The Trust Graph by Robb Montgomery

©2026 Robb Montgomery

Publisher: Visual Editors, NFP

ISBN: 978-0-9903502-4-8 - Print

ISBN: 978-0-9903502-3-1 - e-Text

Library of Congress Control Number: 2026906983

In an information ecosystem saturated with zero‑cost synthetic AI content, the traditional newsroom has undergone severe contraction. The Trust Graph: An Ethnography of Journalism Rituals and Verification in the Age of AI and News Creators offers a 19‑year longitudinal visual ethnography of this structural transition.

The Trust Graph is Robb Montgomery’s major research-driven book on the future of journalism in the age of AI and creator media. Based on a massive ethnographic film archive and fresh interviews with global media makers, it traces how verification, transparency, and newsroom ethics are being reconfigured in dialogue with editors and media leaders associated with The New York Times, INMA, WAN-IFRA, and Channel News Asia, creating a rigorous framework for both journalism education and professional practice.

The book is not only an analysis of media change; it is the entry point to a larger scholarly ecosystem. That ecosystem includes a companion monograph, a digital archive of interviews, evidence, appendices, and films, and a documentary corpus designed to deepen classroom learning and support new forms of research. Together, these materials create a rich repository for instructors and students who want to study journalism not just as theory, but as lived practice.

For educators, The Trust Graph offers a way to teach verification, sourcing, editorial judgment, and audience trust through primary evidence and case studies. For students, it provides a grounded map of how journalism is changing and what skills matter most in an era shaped by AI, creators, and institutional disruption. The project is especially relevant to broadcast and multimedia programs because it connects newsroom craft, visual storytelling, and ethical decision-making to the realities of contemporary media production.

This is both a book and a teaching resource: a treasure map to the future of journalism, and a scholarly archive built to help the next generation understand how trust is made, tested, and sustained.

The monograph is the cornerstone of the project that include a curated archive with master tapes, digital exhibits, evidence collections, appendices and films.