Journalism is experiencing a crisis of trust, according to Proof News founder Julia Angwin. That crisis is partially attributable to the complexity of our current information age, but journalists have also fed the problem, Angwin told Michael O’Connell on ant episode of his podcast, “It’s All Journalism.” 

Journalists, for instance, sometimes overfit narratives to a predetermined story line, or inadvertently overstate their findings. 

“We sometimes write stories that are too declarative,” she said. “And the reality is that’s almost never true. There are nuances to everything. Our job is to simplify but also, if you simplify too much, you lose trust. I’m trying to build a little bit more muscle around being honest about those gray areas while still saying, ‘Here's the thing I found out.’ ”

O’Connell and Angwin went on to discuss how to restore faith in journalism and, particularly, why Angwin believes bringing science into journalism can help. 

Listen to their full conversation here.