What news outlets do people have in mind when they answer survey questions about trust in “media”?

Author(s)
Yariv Tsfati, Elina Lindgren, Jesper Strömbäck, Rens Vliegenthart, Hajo Boomgaarden
Abstract

While ample research on audience trust in the news media uses survey questions that ask respondents about their trust in a generic “news media,” only scant research has investigated what types of news outlets respondents have in mind when answering such questions. These previous investigations originated mostly in the US and resulted in inconsistent findings. To further investigate this question, we use data from a large-scale survey (N = 2,337), collected in Sweden, including both general media trust measures and specific measures about trust in 20 mainstream and nonmainstream news outlets. The results demonstrate that our respondents seemingly averaged across all mainstream sources when they formed their general evaluations of the news media’s trustworthiness.

Organisation(s)
Department of Communication
External organisation(s)
University of Haifa, University of Gothenburg, University of Amsterdam (UvA)
Journal
International Journal of Public Opinion Research
Volume
35
ISSN
0954-2892
DOI
https://doi.org/DOI: 10.1093/ijpor/edad008
Publication date
04-2023
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
508007 Communication science
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Sociology and Political Science
Portal url
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/what-news-outlets-do-people-have-in-mind-when-they-answer-survey-questions-about-trust-in-media(5daf7964-26ac-4084-974f-301b4d1f72cb).html