Trust and verification in an age of misinformation

This resource page features course content from the Knight Center for Journalism in the America's massive open online course (MOOC), titled "Trust and verification in an age of misinformation." The four-week course took place from April 9 to May 6, 2018. We are now making the content free and available to students who took the course and anyone else who is interested in learning how journalists traditionally build trust with an audience, how today’s media environment changes the mechanics of trust and attention, and how to verify online content and forge trust with digital audiences.

The course, which was supported by the Knight Foundation, was taught by Craig Silverman, the Media Editor at BuzzFeed News. He created and curated the content for the course, which includes video classes and tutorials, readings, exercises, and more.

Module 1: Fundamentals of trust and verification
A look at how journalists have traditionally built trust, and how they’ve traditionally performed the process of verification.

Special guest: Jay Rosen, New York University

Module 2: Understanding today's media environment
Today’s media is democratized, mediated by algorithms, and easier to manipulate than ever before. We will examine how these factors challenge and change the way journalists build trust and perform verification.

Special guest: Claire Wardle, First Draft News
Module 3: Verifying/debunking misinformation
Learn how to verify images, video, social media accounts, and websites. This module also offers instruction in how to track and analyze social sharing and traffic patterns of content, and how to push back against misinformation.

Special guest: Malachy Browne, New York Times
Module 4: Building trust through transparency and accountability.
Journalists must actively work to build trust and connection with the public, and we must also be transparent about how we do our work. Learn best practices for doing both.

Special guest: Joy Mayer, Trusting News Project