Ozy.com: “If the past couple of years are any indication, the media in the United States, and far beyond, is facing a crisis. Now a household term, “fake news” has empowered populists and other dubious forces, while public trust in traditional news outlets has steadily eroded. Half-truths and hostility seem to have overtaken the political conversation.  Part of the problem, newsroom leaders believe, is that journalists haven’t explained themselves well enough. Social media bombards consumers with all matter of content, leaving them ill-equipped to identify quality sources. “For far too long, we have sat there and said, ‘Let the story speak for itself,’” David Walmsley, editor-in-chief of The Globe and Mail, Canada’s leading newspaper, tells OZY. “Then we leave this vacuum, and it’s whoever speaks loudest gets heard.” Stepping into that vacuum is veteran journalist and media expert Sally Lehrman. As the director of the Trust Project, a pro-transparency initiative launched late last year, she could be one of the industry’s emerging saviors. With institutional backing from Santa Clara University’s Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, and with help from leaders at more than 75 news organizations including The Economist and The Washington Post, the 58-year-old science writer has led the charge in crafting a set of transparency standards for outlets to implement. Based on input from dozens of American and European news consumers with various backgrounds and reading habits, Lehrman’s team developed eight categories of content verification, or “Trust Indicators,” organizations should meet for published work. They include: clearly distinguishing the type of work (for instance, analysis versus opinion), providing the author’s biography and specifying their area of expertise and identifying the methods of reporting (how reporters obtained their information, and why). Dozens of outlets have committed to upholding these standards so far, part of a multi-phase rollout, and have featured the “Trust Mark” on their sites. Meanwhile, tech giants Google, Facebook, Twitter and Bing are mulling ways to present Trust Indicators to consumers…”