Do You Trust Me(dia)?: How Students Perceive and Identify Fake News

Social media has become an increasingly popular source of news among young adults. However, with the rise of “fake news,” credibility comes into question and young adults are left on their own to determine which news is real and which is false. Two focus groups were employed in this study to gain a greater understanding of how college students aged 18-24 determine what news to trust on social media and the factors that impacted those decisions. Young adults in that age group trust news found on social media based on a variety of factors including the person that is sharing the news, the particular social media site it comes from, and the ability to verify the news with other alternative sources

News Media Trust and Mistrust During the COVID-19 Pandemic

With the uncertainty and growing information surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, news media consumption has increased drastically compared to pre-pandemic consumption. At the start of the pandemic, 94% of Americans reported closely following COVID-19 news, with more than half of Americans spending more than two hours consuming COVID-19 news everyday (SSRS, 2020). With the news media serving as a critical source of information through this public health crisis, the public’s reactions, behaviors, and attitudes to the pandemic stem from the level of trust they have in the news media to share COVID-19 information. Because of this, this study examines trust in the news media and its possible impacts on public health. A survey of 314 individuals explored how trust in the news media varies with COVID-19 coverage on a national and local level and how trust and mistrust in the news media relates to an individual’s willingness to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Findings suggest that trust in the news media is lower with COVID-19 coverage compared to general news coverage, with many participants believing news sources exclude COVID-19 facts. When comparing trust in COVID-19 coverage between national and local news providers, trust was highest in local sources for the majority of participants. In general, the study found that individuals are more likely to be vaccinated if they have high levels of trust in the news media. The findings suggest that trust in news media is significant in navigating public health crises, as mistrust in the news media can lead individuals to undermine the efforts to end the COVID-19 pandemic

The origins of media trust in a young democracy

Declining trust in news media has often been recognized as one of the major challenges facing modern journalism with potentially detrimental consequences for democratic processes. In this article, we examine the predictive potential of cultural-political and performance factors on public trust in news media in the context of a young democracy. Specifically, we have analyzed to what extent citizens’ populist attitudes and perceptions of journalistic roles relate to the levels of media trust using data from an online survey of Serbian respondents (N = 200). The findings showed that support for populism did not significantly predict trust in news media in general after controlling for relevant factors, most importantly political trust. However, populist attitudes were found to be related to the amount of trust citizens have in distinct types of news media –i.e., those who support populism exhibited less trust in public broadcasters than in online news outlets. The analyses also revealed that the more Serbian citizens perceived news media as being successful at performing interpretive and mobilizing roles, the more trust they placed in the media

Does Trust Really Matter? A Quantitative Study of College Students\u27 Trust and Use of News Media

Media polls reveal that trust in news media has been on the decline in recent years and so is the consumption of news. This quantitative study reveals no significant correlation between overall trust and use of news media. It finds that college students have more trust in traditional news sources and view TV as their most important news source. Yet they are more likely to seek out a future news event from online news sources, despite having less trust in them. Results indicate that social media sources, such as Facebook and Twitter, are used as frequent sources for news and the correlations between trust and use of social media sources for news are generally stronger than those of other news sources. This study suggests that news outlet may seek to gain more users of this demographic not by (re-)gaining their trust but by diversifying their news content so that it is more easily accessible and consumable by college students

An Examination of Trust in News Mediums by College Students: A Comparison of Egypt and the USA

Polls have shown a decline in trust in the USA when it comes to trust in Media. This study looks at if trust in news mediums really does matter. The study also compares a sample from USA to Egypt. The study finds that American college students have more trust in traditional news media but use it less than newer forms such as social media. The Egyptian sample has high trust in social media and low trust in traditional news media that are normally under the influence of the Egyptian government. The frame works used are the uses and gratification theory, hostile media effect and the Vanacker and Belmas Model. The study concludes that trust plays a non significant role in where college students choose to get their news from

How the public understands news media trust: An open-ended approach

Despite the central role that ordinary citizens play as ‘trustors’ (i.e. the actor that places trust) in the literature on news media trust, prior quantitative studies have paid little attention to how ordinary citizens understand and define news media trust. Here, trust tends to be studied from a researcher-defined – rather than an audience-defined – perspective. To address this gap, we investigate how the public describes news media trust in their own words by asking them directly. We analyse 1500 written responses collected through a Norwegian online probability-based survey, here using a semisupervised quantitative text analysis technique called structural topic modelling (STM). We find that citizens’ own understanding of news media trust can be categorised into four distinct topics that, in some instances, are comparable to academic and professional discourse. We show that citizens’ written descriptions of news media trust vary by many of the same variables that prior research has found to be important predictors of levels of trust. Respondents’ written descriptions of news media trust vary by education and satisfaction with democracy but not other known predictors of trust, such as ideological self-placement and political preferences.publishedVersio

