Comparative Media Studies in the Digital Age| Does the Internet Erode Trust in Media? A Comparative Study of 46 Countries

Abstract

The crisis of trust in media often has been attributed to the development of the Internet. This article aimed to empirically examine the role of the Internet in eroding or strengthening trust in media. Taking an ecological perspective, this article studied how Internet development is shaping the informational context in which media trust is created. The data from the World Values Survey were adopted with 61,975 respondents in 46 countries. Multilevel analyses reported a couple of results. First, trust in media is increased in the Internet context, but is undermined by the individual use of the Internet. Second, the Internet creates a disembedding context in which the cultural approach to media trust is weakened, and the institutional approach is strengthened.