Implications of news media trust for public broadcasting

The media industry changed over the past decades because of deregulation, digitalization, and convergence. Different media forms have been established as a result from these changes. As these developments have emerged recently, it is important to investigate how the introduction of new forms of media affect news media trust. Especially, since news media trust is declining for some time now, and is needed in order for society to function. Because of this, the study aimed to analyze whether new forms of media affect news media trust by means of quantitative analysis. The experimental design of the study analyzed news media trust among three participants groups, in which all groups watched videos created by Nieuwsuur. In the experimental design, the first group watched a YouTube video without a source, the second group watched the same YouTube video with Nieuwsuur and the NPO as sources, and the third group watched a television program of Nieuwsuur with sources of the NPO and the NOS. The study made evident that the form of news media does not significantly affect news media trust. In addition, political ideology, governmental trust, and media usage were included as variables that affect the concept of news media trust. Political ideology seemed to only affect trust in the NPO as institution and did not affect trust in the news media in general. Governmental trust demonstrated to both affect news media trust and trust in the NPO as institution. Finally, the study made evident that the exclusive use of social media for news media consumption does not affect news media trust.