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Newspaper targets sports fans in fake news fight

A regional daily has urged readers to trust its sports journalists over those who “just want their click” in the fight against fake news.

The Liverpool Echo has joined the regional press industry in backing the News Media Association’s Fighting Fake News campaign, which aims to highlight the role of local newspapers in combating the phenomenon.

The campaign also aims to inform readers about the importance of the regional press in providing “highly trusted” journalism in the run up to the General Election on 8 June and Local Newspaper Week, which starts on 15 May.

The Echo has chosen to highlight its sport coverage, which includes following the fortunes of Premier League football clubs Liverpool and Everton, as an area in which the regional press will “thrive”.

The Echo's newsroom

The Echo’s newsroom

An editorial reads: “As sport goes global, fans – our readers – increasingly go local. Supporters and lovers of sport crave authenticity. To be a fan is to join a community, to share a common language that transcends accents or post codes.

“It is our job, as the regional experts around our clubs and personalities, to generate and reflect these communities and their conversations every day. To be trusted by the people who go to games and know our teams inside out is a great privilege. Plenty changes in sport, but that remains the same.

“When you see a sea of headlines about your club, looking out for the title based closest to the club in question in the best way to ensure you’re getting the real story from your clubs. Why? Because we don’t just report on our clubs, we live and work amongst its fans too. It’s a matter of trust. That trust has been built and sustained by, above all, superb journalism.

“To couple celebrating sporting success as a source of civic pride with holding to account important institutions in our towns and cities is a tightrope walked by the regional press every day. Fake news is fly-by-night, being a fan is for life.”

It continues: “We know what fans want because we are them ourselves. That’s what sets us apart from those organisations who just want your click. We want your trust.

“Indeed, we often report on transfer rumours and gossip, but with a critical eye borne out of local knowledge, ears to the ground and great contact-building by our journalists. If supporters are talking about it, then so are we.”

The NMA has also announced an interactive Trusted News Day on Friday, which will see readers invited to quiz editors and journalists about their work at local newspapers across the country.

The initiative will include live blogs and question and answer sessions on social media, as well as quizzes for readers asking them about fake news and their views on local newspaper journalism.

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