All (ANCEFA) (2006), 43 pp.

"The guide is divided into 7 sections. Each section explores a different aspect of working with the media on gender and education issues, starting with looking at education campaigning in general before focusing on gender issues in education, and the role of advocacy and the media. You will find pra ... more