Samhälleliga kriser som Corona-pandemin är, i det det moderna mediesamhället, också medie- ochinformationskriser. En central fråga är medborgarnas tillit och förtroende till medierna. Globalt sett har tilliten till medierna minskat under senare år. Sverige sticker ut med en högre grad av tillit (även på detta område) men vi ser också en ökad polarisering där utbildningsnivå och politisk åskådning samt medievanor tycks bidra till en sjunkande grad av tillit i vissa delar av befolkningen. Vid samhälleliga kriser finns ett omfattande behov av korrekt och fungerande informationsspridning, samtidigt som förekomsten av desinformation, “fake news” och ryktesspridning ökar kraftigt. Detta projekt syftar till att studera tilliten till medierna under Corona-krisen. Projektet erbjuder en unik forskningsdesign (med dagböcker och djupintervjuer) som möjliggör rikhaltig och nyanserad förståelse för hur tilliten till medier och samhällsinformation ser ut, hur den formas, vilka faktorer som påverkar den och hur den utvecklas under ett längre krisförlopp. Projektet bidrar till en teoretisk och metodologisk nyorientering inom tillitsforskningen samtidigt som vi genom projektet skapar kunskap som är direkt användbar för myndigheter och andra samhällsaktörer som vill stärka förtroendet för medierna och nå ut med relevant information till medborgarna under en samhällskris.

The proposed urgent project has the purpose to collect thick, qualitative material on how citizens’ media trust evolves during the Corona pandemic. During the last two decades discussions of a crisis of trust have been emerging in democratic societies. Contemporary debates about fake news and disinformation have contributed further to the challenges of shrinking trust in especially the media. The Corona pandemic has made research into media trust even more important. In turbulent times, the amount and speed of misinformation, i.e. false information that is spread unknowingly, and disinformation, i.e. false information that is spread deliberately, accelerates. The proposed project will document the development of media trust in Sweden with the help of diaries and in-depth interviews. It is a unique opportunity to see media trust rapidly changing that will allow us to learn for future crises, but also help to re-conceptualize media trust more generally. The collected material will be made accessible for other research projects.

This article explores the question of trust in news and information about the COVID-19 pandemic. The focus of the article is on trust in radio news and the data are collected in Sweden during spring 2020. Two questions are asked: (1) to what extent do people in Sweden express trust in the radio as a medium, and radio news and information as a form of content? (2) How do people themselves explain and discuss their trust in the radio as a medium and in radio news and information? The article draws on both survey data and qualitative interviews in answering these questions. The results show that radio, together with television, is the most trusted medium in the population but that there are differences in the extent of trust within the population that are related to age, economic status and political affiliation. The qualitative interviews showed that the specificities of how radio is organized and the form and mode of expression of radio news can help explain the high trust in the radio medium during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In this contribution, I do not engage in digital disconnection merely as an empirical phenomenon but as a way of seeing digital culture and as a heuristic. I do not ask whether or not digital disconnection is possible, is good or bad, or should be advocated or overcome. Instead, I adopt Eva Illouz's framework of a negative sociology of social bonds to explore what it would mean to study digital culture from the perspective of negative choice. The conceptual framework is illustrated with three empirical cases that show what it would mean to engage in a negative sociology of digital culture. The shift in perspective from positive bonds to the choice to disengage, not use, or exit certain fora makes visible how digital culture is not only increasingly characterized by polarization, but also how disconnection emerges as a civic virtue that puts the individual user's responsibility at the forefront.