Trust Me explores why humankind is attracted to stories about violence, how media outlets capitalize on that, and how we gather and share information and misinformation in the digital age. The film identifies confirmation bias and how innate neurological traits interact with web algorithms to distort how we see the world. Trust Me gives audiences a front row seat to the efforts of individuals, educators, and government regulators all the way up to the United Nations, in promoting journalistic integrity and media literacy around the world. Viewers hear stories from teachers and students in Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Durango, CO schools, parents in Chicago, law enforcement in India and anti-vaxxers in New Zealand. World-renowned scientists and journalists then provide accounting of how media “ill-literacy” has led to the most sensational news stories and how media literacy helps overcome anxiety, depression, even violence and crime.

Oscar-nominated director Roko Belic interviewed an aggregate of prominent social scientists, journalists and educators, including Steven Pinker, Matt Ridley, Paul Zak, as well as other leading experts in education, journalism and healthcare. Interviews are woven with compelling human stories that create empathy, then unveil solutions audiences can adopt to detect manipulation and fake news, how to identify valid messaging and self-limit their own sharing/reporting of credible facts, leading to a positive influence on the state of mental health and efforts to preserve democracy.