Public Trust and Journalistic Transparency : An experimental study of disclosure and participatory effects in online news

• Media matter. Most citizens’ in contemporary democracies get their information about current affairs and politics through the media. Political communication studies have for long time analysed the interplay between media content and journalistic style and political attitudes and public trust in political institutions. This paper adds to this discussion by addressing another dimension: the possible impact of journalistic transparency – offered in online-journalism – on political trust.Methodologically, the study was based on a web-based experiment including 1,320 respondents. The treatment groups comprised the same version of an online news article with additional indicators for disclosure transparency and participatory transparency. The article covered a local political issue and politicians form both ruling and opposition political parties appeared in the text.The results indicate that transparency effects on political trust may be overestimated. This experimental study did not confirm any significant positive correlation between transparency and the public trust towards local politicians appearing in the news.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Media and Communications (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

transparency

political trust

online-journalism

political journalism

Media and Communication Studies

Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)