"It is no longer enough to report the fact truthfully. It is now necessary to report the truth about the fact."

Commission on Freedom of the Press, 1947

The Voices Listening Project is a research collaborative studying online news consumption and misinformation in Arizona.

The project is a partnership between Wick Communications, a family-owned local news company based in Sierra Vista, Arizona, and the News Co/Lab at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

A multidisciplinary team of graduate and undergraduate students were brought together in 2022 to conduct statewide research with an emphasis on three communities: urban Tucson, rural Safford and Maryvale: a diverse, traditionally underserved pocket of metro Phoenix.

Over the year, the team collected 1,638 online survey responses and over 200 virtual and in-person interviews. Those insights were used to design a suite of media literacy products.

Read more in our first blog post: Welcome to the VLP

Research Findings

Our findings indicate that while most people are consuming news about their communities, local journalism has work to do when it comes to both diversifying content and gaining community trust.

More than 85% of surveyed Arizona residents said they double-check online information before sharing it with others. Most could accurately define the term misinformation in subsequent surveys and interviews, but couldn’t articulate a process for identifying what was true and false beyond a “gut feeling.”

"What do you think would improve the information quality on social media?"


“Allowing users to flag their own or others’ content as misinformed or likely inaccurate. Then users will be more vigilant to accept it as fact.”
-Woman from Scottsdale (Generation Z)
“They could change the algorithms so they stop promoting the most controversial ideas.”
-Man from Pima County (Generation X)
“A warning label if something is not true.”
-Woman from Tucson (Generation Z)
“Nothing can save social media.”
-Man from Tucson (Millennial)
“If the sites did a much better job of validating the sources.”
-Man from Vail (Baby Boomer)
“I'm not sure if anyone can trust what others say on any social media sites. They're mainly for opinions and thoughts that people have.”
-Woman from Mesa (Millennial)
“STOP CENSORING FREE SPEECH.”
-Woman from Fountain Hills (Generation X)
“I am not sure, people tend to love the drama and attention where it’s not needed so they fabricate issues instead of focusing on the real issues.”
-Woman from Tucson (Generation X)
“Quality checks that sources are from actual news agencies that have a history of reliability.”
-Woman from Glendale (Generation X)

Product Design

Our communities have identified some problems. How should they be addressed?

Ongoing Learning

As we began to wrap up this project, we wanted to share more about our process — not just the outcomes — and designed a community research-driven product design syllabus.