Joseph Walker, Sydney, Australia, to run and expand the Jolly Swagman podcast.
“As part of Knight Foundation’s belief that a strong Fourth Estate is paramount to a thriving democracy, the organization has worked with Gallup to study Americans’ trust in the news media, consistently finding that their level of confidence is driven by perceptions of news organizations’ accuracy, bias and transparency. However, a new report finds that there are additional factors that contribute to Americans’ trust in the media. “American Views: Trust, Media and Democracy, Part 2” explores the disconnect between newsrooms’ efforts to rebuild the public’s trust and the continued decline of confidence in that effort by posing questions that distinguish between the practical and emotional dimensions of trust. [See also American Views 2022: Part 1]. The findings show that “emotional trust” in news organizations is meaningfully linked to whether people want to pay to receive news coverage and to how they feel in general about the state of American democracy. “This data offers further evidence that sustainable journalism begins and ends with trust,” said Knight Foundation President Alberto Ibargüen. “We believe a citizenry that trusts the news is more informed, more engaged and better prepared to participate meaningfully in our democracy.” The new survey of about 5,600 Americans demonstrates that more than twice as many Americans have higher emotional trust in local news than in national news. Americans believe journalists working for national news organizations are competent but are concerned about their intentions and see local news organizations as caring more about the impact of their reporting. They also believe that the increased amount of available information makes it harder for them to be well-informed and, for those that rely on digital platforms rather than television or print, trust in the media overall is lower.”
“2023: A watershed year for action on deforestation – For nine years, Global Canopy’s Forest 500 has tracked the policies and performance of the 350 most influential companies and 150 financial institutions linked to deforestation in their supply chains and investments. We are three years past the 2020 deadline that many organisations set themselves to halt deforestation, and just two years away from the UN’s deadline of 2025 for companies and financial institutions to eliminate commodity-driven deforestation, conversion and the associated human rights abuses.
A step that is essential to meeting our global net-zero targets and averting catastrophic climate change. Yet, 201 (40%) of the companies and financial institutions in the Forest 500 still haven’t set a single policy on deforestation.”