Early Instagram was a very specific place and time. Dressed up yogis posed against sunset backdrops. Models, drink-in-hand, lounged on yachts. It was the time of “inspo”… until we realized many of those backdrops were fake, and the beautiful people in the still shots did not actually have perfect lives.
Today, influencing means more than recommending affiliate t-shirts. It’s having access to exclusive events with community leaders, titans of industry and politicians. It’s explaining lived experience in a way that helps others. Videos have a more raw feel, in messy home offices and walking down the street with headphones. And even though a considerable amount of time goes into preparation and set-up, it feels more authentic, a backlash from 2010s Instagram perfection and over-coiffed TV news broadcasts.
The new era also means understanding the responsibility that comes with what you share, and the duty you have to the audience you’ve built trust with. Trust is so important that mega influencers with unscalable audiences are finding it difficult to build long-term brands, and niche creators who’ve built trust among small groups are sought after. Trust is something we care about deeply because you’re not actually influencing if you’re not impacting someone’s life in a positive way.
Throughout the semester, the Spring 2026 News Creator Corps Trusted Creators have learned how to integrate deeper fact-checking, interviewing skills and records requests into the work they’ve already been doing to ensure responsible information gets to their communities.
We’ve watched them attack hyperbole and misinformation head-on like @deffnotant on his report of Project Asencia in Puerto Rico, and teach their audiences how to do the same, like Eliza Orlins on FOIA requests.
They’ve written out ethics policies so audiences understand exactly how they are funded (check out Caroline Stout’s here), and give detailed information about how the Supreme Court works, like LegalMiga’s explainer.
Mrs. Frazzle is your guide to misinformation in the education system, juan the mochilero surfaces Afro-Mexican history that’s been buried, Bambi encouraged her community to open up about SESTA/FOSTA laws, Celeste uses records to inspect our immigration policy crisis, and so many more, which we will share in the coming days.
With the launch of the NCC Collective, we’re already planning on taking the feedback from our – and other – creators on what they need to report efficiently, and we are putting that into action to create a system where they can lean on each other for fact-checking and editing, take additional workshops, and find support in their daily lives. Creators aren’t reinventing the wheel. They’re taking acts of journalism and applying them to their communities (as we see j-school students considering now as well). What does it mean to take the approach of “do no harm?” And what about when that includes other creators, too?
The ability to be careful in tricky situations and have people to lean on is paramount to getting the work done. We’ve seen tough questions asked over and over again in our Discord chats, on phone calls and in workshops. And that’s why having the Collective is integral.
If you are a news creator who has ideas about how we build this ecosystem, reach out. We’re always open to hearing from people about how to make this network even stronger.