“Seeing but not believing”: Undergraduate students’ media uses and news trust

Young people often encounter the news on social media while engaging in social and entertainment practices. Despite relying on social media for news, youth see online information with suspicion and as less trustworthy than traditional news media. While many factors contribute to the widespread decline in news trust, the relationship between youth news media uses and their trust in the news remains unclear. This article seeks to understand how Portuguese undergraduate students describe their news trust, and how these perceptions relate to their media uses. We draw on a mixed-methods study using a survey (N = 562) and focus groups (N = 45) with students from diverse disciplines, between 2016 and 2017. The findings reveal a paradoxical relationship between students’ media uses and news trust. Students mistrust online news but stay informed through social media. This is explained by emotional needs as well as perceptions of the news combining optimistic and critical stances. This study suggests further research on what news trust means for young people on social media.This article is the result of a PhD fellowship (SFRH/BD/94791/2013), funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology, National Strategic Reference Framework, and the Operational Human Potential Program

Public Engagement with, and Trust in, Online News Media in French-Speaking Belgium

This paper analyzes the French-speaking Belgian public’s reception of, and trust in, online news media. Based on a qualitative research carried out in 2009-2010, it will be showed that online newsreaders hold divided conceptions of media credibility and trust, some of which fall out of the theoretical/methodological canon of current media credibility research.  Furthermore, respondents appeared to draw upon four heuristics to decide whether or not they place their trust in online news: the transparency heuristic, the accountability heuristic, the reputation heuristic, and the recommendation heuristic. The relevance of these heuristics to trust is clear insofar as they affect both newsreaders’ attributions of trustworthiness to online journalists and news media, and their willingness to engage in trusting relationships with them. At the end of the paper, some conclusions and implications for future research on trust in online news are discussed.This paper analyzes the French-speaking Belgian public’s reception of, and trust in, online news media. Based on a qualitative research carried out in 2009-2010, it will be showed that online newsreaders hold divided conceptions of media credibility and trust, some of which fall out of the theoretical/methodological canon of current media credibility research.  Furthermore, respondents appeared to draw upon four heuristics to decide whether or not they place their trust in online news: the transparency heuristic, the accountability heuristic, the reputation heuristic, and the recommendation heuristic. The relevance of these heuristics to trust is clear insofar as they affect both newsreaders’ attributions of trustworthiness to online journalists and news media, and their willingness to engage in trusting relationships with them. At the end of the paper, some conclusions and implications for future research on trust in online news are discussed

Who trusts the news media? Exploring the factors shaping trust in the news media in German-speaking Switzerland

Although a decline of trust in the news media can be observed in many countries, in international comparison, Switzerland is still considered one of the countries with a relatively high level of media trust. Nevertheless, knowledge concerning the factors that promote and hinder media trust in Switzerland is still limited. Building on the research on media trust and media scepticism, this study investigates the effects of political orientation, political disenchantment, populist attitudes, and news exposure on media trust. The study uses survey data (N = 1 019, 50% females, 50% males) on the Internet-using population of the German-speaking part of Switzerland, collected in June 2017. Examining media trust by assessing the characteristics of media coverage, two dimensions of trust were revealed: (1) trust in journalistic quality and (2) trust in the independence and impartiality of media coverage about political issues. Overall, the results demonstrate that the level of trust concerning these two dimensions is rather low, whereas the level of trust in journalistic quality is slightly higher than trust in the independence and impartiality of media coverage on political issues. Regarding possible explanations, the findings show that political disenchantment and populist attitudes, anti-establishment attitudes, and demand for people’s sovereignty are negatively related to media trust, while belief in the homogeneity of the people is positively related. Moreover, the results reveal that exposure to news via public television in Switzerland is positively associated with trust in journalistic quality, while the use of special news websites is negatively associated with both dimensions of trust. The implications for future research on media trust are discussed

Trust in News Media in post-Communist Eastern Europe: The Case of Serbia

The main purpose of this dissertation research was to examine the influences of cultural and performance factors on trust in news media in Serbia. This was done by conducting a survey on a stratified random sample of the Serbian population (N=544). Before testing cultural and performance theories, this dissertation explored the meanings of trust in news media and trust in other people in Serbia, in order to properly operationalize these concepts and establish their conceptual equivalence needed for their adequate measurement. This was done by 20 in-depth interviews with representatives of the Serbian population. The results of this dissertation study showed that both cultural and performance factors play a role in determining trust in news media in Serbia. However, the performance explanation, measured as assessments of news media corruption, was found to be slightly more powerful than the cultural explanation, measured as generalized trust, or trust in people that we don’t know personally. In addition, the results of this dissertation study showed that more than 20 years after the fall of Communism and 13 years after the fall of Slobodan Milošević’s authoritative regime, the pervasiveness of distrust remains present in Serbia. Serbians who participated in this study expressed skepticism about their news media and distrust of people they don’t know personally. Conceptualizing trust in news media as well as trust in other people in the same way as their Western counterparts, Serbians thought that Western standards, necessary for trust in news media and other people to occur, such as fair selectivity of news, objectivity, neutrality, accuracy in reporting or sincerity in helping other people, were not met or applicable in their country