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What Do Media Audiences Mean When They Talk About Media Trust?: An Open-ended Approach to How Audiences Interpret the "Trust-question"
Uppsala University, Sweden.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-5468-7229
Södertörn University, School of Culture and Education, Media and Communication Studies.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-5247-8212
2026 (English)In: Journalism Studies, ISSN 1461-670X, E-ISSN 1469-9699, Vol. 27, no 2, p. 143-159Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

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.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Taylor & Francis, 2026. Vol. 27, no 2, p. 143-159
Keywords [en]
Media trust, media distrust, news, journalism, qualitative method, audiences
National Category
Media and Communication Studies
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-58320DOI: 10.1080/1461670X.2025.2568666ISI: 001592454400001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-105018928658OAI: oai:DiVA.org:sh-58320DiVA, id: diva2:2009375
Part of project
Media trust and social imaginaries: A qualitative study on the meaning and formation of media trust, Swedish Research Council
Funder
Swedish Research Council, 2021-02154Available from: 2025-10-27 Created: 2025-10-27 Last updated: 2026-03-30Bibliographically approved

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Jakobsson, PeterStiernstedt, Fredrik

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CiteExportLink to record
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Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • harvard-anglia-ruskin-university
  • apa-old-doi-prefix.csl
  • sodertorns-hogskola-harvard.csl
  • sodertorns-hogskola-oxford.csl
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
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