"Just trust us" vs. Building Trust in the News3.0 Aera

The Nieman Journalism Lab published a document marked as "AP confidential" on August 14, 3:35 p.m on their website. What grasped my attention was a discussion in the comment section of the page. Was Nieman Lab right to publish a confidential document? Was permission granted?

I do not try to give an answer to these questions here. It's not up to me to comment on the legal aspects of this move. The main question which came to my mind was: how to build trust today?

Bradley J. Finkes wrote: "Mere readers aren’t supposed to ask such impertinent questions. After all, Nieman is pioneering the future of journalism, which will be more transparent and interactive than the stodgy 'just trust us' attitude of traditional media outlets. That old media has rightly lost the public’s trust for such dodgy tactics as using anonymous sources, documents obtained under deliberately shadowy conditions, and playing softball with influential organizations."¹

The News3.0 Trust Center. In the News3.0 network of journalists, concepts like "trust" will need a completely different systemic approach and therefore physical expression than in traditional (online) media. The journalist has to build trustworthiness himself. He needs a proven track record of his own. Brand names would not have that impact in New3.0 as they have today. A News3.0 trust center constitutes a triangle of the historical track record of a journalist, user feedback and quality evalutation by professional associations of journalists.

⁽¹⁾ http://www.niemanlab.org/2009/08/heres-the-ap-document-weve-been-writing-about/