A question of trust
Who do you trust?
If asked that question, most of us would have a short list of a spouse, lifelong friends and family members at the top.
If pressed further others on the list might also include their long time medical provider, the lawyer who helped them with a legal matter, and the personal banker they worked with to get the loan to start their business. Others would include the teacher who was always there to listen and offer guidance when they were in school or the coach who taught them to win with grace and lose with dignity and helped shape them into the person they are today.
Others might go in different direction with the question and include a myriad of business relationships. They expand the circle of trusted individuals to include the mechanic who has worked on their vehicles for years and who they know will tell them if a repair is worth it or they should start shopping for a new car. Others would include their regular waitress who knows what they do and don’t like in their order and remembers that they have a shellfish allergy and warns them if there is a seafood special. Still others would put on their list of trusted people the stylist who gets their hair just right with little direction.
While there may be some overlap, each of these circles of trust is nested like those Russian matryoshka dolls where one sits inside the other.
In every one of these examples the common theme is that trust is built on relationships. You trust your family because they were there for you when you were small and most vulnerable. You trust your spouse and close friends because in your times of doubt and need they help to bring you up.
Others on the list have a more transactional relationship and your trust in them may only extend to their area of expertise. While you may trust your accountant to do your taxes, you aren’t going to go to them when your engine is making a funky noise.
I was thinking about trust the other day when attending a workshop at the Wisconsin Newspaper Association convention. The speaker was talking about people’s trust in the media and ways people in the news media need to work to gain people’s trust.
Now, no one paid me to fly halfway across the country and talk to a room full of strangers about the topic. Nor did I prepare a polished Powerpoint loaded with statistics gleaned from focus groups. But I have worked as a local newspaper guy here for nearly three decades and I have some insight about trust.
In every single example, where trust is given, it is earned every day through actions both big and small.
The same holds true for newspaper reporters and editors. People have trusted The Star News to provide the news of the community for 150 years. They trust The Star News to tell the stories of their celebration and joy and to join in shock and sadness when tragedies strike. You trust those who stand beside you whether it is while on the football sidelines on a cold sleeting night in November, helping emergency personnel direct traffic around an accident scene, or sitting for countless hours in court hearings or government meetings to make sure you know what it going on in your community.
Marriages live or die based on the commitment people are willing to give in order to make them work. Communities live or die based on shared circles of trust and the interconnected web of relationships created through that trust.
In an era of transience people don’t want to be bothered to put in the work to form the bonds of trust. As a society we have replaced long-term relationships with revolving doors of casual acquaintanceship and are reaping what we have sown through not doing the work needed to build the relationships that are necessary for trust to take place.
I can hope that somewhere along your list of trusted people are the people in your local news media who are there doing their best to keep you informed and working day after day and year after year to continue to earn that trust.
Brian Wilson is News Editor at The Star News. Contact Brian at BrianWilson@centralwinews.com.
