Young people's understandings of trust in news media and perceptions of reporting techniques
Date
2023
Authors
Vandborg, Jakeb Kane
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Abstract
Research has found trust in news media in Western nations is at an all-time low. Endemic media distrust is associated with a loss of faith in democracy and higher media cynicism. Existing research on trust in news has been limited and primarily quantitative, rarely exploring the underlying understandings. The present study explores understandings of trust and truth in news media among 18-22-year-olds within a psychological framework in order to better understand how trust and drivers of distrust are conceptualised by young adult audiences. Two focus groups were run with 18 first-year psychology students. Participants were asked what they considered made news trustworthy or untrustworthy. They were then shown news media that featured constructive journalism techniques and asked about which features (if any) contributed to judgements of trustworthiness. The discussions were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis and five themes were generated. Limitations to Trust and Truth, Good and Bad Bias, Evaluating Solutions, Rigour vs. Giving Voice, and Truth Triangulation. Social Representations Theory was utilised in understanding the contradictory nature of these themes as themata; dialectic notions that exist within a single representation. The analysis found pervasive amounts of ambivalence among participants understandings of news trust. News media was considered wholly untrustworthy. Truth was described as something that can't be gleaned from a single news article, and instead has to be ascertained via individual news consumers. These findings suggest that young audience's conceptions of trust in news may be undergoing transformations due to an evolving and turbulent news media landscape. Keywords: Constructive journalism; trust; social representations; social psychology
School/Discipline
School of Psychology
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Thesis (B.PsychSc(Hons)) -- University of Adelaide, School of Psychology, 2023
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