This article introduces the concept of expressive distrust to address persistent puzzles in media trust research. Drawing on a qualitative interview study with Swedish audience members who publicly criticize news media, we argue that distrust is not only an attitudinal stance but also a performative practice shaped by identity, group belonging, and political strategy. Expressive distrust refers to signals of distrust that serve purposes beyond evaluating media performance - such as signaling cognitive virtue, reinforcing social ties, or influencing public discourse. Our findings show that individuals often articulate nuanced views of journalism privately while performing categorical distrust in public, leveraging it as symbolic capital and a tool for political contestation. Conceptually, this challenges linear models of trust/distrust and calls for incorporating performative dimensions into existing typologies. Recognizing expressive distrust is crucial for fully understanding the so-called crisis of trust.

While studies of media trust that rely on survey data and statistical analysis give us valuable information, there is some uncertainty about what exactly is being measured with these study designs. There is a need for more inductive and qualitative studies that can help us develop our understanding of the concept and phenomena of trust as such. In this article, we present an analysis of a qualitative interview study (N = 97) with open-ended questions of trust. The results suggest that, although there are many ways to interpret this question, only some lead people to evaluate what researchers usually associate with media trust. Instead, informants saw trust as an "impossible" question; they saw it as an opportunity to communicate a standpoint express identity and emotion or casts the trust-question as an issue of knowledge and rationality. We consider that the results from this study illustrate some of the difficulties that need to be overcome in order to advance the research on media trust.

This article provides a comprehensive review of research on distrust towards news media and journalism, a topic that has gained significant attention in recent years due to declining institutional trust and the rise of political disinformation. We analyse existing literature focusing on how media distrust has been studied and conceptualised, its explanations, and its consequences. We highlight the conceptual diversity and methodological plurality in the field, noting the varied definitions and operationalisations of distrust, as well as the dominance of quantitative approaches alongside significant qualitative contributions. The complex relationship between distrust in the media and democracy is also explored, revealing conflicting evidence on whether distrust leads to news avoidance and reduced political engagement or fosters critical media consumption and political engagement. The review underscores the need for clearer definitions and typologies of distrust, supplementing dichotomous operationalisations of trust/distrust with ones that capture distrust as a multidimensional phenomenon, with each dimension having different antecedents and consequences.

Previous research has concluded that the working-class is largely invisible on television. When the working-class is displayed; however, common frames highlight moral shortcomings and lack of responsibility. This study asks what difference such representations make. The study relies on cultivation analysis and a survey of the adult Swedish population to understand the extent to which heavy television viewers provide “television answers” in their descriptions of and attitudes toward the working-class. While some results are inconsistent, heavy television viewers seem more prone to view social inequalities as the result of working-class people's failure to take responsibility for their own well-being. 

Building on an interview study from Sweden (n = 80), this article develops the concept of media resentment as a tool for understanding contemporary developments such as the diminished trust in news media and journalism. We view media resentment as a complex of feelings and ideas that are both individual and social, embodied, and ideal. Media resentment is defined as the feeling that the media – intentionally or unintentionally – are denying you or endangering what you have rightfully earned, whether by not giving it to you, by directly telling you to abstain from it or by intervening in social processes so that your enjoyment of what you have earned becomes impossible.

Public service står inför utmaningar när politiska och ekonomiska förändringar omformar dess roll i Sverige och Europa. Med ett nytt betänkande från public service-kommittén 2024, som bevarar uppdraget men också inför nya begränsningar, ifrågasätts public services oberoende och trovärdighet. Samtidigt ökar den politiska kritiken från vissa partier, vilket kan påverka medieförtroendet och medielandskapet på lång sikt.