How do journalists earn trust in the public?

In Episode 06 of Media in the Margins, Becky Beamer speaks with Mollie Muchna, project manager at @TrustingNews, about how journalism earns trust in the public.

Mollie Muchna turns trust into practice: transparency, corrections, sourcing, ethics, AI disclosure, and credibility signals that help audiences understand why journalism deserves trust and how to get it.

Mollie works with journalists and newsrooms to develop strategies for transparency, audience engagement, ethical clarity, and clearer communication. In this episode, she explains why journalists cannot assume that audiences understand how reporting works — or why they should trust it.

As more people encounter news through independent creators, newsletters, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Substack, and other platform-native spaces, credibility has to be signaled clearly. Audiences need to know how information was gathered, what sources were used, how claims were verified, what the journalist’s mission is, and what ethical standards guide the work.

This conversation asks what journalism must explain about itself if it wants to survive in a fragmented, low-trust information ecosystem.

Full show notes, guest links, ethical statement, AI usage statement, research notes, references, transcript annotations, and corrections/updates are available here:
https://bleepbleepproductions.start.page/


Platform, Rights, and Disclosure Note:
This episode is an independent interview and educational media commentary produced for Media in the Margins. It is not sponsored, and no guest, organization, platform, or company paid for placement or editorial influence in this episode.

Profile image provided by: Mollie Muchna.

Guest Links
Mollie Muchna — Trusting News author page: https://trustingnews.org/author/mollie/

Trusting News — Resources: https://trustingnews.org/category/resources/

Trust Kits: https://medium.com/trusting-news/introducing-trust-kits-a-new-tool-for-journalists-to-simplify-earning-trust-86526436af7c

Trusting News — Show you’re trustworthy: An ethics checklist for creator journalists: https://trustingnews.org/show-youre-trustworthy-an-ethics-checklist-for-creator-journalists/

Creator Journalism Trust and Credibility Toolkit — Lenfest Institute: https://www.lenfestinstitute.org/solutions-resources/creator-journalism-trust-and-credibility-toolkit/

For full show notes, references, guest links, ethical statement, AI usage statement, research notes, and corrections/updates, visit: https://bleepbleepproductions.start.page/