Why some communities don’t trust the media — and what local outlets are doing about it

As faith in the news media hits a record low, some New Hampshire newsrooms are doubling down on transparency, community engagement and local connections as ways to build and maintain audiences’ trust.

Just 31% of Americans surveyed last year by the polling organization Gallup expressed confidence in the media to report fairly and accurately — down from around 70% of those surveyed 50 years ago. And there’s a sharp partisan divide. More than half of Democrats said they trust the media to do its job, compared to 12% of Republicans.

Perhaps that’s no surprise, at a time when politicians like President Donald Trump call journalists “the enemy of the people.” Media mistrust among Republicans spiked starting around 2015, when Trump entered the presidential contest. But the roots of that eroding trust also include factors like the rise of social media and the economic challenges that have decimated many traditional news organizations over the past two decades, according to an article last year in Trend magazine, a publication of Pew Charitable Trusts.

And the divides aren’t just political. People 65 and older express greater confidence in traditional news media than younger generations. Members of marginalized communities that have been ignored or misrepresented by mainstream news coverage may also lack trust. In one survey, nearly two-thirds of Black adults said the news they see about Black people tends to be more negative than coverage of other racial and ethnic groups.

So how are news outlets in New Hampshire thinking about those challenges? Here’s what a few editors had to say.

The local advantage

Local news organizations have a leg up on the national press when it comes to maintaining trust, said Jonathan Van Fleet, editor of the Concord Monitor. Their reporters and editors live and work in the communities they cover.

“The Monitor, like The Keene Sentinel and like other local news organizations — they are part of the community,” he said. “We have a building in Concord that says “Concord Monitor.” People know it's there. People know we've been here."

The data backs that up. Though fewer than half of Americans think the media in general report the news accurately and cover the most important stories, according to Pew Research surveys, around 70% still say their local media does a good job.

The partisan divide, while still present, is also narrower. Strong majorities of both Democrats and Republicans say their local media generally gets it right.

Lisa Connell, editor of The Berlin Sun, said some people think the paper is slanted to the left. “But I think more people do trust this local newspaper,” she said. “They know it's not just for Democrats or Republicans.”

Meet-and-greets, policies and podcasts

New Hampshire news outlets have taken various approaches to building trust with different audiences.

In 2020, NH Public Radio launched a Spanish-language news service to fill a gap for the state’s growing population of Spanish speakers. In an interview with journalism nonprofit America Amplified, reporter Daniela Alee — now NHPR’s senior news editor — said regular meetings with a group of community members and leaders and listening to feedback about coverage of the Latino community was key to building trust.

Van Fleet said when mistrust breaks down along partisan lines, it often stems from a lack of understanding of the division between the news side and the editorial side.

The Monitor’s editorial board has stopped endorsing political candidates, in part to increase trust, he said.

“We felt that giving people information and informing them to make their own votes was more important than adding an opinion from the organization of who people should vote for,” he said.

More broadly, Van Fleet sees transparency and community engagement as key ways to build and maintain readers’ trust. The Concord Monitor, for example, posts its newsroom policies on its website.

It’s also creating more opportunities for people to get to know the reporters covering their community. The Monitor has started including reporter bios on every story, and is prioritizing community events.

Examples include downtown Concord’s Market Days festival, where people could stop by the Monitor’s booth to chat with reporters and editors, and a community forum where members of the public could ask reporters questions about a recent series on plans to relocate Concord’s middle school. Van Fleet said there are also plans to launch a “Meeting the Monitor” initiative, which will visit different parts of the paper’s coverage area.

The Laconia Daily Sun is also holding more events to connect with community members in new ways — for example, forums covering downtown development and youth mental health.

“Those not only bring subject-matter experts and stakeholders together to have important conversations, but also help the community get to know us as the staff — you know, the people who are behind all of the text and pictures that they see every day,” said Julie Hirshan Hart, the paper’s editor.

In a similar vein, the Sun produced a podcast called “Granite Beat,” which featured interviews with reporters from the Sun and other news organizations explaining the behind-the-scenes process of reporting.

“We really endeavored to kind of pull back the curtain and help people, in full transparency, see all of the steps that we take,” Hirshan Hart said.

Editor’s note: Freelance writer Paul Cuno-Booth previously worked at NH Public Radio as a reporter.

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This story is part of Know Your News — a Granite State News Collaborative and the New England Newspaper and Press Association's Press Freedom Committee initiative on why the First Amendment, press freedom, and local news matter. Don’t just read this. Share it with one person who doesn’t usually follow local news — that’s how we make an impact. More at laconiadailysun.com/knowyournews.