Trust in news in the digital age

The audience’s trust in journalism is essential for a functioning democratic public. This underscores the relevance of current empirical findings of a growing media skepticism in many democratic countries, including Germany and the US. Simultaneously, a structural change of media and public communication can be observed. This includes, among others, the multiplication of information sources - many of them non-journalistic -, changing news selection and reception routines among citizens, their increased participation in public debates (e.g. in user comments), as well as the changing role of journalism.

This project analyzes how trust in journalism and the structural change of media are interrelated. A multi-method approach with three closely related sub-studies is applied:

1. In qualitative interviews Internet users’ most relevant expectations and experiences concerning journalism are explored.

2. In an online representative survey of Internet users the most widely used information sources and contents, all journalism-related expectations and perceptions, trust in journalism and recipient characteristics are surveyed.

3. In a quantitative content analysis, Germany’s most important journalistic and partisan information sources in radio, print and online media including user comments are measured. In addition, publicly relevant actors’ Facebook posts are analyzed. The investigation period covers the month prior to the representative survey.

This approach enables us to individually link the analyzed media and social media contents with those respondents who are familiar with and use them. In sum, the method combination can register all media and audience constructs and relate them to the individual development of trust or mistrust in journalism.

Fabian Prochazka mainly works on the qualitative interviews and the online survey, Tilman Klawier on the quantitative content analysis.