If you don’t follow the Edelman Trust Barometer, you should. Some key points from Steve’s latest blog post:

• There’s been a decline in trust in "a person like myself" and regular employees, arguably because of "over-friending"
• Trust in credentialed experts (70%) and company technical specialists (64%) is soaring
• Informed publics (media consumers) need to hear things three to five times for it to effect a behavior change
• To stand out and build trust, businesses must activate internal thought leaders across several spheres of media

I also thought this construct was pretty good. My only concern is that the various leaves are obscured in the river of news.