1. International stories of conflict, like Iran coverage, mean walking on an ethical tightrope: With the eruption of the Iranian-US conflict over the beginning of the new year, journalists worried about spreading misinformation and have been more than cautious in presenting information. Words have been precisely chosen, images double, even triple checked, and coverage has been carefully curated. Especially when the crisis may potentially impact US citizens directly, this article by Kelly McBride for Poynter highlights the importance of journalists building and maintaining the trust of the readers.

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2. Getting it Right: Strategies for truth-telling in a time of misinformation and polarization: Journalists have been under scrutiny for a few years now, especially since Donald Trump’s presidential election. With the upcoming 2020 elections, a crucial year for accuracy in journalism, journalists are struggling to maintain the trust from a polarized and untrusting public. In this series of reports, Susan Benkelman for API devises a strategy, which includes: responses to misinformation and manipulation, burial of false information, responses to attacks to erode trust, and how to deal with a polarized audience and divided audience. 

3. Shining light into the dark spaces of chat apps: In a world where any information, true or fake, can travel at a rapid pace, instant messaging apps have taken the lead in the sharing of this information. However, Sharon Moshavi for CJR writes about the missed opportunities we haven’t taken with instant messaging apps, unlike other countries. This tool gives us direct communication with the audience, and with new technology quickly emerging and taking the place of others, we need to be experimenting more with the new ways in which we can spread accurate information quickly to a greater audience in order for news to stay credible and reputable in the near future. Because if journalists don’t, plenty of others with ill intentions are perfectly willing to spread disinformation using these apps, as we have already seen happening. 

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Matt Carroll is a journalism professor at Northeastern University.

Logo by Leigh Carroll <Instagram @Leighzaah>