Journalism, Trust, and Credibility

Abstract

This chapter examines the related concepts of trust in the press and credibility of information. At the heart of concerns about the functions that journalism fulfills in society are worries about the trustworthiness of the press and credibility of public information. In journalism studies and the communication literature more broadly, the terms trust and credibility are closely connected. Communication researchers and journalism scholars started to study the related concepts of credibility and trust in the middle of the 20th century. In the second half of the 20th century, trust in the press became a new topic of scholarly interest. The Elaboration Likelihood Model provides a general framework that helps to understand how credibility judgements are made. Qualitative research into media trust and credibility can give interesting insight into how people assess trust in the media in general as well as the credibility of specific information.