In a new study conducted by the Institute for the Future, a California-based nonprofit think tank, researchers found more than 80 percent of journalists admitted to falling for false information online. The data was based on a survey of 1,018 journalists at regional and national publications in the United States.

Perhaps more concerning: Only 14.9 percent of journalists surveyed said they had been trained on how to best report on misinformation.

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Journalists, elected officials and government communicators committed to concrete steps aimed at increasing trust and civility in public life following two days of intensive conversations at the National Press Club.

Hosted by the club's nonprofit Journalism Institute and facilitated by the National Institute of Civil Discourse, the "Dialogue in a Divided Democracy" brought together more than 60 people – news media leaders and the people they cover – for face-to-face conversations about the challenges facing key American institutions. PEN America and the Stennis Center for Public Service Leadership partnered in the event.

In this article, read about the steps participants agreed to take.

The Associated Press is expanding its robust efforts to debunk false and misleading information, including in video and Spanish-language content appearing on Facebook.

With a focus on Spanish-language text, photos and video seen by a U.S. audience, AP will debunk misinformation and publish corresponding fact checks in Spanish. AP is the first fact-checker in Facebook's program to focus on content consumed by Spanish speakers in the U.S.

Fundamentally, news consumers trust journalism that they find to be balanced, in-depth, honest and reputable.

Those qualities appeared over and over in an analysis of 81 in-depth interviews our newsroom partners conducted with members of their communities. And when asked directly about what defines quality journalism, they were at the top of the list.

Newspapers are all about storytelling and, yet, "with the crisis that we face as an industry, we don't do a great job of telling our very, very compelling story," Terry Egger, publisher and CEO of Philadelphia Media Network, told attendees at the Mega-Conference last week.

In his keynote address to 700 industry executives in Las Vegas, Egger called on newspapers across the country to establish conversations with local community and business leaders about the important role that newspapers play.

As an industry, he said we have suffered a lot of self-inflicted wounds. "We wish we had do-overs," he said, "but we don't. What we do have, though, is a compelling story that needs to be told."

Building on the success of its first year, Report for America is launching an initiative to address the proliferation of news deserts in California with the goal of placing 10 reporters into local newsrooms in 2019 and 20 in 2020.

News deserts are spreading in the state – leaving millions of Californians without basic information and accountability reporting. Since 2004, 73 newspapers have closed in the state, according to a report released by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Report for America currently has 13 reporters in Georgia, Mississippi, Kentucky, New Mexico, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Texas and West Virginia. In 2019, they will place 28 reporters nationwide, with a goal of 1,000 reporters by 2023. The program pays for half of each reporter's salary and the remainder is covered by the local newsroom and local donors.

In a speech Oct. 15 to students at University of the South, McClatchy President and CEO Craig Forman criticized the term "fake news" and championed the importance of local news. He also described a free press as one that shines light in dark corners and sometimes makes people uncomfortable.

There's good news for journalists: three-quarters of Americans trust their local TV news and local newspapers. Trust is also on the rise for all types of news, despite increased attacks on the credibility of the American press by President Donald Trump and others.

These findings come from The Poynter Institute's second Media Trust Survey. The research found 54 percent of Americans have "a great deal" or "a fair amount" of trust and confidence in the media, a five-point increase from Poynter's first Media Trust Survey published in December 2017.

The murder of five employees of an Annapolis, Md., newspaper by a reader nursing a years-long grudge over a story on his criminal conviction for harassing a woman was a horrifying, extreme example of a harsh reality editors everywhere face every day: Some people get really, really angry about the news and it's a daily slog to defuse that rage and educate the public on the vital role of the press in a free society.

After the horrific attack at the Capital Gazette, it's more important than ever that we take every opportunity – in our stories, on our "about" tabs on homepages, and in encounters with the public – to explain our mission: Who we are, what we do, why it matters.

Read more at Poynter.org

A key factor in the erosion of Americans’ trust of their news media is a failure to communicate – we have a public that doesn’t fully understand how journalists work, and journalism that doesn’t make itself understandable to much of the public.

This fundamental pattern emerges from a new study by the Media Insight Project. Twin surveys of both the public and journalists asked each group parallel questions about the public’s understanding of journalistic concepts, the public’s interactions with journalists, and how all of that affects people’s assessment of the news media.

The findings reveal problems of miscommunication, as well as opportunities. They highlight shared ideals: for example, the public and journalists want the same things from the press – verified facts, supplemented by some background and analysis. But they also reveal dissatisfaction: many Americans think what they see in the news media looks largely like opinion and commentary – not the carefully reported contextualizing they hoped for.

Read more from the American Press Institute