The Atlantic

What People Really Want From News Organizations

Pundits complain that people are satisfied with the echo chambers they’re in, but that’s not quite right.
Source: Shannon Stapleton / Reuters

When I told my mother my work focused on improving public trust in the news, she thought the idea was hilarious. “Trust? News?” I was a bit insulted. Her daughter—me, that is—has been a journalist for years. But she had a point.

Journalism has been struggling to stay afloat in an era when people expect information to come both fast and free. Now, competition by principle-free enterprises further undermines its very role and purpose as an engine for democracy.

The digital world has muddied formerly clear divisions between factual news, sales pitches, hoaxes, and hyper-partisan propaganda designed to incite. On social media and in

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