Abstract
We test generational differences in media trust and its antecedents, including political trust, interest, and orientation, as well as perceptions of media inaccuracy and media bias. We rely on original survey data from ten European countries, collected in 2019. We find no differences in the levels of media trust between generations, but we find that key correlates of media trust relate differently to it in different generations. For example, political interest is more strongly correlated with media trust for Millennials than for other generations. Perceptions of bias and inaccuracy have a strong negative correlation with media trust overall, but it is stronger for older generations. These results suggest, that in the long term, societal developments, and in particular debates about media bias and misinformation may impact media trust of young generations differently as they grow older—however, our data give no indication of that creating generational gaps in media trust.
Highlights
The time that one grows up in shapes generations
We test the relationships of media trust and its key predictors—as identified by previous research—and whether these relationships differ across generations
Our findings suggest that political trust is a strong positive predictor of media trust, whereas perceptions of misinformation and media biases are related to lower levels of trust in the press
Summary
The time that one grows up in shapes generations. It can affect what type of media citizens turn to and can make a difference for how they act upon media information (Andersen et al 2021). It is important to investigate such differences to understand how media trust is shaped by recent socialization experience of younger generations that will likely become important in the future. Towards the background of different socialization experiences, it is conceivable that indicators of political culture are not uniform in shaping media trust across generations. It is conceivable that the upbringing of different generations and their experiences with politics and the press determines how important different contextual factors are for them when evaluating media trust. Such differences, have not previously been investigated; we ask: RQ2: Are predictors of media trust different for different generations?
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