Google to Introduce 8 Trust Indicators for Publishers

To help people distinguish the difference between quality journalism and promotional content or misinformation, Google has announced plans to introduce eight new trust indicators.

After introducing Fact Check Tag last year and Publisher Knowledge Panels recently, Google is introducing eight additional trust indicators with assistance from the Trust Project.

The forthcoming trust indicators are designed to help readers identify credible journalism from less-trustworthy content such as promotional material or misleading information.

Information provided by the trust indicators will also let readers know what type of story they’re about to read, who wrote it, and how the content was put together.

The above mentioned eight indicators include:

1. Best Practices: Who funds the news outlet and their mission, plus an outlet’s commitments to ethics, diverse voices, accuracy, making corrections, and other standards.
2. Author Expertise: Details about the journalist, including their expertise and other stories they have worked on.
3. Type of Work: Labels to distinguish opinion, analysis, and advertiser (or sponsored) content from news reports.
4. Citations and References: For investigative or in-depth stories, access to the sources behind the facts and assertions in a news story.
5. Methods: For in-depth stories, information about why reporters chose to pursue a story and how they went about the process.
6. Locally Sourced: Lets people know that the story has local roots, origin, or expertise.
7. Diverse Voices: A newsroom’s efforts to bring in diverse perspectives.
8. Actionable Feedback: A newsroom’s efforts to engage the public in setting coverage priorities, contributing to the reporting process, and ensuring accuracy.