This paper summarises findings from public trials that assess the impact of content credentials on audience trust in news media.

Abstract

Disinformation is a threat to the healthy functioning of democratic society. The advent of Generative AI technology means it is even easier for anyone to create false or misleading information and distribute it at scale making it almost impossible for people to trust anything they see online. This is a problem for most news organisations whose audiences trust their output less and less each year. How can organisations rebuild a trusted relationship with their audiences and consumers empowered to make their own decisions about the accuracy and veracity of what they see online? Content credentials may be one solution. This technical standard exposes the origin and provenance of media, showing users exactly who published a piece of content and how it was made. This paper will summarise findings from public trials that assess the impact of content credentials on audience trust in news media. It will also review the adoption efforts at the BBC and in the Norwegian media industry.

Introduction

Trust in news has been declining for some time ‘Newman (1)’. There are many intersecting reasons for this, but recent advances in generative AI, and the fact that almost anyone can make synthetic (fake) images quickly and easily, are making it a lot more difficult for people to trust what they see online.

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