By Julia Teitelbaum
Joy Mayer is an engagement strategist who came from Florida to speak at a Demystifying Media lecture about trust in the media today.
Joy has been a journalist for the past 20 years. She is a full time engagement strategist and works in newsrooms to identify specific audiences, promote audience engagement, and analyze trends. She currently runs Trusting News which is a project that focuses on how journalists can demonstrate credibility and gain trust; teaches for The Poynter Institute and the University of Florida; and stands as the Community Manager for Gather, a platform dedicated to engagement journalism.
One could say Joy wears many hats.
Joy works with journalists, reporters, editors, and newsrooms to develop strategies for audience engagement and development, social media, measuring impact, and connecting with specific audiences.
Declining Trust
There is no denying the fact that trust in today’s 24/7 news cycle is questionable by most Americans.
Trust in the media has been decreasing amongst Americans for the past few decades and affects which sources people are getting their information from.
How organizations and companies practice engagement varies from newsroom to newsroom, but all engagement efforts look to the community for answers.
Mayer found it disheartening that credible sources, such as the New York Times and the Washington Post, are being considered “fake mainstream news”.
Changing the narrative
She emphasized the importance of journalists building transparent relationships with their audiences to earn more trust through honest, wholesome reporting; journalists must gain trust from their audiences by understanding what they want to read.
Additionally, our political climate and current president only add fuel to the fire when it comes to our political division and what is considered a credible news source or not.
Some trust building tips for journalists that Joy touched on are:
- describing ethics and funding,
- explaining your journalistic process and
- demonstrating balance to show who you are and that you are accessible.
Tips for the future that Joy recommended were to produce the most ethical works possible, and to be passionate about what you do.