Can You Be A Journalist Without A Newsroom? Rachel Lobdell: News Creator Corps Executive Director

Welcome to In Reality, the podcast about truth, disinformation, and the media with Eric Schurenberg—longtime journalist and media executive, now founder of the Alliance for Trust in Media.

When Eric started in journalism, the enforcer of accuracy was the newsroom. Editors questioned your work. Fact checkers combed through it for errors. The organization you worked for held you accountable for its reputation.  

But as everyone knows, fewer people today get their news from this kind of institutional journalism. The growth in news consumption comes from so-called independent journalists—social media influencers, podcasters and Substackers, many of whom never set foot in a newsroom.  In this media environment, people trust individuals more than organizations to tell them the truth.

Rather than resisting this trend, today’s guest  is trying to shape it. Rachel Lobdell is the executive director of News Creator Corps, which trains creators in the disciplines that professional reporters learned in the newsroom: sourcing, fact checking, public records, transparency, and ethics.

This raises all kinds of questions for an institutionalist like Eric. Can news integrity be repotted outside the newsroom? Can creators maintain audience trust without pandering?  And what happens to news gathering when journalists backed by newsrooms are replaced by individuals?

So, let’s ask News Creator Corps’ Rachel Lobdell.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Rachel Labdell and News Creator Corps
02:01 Rachel's background in traditional journalism
03:30 What is News Creator Corps and its mission
04:48 Training creators with no journalism background
05:42 Impact of creator trust in underserved communities
07:34 Different types of creators and their roles
08:02 Why focus on creators without journalism training
09:25 The importance of mentorship and community
12:42 The NCC Collective and creator accreditation
13:59 Handling monetization and ethical standards
16:33 Dealing with sponsored content and disclosures
18:21 Guarding against sensationalism and algorithm influence
20:46 Sourcing and transparency in creator content
22:50 The future of creator-driven news ecosystems
27:34 Long-term vision for trustworthy information
28:30 Measuring impact and community engagement

Website - free episode transcripts
www.in-reality.fm

Alliance for Trust in Media
alliancefortrust.com

Produced by Tom Platts at Sound Sapien
soundsapien.com