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Mechanisms of Trust

News Media in Democratic and Authoritarian Regimes

This study examines the relationship between the media and the government in authoritarian regimes and Western democracies, focusing on how political structures affect the level of trust between the public and the news media. Surprisingly, Jan Müller finds that there is a higher level of trust among citizens of authoritarian regimes. To help reassert trust in the media,  Müller argues that in democratic societies, a differentiated media system with interventions of the state to ensure plurality—in the form of public service media, for example—leads to trust in the news media. 

250 pages | 35 halftones | 5 1/2 x 8 3/8 | © 2013

Media Studies

Political Science: Political Behavior and Public Opinion


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Table of Contents

1. Introduction

      1.1 Trust in Democratic Institutions

      1.2 Trust in the News Media

      1.3 Summary

Part I: Theoretical Framework

2. Trust

      2.1 Defining Trust

      2.2 Reducing Complexity

      2.3 A Rational-Choice Notion of Trust

      2.4 Cues for Trustworthiness

      2.5 Trust and Modernity

      2.6 A Decrease in Familiarity

3. Trust in the News Media

      3.1 Market-Oriented Theory of the Public Sphere

      3.2 Deliberative Theory of the Public Sphere

      3.3 Critical Theory of the Public Sphere

4. Summary and Hypotheses

      4.1 Trust and the Market-Oriented Theory of the Public Sphere

      4.2 Trust and the Deliberative Theory of the Public Sphere

      4.3 Trust and the Critical Theory of the Public Sphere

Part II: Analysis and Findings

5. Measuring Trust in the News Media

      5.1 Operationalizing Trust in the News Media

      5.2 Assessing Trust

      5.3 Is the Loss of Trust in Democratic Countries a Result of Survey Research Bias?

      5.4 Summary

6. Trust in the News Media over Time and across Countries

      6.1 Trust in the Printed Press in Western Europe, Canada and the USA

      6.2 Trust in the Printed Press, Television and Radio in Western Europe

      6.3 Trust in the News Media in the USA

      6.4 Trust in the News Media in Countries with Democratic and Authoritarian Regimes

      6.5 Summary

7. Trust and Emancipative Values

      7.1 Individual-Level Predictors of Trust in the News Media

      7.2 The Operationalization of Emancipative Value Change

      7.3 Emancipative Values and Trust in the News Media

      7.4 Trust in Commercial-, Public Service-, and User-Generated News Media

      7.5 Summary

8. Trust and the Processing of Information

      8.1 The Elaborative Processing of Political Information

      8.2 Need-for-Cognition and Surveillance Gratification

      8.3 Trust and Diversity of the News Media

      8.4 Summary

9. Consequences of Trust

      9.1 Political Knowledge and Political Action

      9.2 Knowledge of the European Union and the Frequency of Discussing Political Matters

      9.3 Summary

10. Conclusions

      10.1 Summary of the Findings

      10.2 Dynamics of Trust in the News Media

      10.3 Trust and Institutions

      10.4 Public Sphere and Democracy

      10.5 The (Ir)relevance of Trust in the News Media

References

Index

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