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Reducing the spread of misinformation, especially on social media, is a major challenge. We investigate one potential approach: having social media platformalgorithms preferentially display content from news sources that users rate as trustworthy. To do so, we ask whether crowdsourced trust ratings can effectively differentiate more versus less reliable sources. We ran two preregistered experiments (n = 1,010 from Mechanical Turk and n = 970 from Lucid) where individuals rated familiarity with, and trust in, 60 news sources from three categories: (i) mainstream media outlets, (ii) hyperpartisan websites, and (iii) websites that produce blatantly false content (“fake news”). Despite substantial partisan differences, we find that laypeople across the political spectrum rated mainstream sources as far more trustworthy than either hyperpartisan or fake news sources. Although this difference was larger for Democrats than Republicans—mostly due to distrust of mainstream sources by Republicans—every mainstream source (with one exception) was rated as more trustworthy than every hyperpartisan or fake news source across both studies when equally weighting ratings of Democrats and Republicans. Furthermore, politically balanced layperson ratings were strongly correlated (r = 0.90) with ratings provided by professional fact-checkers. We also found that, particularly among liberals, individuals higher in cognitive reflection were better able to discern between low- and high-quality sources. Finally, we found that excluding ratings from participants who were not familiar with a given news source dramatically reduced the effectiveness of the crowd. Our findings indicate that having algorithms up-rank content from trusted media outlets may be a promising approach for fighting the spread of misinformation on social media.

The current debate about declining media trust is related not only to the disruptive changes in the media but also to the general decline of trust in institutions and politicians. This article combines the perspectives of media trust and political trust, by examining to what degree voters perceive politicians as “honest” in the contexts of various media and communication forms. Comparing the voters’ evaluation of politicians’ trustworthiness in talk shows, news interviews, speeches, flyers, social media, and opinion pieces makes it possible to measure the impact of media contexts on the level of trust. A key finding is that voters deem politicians as more honest in social media and opinion pieces, compared to talk shows and news interviews. Second, voters tend to evaluate politicians as more honest in the media formats they most often consume; a finding that confirms the virtuous circle theory; young people typically found politicians to be more dishonest in mainstream media compared to social media A third finding is that the voters tend to evaluate populist politicians as more authentic than traditional politicians and that female politicians were regarded as more authentic compared to male politicians. These findings have implications both for journalistic ideals for coverage of politics in and for political strategic communication.

Citizens’ levels of mistrust toward the media, as well as their perception of media bias, have increased in past years in most Western democracies. This study explores how these negative observations on journalism may influence their use of traditional, citizen, and social media for news. Drawing on two-wave U.S. panel data, results suggest that media trust and perceived bias relate to media consumption differently. Trust in social and citizen media positively predicts use of news via social media, but has no effect on traditional or citizen news use. By contrast, perceived media bias is associated with decreased news use overall.

Repeated exposure to misinformation not only reduces the accuracy of people’s beliefs, but it also decreases confidence in institutions such as the news media. Can fact-checking—journalism’s main weapon against misinformation—worsen or ameliorate distrust in journalists and the media? To answer this question, we conducted two pre-registered experiments in Chile (total N = 1,472) manipulating message and receiver factors known to regulate the persuasiveness of fact-checks: transparency elements, arousing images, and political alignment. The results of both studies show that, across message formats, fact-checks are similarly effective at reducing people’s misperceptions. However, these positive effects on belief accuracy come at a cost: Compared to control groups, users exposed to political fact-checks trust news less and perceive the media as more biased, especially after reading corrections debunking pro-attitudinal misinformation. We close with a discussion of the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.

International metropolises are key sites of outbreaks of COVID-19 cases. Global public evaluation of the pandemic in international cities is affected by many factors. This study examines how media exposure affects this evaluation and how media trust and media bias perception moderate the relationship between them. Based on an online survey of the evaluation of 13 international cities’ pandemic performances by 1171 citizens from 11 countries, this study conducted a multi-level stepwise regression analysis and discovered that: (1) different forms of media affect global citizens’ perceptions of international metropolis COVID-19 pandemic performance differently; and the role of traditional paper media, including newspapers and magazines, is of little significance in comparison to electronic media. (2) Among electronic media, TV and broadcasting have the greatest impact, followed by social media and the Internet. (3) Media trust and media bias perception affect people’s evaluations of international urban pandemics, but our survey reveals that they only function with regard to social media.

