The Effects of Culture and Performance on Trust in News Media in Postcommunist Eastern Europe: The Case of Serbia

• In Event: Global/Regional Media Flows and Citizen Health and Identity

Abstract

This study tested the influences of cultural and performance factors on trust in news media in Serbia, by conducting a survey on a stratified random sample of the Serbian population (N=544). The results show that both factors played a significant role, but that the performance explanation, measured as perception of news media corruption, was slightly more powerful than the cultural explanation, measured as generalized trust, or trust in people that we don’t know personally. The results also showed that more than 20 years after the fall of Communism in Serbia, the levels of trust in news media and generalized trust remain low, while the perceptions of news media corruption reached extremely high levels. Before testing cultural and performance theories, the meanings of three main variables were explored, by conducting 20 in-depth interviews on a separate sample of the Serbian population.

Author

• Ivanka Pjesivac, University of Georgia