The Rundown

Part 1

Problems Newsrooms Face

There are three key challenges newsrooms today face: ideological polarization, diminishing trust in media, and serious challenges posed by AI, deep fakes, and manipulated content where its rapid spread is outpacing current fact checkers.The current newsroom environment and process is not optimally equipped to handle these new challenges.

Takeaways

  • 1

    Traditional newsroom workflows are inadequate for combating sophisticated misinformation, deepfakes, and foreign influence campaigns.

  • 2

    Newsrooms must transform from simple reporting centers into information assessment centers that certify reality for audiences.

  • 3

    The role of journalists is evolving from storytellers to information authenticators who must verify and certify content before distribution.

  • 4

    Rigorous multi-step verification protocols, including source assessment, context analysis, and timing evaluation, are essential for maintaining information integrity.

The traditional set up of newsrooms around the world generally follow this typical process:

  • Story Assignment: News editors meet to discuss potential stories and breaking news. The assignment desk allocates stories to reporters based on expertise and availability.
  • Gathering Information: Reporters head out, often with camera crews for TV news. They conduct interviews, gather footage, and collect relevant information and data.
  • Reporting and Production: Reporters return to write their stories or prepare broadcast scripts. For TV news, footage is reviewed and edited.
  • Editorial Review:Stories go through multiple layers of editing. Line editors check for accuracy, clarity, and style. Senior editors review for newsworthiness and potential impact. There are legal and ethical checks where the legal team reviews sensitive stories for potential libel or privacy issues. An ethics or standards committee may be consulted on stories with moral implications.
  • Final Approval: Managing editor or news director gives final approval and then stories are published online or broadcast on TV/Audio.

Mindset Shift

There needs to be a transformation. News media are the front-line soldiers; journalists are the gateway against malicious information. Bad actors are becoming increasingly sophisticated in their creation and dissemination of false information and are instigators of ideological polarization. There is even the distinct possibility of false narratives being seeded and nourished by foreign powers seeking to influence electorates and create division between different identity groups.

Newsrooms of the future must have the following goals: maintaining audience engagement through professional ethics; keeping brand credibility through upholding the integrity of information; and ensuring the presence of verifiable authenticity of reporters and anchors.

Reporters are no longer only storytelling or reporting. Teams are now instead certifying reality for their audiences and verifying information before it airs. It’s imperative to establish a new layer of standards and skills.

We want you to be thinking about how newsrooms need to shift towards becoming assessment centers of information products. News requires a thorough assessment, certification, and verification before being released to audiences. We must apply intelligence best practices to newsrooms to enhance information integrity and rebuild public trust. That is how you achieve information integrity.

Data must be assessed, certified, and verified for the court of public consumption. Witnesses, images, soundbites, video, audio cannot rely on standard fact checking.

Checklist

  • ReviewHas all information available been assessed and considered?
  • Data CheckIs the information credible? Is the information valid?
  • Background CheckHas it come from a reputable source? Can it be corroborated? Is there a history of factual reporting?
  • Scope of CoverageIs it being reported elsewhere?
  • Context CheckWhat is the context of this information?
  • Assess TimingWhy is this emerging now?
  • Trust & VerifyWhen you have questions about the authenticity, trustworthiness, or motive of the source, seek corroboration.
  • Fact CheckMultisource facts and fact check via third parties

Further Reading