Trust in Journalism in the Structural Change of Media

受众对新闻业的信任对一个正常运转的民主公众至关重要。这凸显了当前许多民主国家（包括德国和美国）媒体怀疑主义日益增长的实证研究结果的相关性。同时，可以观察到媒体和公众传播的结构性变化。这包括，除其他外，信息来源的增加- -其中许多是非新闻来源- -改变了公民的新闻选择和接受程序，他们更多地参与公共辩论（例如在用户评论中），以及新闻的作用不断变化。到目前为止，人们对新闻业信任度的下降和媒体的结构性变化这两种现象是如何联系在一起的，这一问题还很少被探讨。这是拟议项目的起点。基于传播理论和发现，并借助于期望-经验-差异理论，提出了一个有助于解释新闻中个人信任或不信任如何演变的模型。同时，对中心媒体和受众相关因素进行识别和结合，研究问题。采用多方法方法，可以回答研究问题，并对模型进行实证检验和改进。计划开展三个密切相关的子研究：在对互联网用户进行的n = 20次定性访谈中，从接受者的角度探讨了相关构式和假设效果。访谈的重点是确定接受者对新闻最相关的期望和经验，并衡量对新闻的信任，因为它是在差异模型中假设的。2. 在一项针对n = 2000名互联网用户的在线代表性调查中，调查了该模型的所有接受者方结构：这些是最广泛使用的信息源和内容，所有与新闻相关的期望和感知，对新闻的信任和接受者特征。3. 在媒体内容分析中，对德国广播、印刷和网络媒体的信息源包括用户评论进行了定量测量。此外，还分析了公开相关参与者的Facebook帖子。调查期间为代表性调查的前一个月。这种方法使我们能够将分析的媒体和社交媒体内容与了解和使用它们的受访者单独联系起来。总之，所提出的方法组合可以记录所有媒体和受众结构，并将它们与新闻中信任或不信任的个体发展联系起来。

The audience´s trust in journalism is essential for a functioning democratic public. This underscores the relevance of current empirical findings of a growing media skepticism in many democratic countries, including Germany and the US. Simultaneously, a structural change of media and public communication can be observed. Thes includes, among others, the multiplication of information sources - many of them non-journalistic -, changing news selection and reception routines among citizens, their increased participation in public debates (e.g. in user comments), as well as the changing role of journalism. The question of how the two phenomena - decreasing trust in journalism and the structural change of media - are related, has so far been little explored. This is the starting point of the proposed project. Based on communication theories and findings and with recourse to the theory of expectation-experience-discrepancies, a model is proposed what helps explaining how individual trust or mistrust in journalism evolves. At the same time, central media and audience related factors are identified and combined to research questions. Using a multi-method approach, the research questions can are answered and the model can be empirically tested and refined. Three closely related sub-studies are planned: 1. In n = 20 qualitative interviews with Internet users, relevant constructs and assumed effects are explored from the recipient view. Interviews focus on identifying recipients´ most relevant expectations and experiences concerning journalism and measuring trust in journalism as it is posited in the discrepancy-model. 2. In an online representative survey of n = 2000 Internet users, all recipient-side constructs of the model are surveyed: These are the most widely used information sources and contents, all journalism-related expectations and perceptions, trust in journalism and recipient characteristics. 3. In a media content analysis, German information sources in radio, print and online media including user comments are quantitatively measured. In addition, Facebook posts of publicly relevant actors are analyzed. The investigation period covers the month prior to the representative survey. This approach enables us to individually link the analyzed media and social media contents with those respondents who know and use them. In sum, the proposed method combination can register all media and audience constructs and relate them to the individual development of trust or mistrust in journalism.