The COVID-19 vaccine has become a strategic vehicle for reducing the spread of the pandemic. However, the uptake of the vaccine by the public is more complicated than simply making it available. Based on social learning theory, this study examines the role of communication sources and institutional trust as barriers and incentives as motivators of people’s attitudes toward vaccination and actual vaccination. Data were collected via an online panel survey among Israelis aged 18–55 and then analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). Findings show that social media trust negatively mediates the effect of exposure to information on the vaccine on attitudes toward vaccination. However, mass media trust and institutional trust positively mediate this relationship. Incentives were effective motivators for forming positive attitudes and moderating the effect of institutional trust on attitude toward vaccination. This study facilitates a deeper understanding of health communication theory in pandemics and makes important recommendations for practitioners and policy makers.

This study explores the awareness of fake news and trust dynamics among University students on TikTok. Utilizing qualitative research through semi-structured interviews with University students in Vietnam, the findings reveal a generally acknowledged presence of fake news on TikTok, accompanied by varying levels of trust in the platform's content. Key factors influencing trust include content creator credibility, user engagement, and familiarity with creators. Beyond academic implications, this research offers practical insights into the digital literacy, information consumption habits, and susceptibility to fake news among university students. The study advocates for heightened digital literacy education, encouraging critical evaluation of online content, not only benefiting the university demographic but contributing to broader public awareness. In our research, we delve into the fascinating world of TikTok, one of the most popular social media platforms, to investigate the critical intersection of fake news awareness and trust among university student TikTok users. As misinformation proliferates online, understanding how young adults navigate and perceive information is paramount. This study investigates the unique dynamics within the TikTok community, shedding light on the susceptibility to false narratives and the factors influencing trust in news sources. By unraveling the complexities of fake news awareness in this context, we aim to empower users with insights that enhance their media literacy and resilience against misinformation. In an age where information shapes perceptions, this research contributes to fostering a more discerning and informed public, ultimately strengthening the foundations of trust in the digital age.

With the advent of the post-pandemic era characterised by increasing social uncertainty, the public is placing higher demands on the trust in news media. According to the 2023 Edelman Trust Barometer, the image of the media in the public’s mind is deteriorating. Why don’t they trust the media? What are the reasons given by the public when the media is denounced as unscrupulous? Taking the Liu Xuezhou incident as a typical case, the study extracts key elements from 5,225 related microblog texts, identifies the main topics of public discussion with the help of LDA topic modelling, clarifies the referential dimension of unscrupulous media with the help of pointwise mutual information, and analyzes netizens’ evaluations related to different referential levels of the media through visual semantic networks, which can help formulate dialectical thinking on media trust in the context of China in the era of social media.

IntroductionThe worldwide pandemic exacerbated the new role of the media.If previously the discussion was on whether new or traditional media had primacy in popularity and exposure, nowadays the question is whether communicating health issues through social and traditional media leads to understanding their content better and to more trust in both types of media.ObjectivesWe set the following objectives for this study:(1) to examine trust in the traditional and new media among university students,(2) according to the level of media trust to compose a psychological portrait,establish the most prevalent coping strategies,and emotional reactions to the pandemic.Methods213 university students (55.9% women,Mage=19 years) were tested from December 2020-March 2021.We examined the attitude towards information on coronavirus presented in the media and to investigate the level of severity of neurotic states,the level of psychological stress,and basic coping strategies used by respondents.Resultsshowed that although students generally prefer to use Internet news, trust in traditional media increased during the pandemic. We examined a general psychological portrait of young people derived from trust in the media. In the group of students who trust media information, we found indifference (39% of respondents) and helplessness (24.4%). In the group convinced that the media are hiding the actual state of affairs, anger prevailed (32.4%). The third group, confident that the media exaggerate everything, experienced indifference and anger (38.5% and 32.7%, respectively).ConclusionsWe may conclude that desire to learn more accurate and unbiased information firsthand indicates students’ attitude towards traditional media as more reliable sources of information.DisclosureNo significant relationships.