The project focuses on the viability of journalist-researcher relations. Journalists and researchers serve as “watchdogs”, speaking truth to power. Although journalists and researchers pursue different ideals of truth, studies generally show that in well-functioning liberal democracies journalist-researcher relations also work well. In recent years, however, the watchdog role has been subject to an increased pressure, applied by political and corporate stakeholders and enhanced by the digital revolutions. These processes erode the foundations of media and research institutions alike, opening the floodgates for “alternative” interpretations. While many journalists and researchers have adapted to the brave new world of social media, the changed media environment also implies a fundamental shift of the checks and balances characterising the democratic order: In traditional print and electronic media, the watchdog roles of both the journalist and the researcher have been sustained by their authority. They are considered reliable sources because of the reputation of the institutions they represent. On social media, you are naked, left to the strength of your arguments and to the quarters of the audience. Traditionally, trust in researchers significantly outmatch that of journalists. Yet apart from being in the same boat – the loss of authority also threatens the reciprocity, and accordingly the mutual trust, between the two: The proliferation of “alternative truths” challenges what it means for a journalist to report fair and balanced. And the proliferation of social media also enables researchers to denounce particular stories, or even particular journalists.