Media Trust in the Internet Context: A Comparative Study in 34 Countries

• In Event: News Effects in Contexts

Abstract

The rise of the Internet brings up a debate about its role in eroding or strengthening trust in media. Taking the perspective of media ecology, this paper saw the Internet as a context and explored its impacts on social context in which media trust is formed. Using the data from the World Values Survey, this paper carried out multilevel analyses with 48,546 respondents in 34 countries. The results illustrate three paradoxical impacts. First, the Internet penetration improves media trust, but generates more Internet users, impairing their trust in media. Second, the Internet penetration credits media in general but discredits media when they are actually used, while the Internet freedom discredits media in general but credits media when they are actually used. Third, the Internet penetration and the Internet freedom work against each other, revealing a negotiation process, in which informational distribution is neutralized by cultural distribution.

Authors

• Jia Lu, Tsinghua U

• Li Qi, Zhejiang U