ABSTRACT

In many countries, studies show declining levels of trust in news media at large. However, there still is no valid and accepted measure of generalized trust in news media. To establish and test a suitable measure, we chose two elaborate scales of related concepts: the scale on trust in media coverage of a specific topic by Kohring and Matthes and a credibility scale by Yale, Jensen, Carcioppolo, Sun, and Liu. We adapted both to measure generalized trust in news media and conducted a survey in Germany to (a) evaluate the dimensional structures of both adapted scales and (b) analyze their predictive validity by testing their explanative power on alternative media use. Both adapted scales yield well-fitting models but should be carefully treated with respect to discriminant validity. The adapted Kohring and Matthes scale successfully predicts alternative media use and can therefore be recommended for further research on generalized trust in news media.

摘要

在许多国家，研究表明，人们对新闻媒体的整体信任程度正在下降。但是，在新闻媒体中仍然没有有效且可以接受的普遍信任措施。为了建立和测试一种合适的措施，我们选择了两个精心设计的相关概念量表：一个由Kohring和Matthes撰写的关于特定主题的媒体报道信任量表，另一个是由耶鲁大学，詹森，Carcioppolo，Sun和Liu撰写的可信度量表。我们调整了两者，以衡量新闻媒体的普遍信任度，并在德国进行了一项调查，以（a）评估两种调整后的量表的维度结构，以及（b）通过测试其对替代媒体使用的解释力来分析其预测效度。两种调整后的量表均能产生拟合良好的模型，但在判别效度方面应谨慎对待。