Untethered
Resisting Unhelpful Assumptions About News Trust and Trust in Other Social Institutions
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 5903282 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Greg Treadwell (0000-0001-9891-1141, Auckland University of Technology, corresponding author), Merja Myllylahti (0000-0002-7763-4867, Auckland University of Technology) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 197 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 52-68 |
| Publication date | 2025-07-08 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Media International Australia (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1329-878X • E-ISSN: 2200-467X |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/1329878x251356311 |
| OpenAlex | W4412104421 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 24 |
In both the academic and grey literature, trust in news is often connected with trust in other societal institutions, including governments, politics, businesses and non-governmental organisations. This study investigates, through a lens of social-contract theory, the extent to which we can be confident that trust in news is directly connected to trust in government and politics, and to trust in other social institutions. Using a general-elimination method, we compare trends in trust-based social relationships to see which connections between trust in the news and public institutions should be retained in future studies. To help identify these (dis)connections, we explore mixed-methods data from a longitudinal study in Aotearoa New Zealand. Our findings suggest trust in news is connected to changes in trust in other social institutions but is not tethered to them, encouraging exploration of bespoke solutions for trust issues facing public-interest journalism
Express trust · Political science · Project commissioning · Public relations · Publishing · Social capital · Social science · Social trust · Sociology · Law · Media Studies and Communication · Misinformation and Its Impacts · Social Media and Politics
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The Reciprocity of Journalism's Social Contract
The biggest challenge facing journalism
On the shelf life of democracy in journalism scholarship
Before reception
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |