The United States is facing a crisis of trust. Polarization and partisanship are at an all-time high and trust in institutions is at an all-time low. Trust has been declining for decades, particularly with the media. Knight-Gallup surveyed over 19,000 US adults and the majority said the press has an important role to play in American democracy but they don’t see that role being filled.
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The Aspen Institute Communications and Society program partnered with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to tackle the problem of a diminishing democracy. They formed a 27-member commission comprised of people from the left, right, and middle, representing academia, media, tech companies, and business. Commission members spoke with community leaders across the country. Tony Marx, co-chair of the commission and president of the New York Public Library, says the group’s deliberations modeled the kind of hard discussions democracy needs. Their goal: identify the barriers to a thriving democracy and suggest how media, tech companies, and citizens can take action.
In this episode, listen to the commissioners discuss the recommendations they put forward in a report, including radical transparency, increased diversity in newsrooms, and new funding ideas for local news organizations.
For more information about the topics discussed in this episode, visit the links below.
- Knight Commission on Trust, Media, and Democracy report
- Aspen Institute Knight Commission – Crisis in Democracy: Renewing Trust in America (video)
- “We Are Not Winning”
- Ten Reasons Why American Trust in the Media is at an All-Time Low
- Loss of trust in American democracy is a crisis we have to confront
- Enlist Google, Facebook, and ‘radical transparency’ to fight fake news and save journalism
