Higher Seminar in Media and Communication Studies with Maria Kyriakidou, visiting fellow from Cardiff University

Trust in news media has long been an object of concern in journalism studies and is seen as a precondition for the democratic function of the media. At the same time, trust remains a rather underdefined concept, whose taken-for-granted normative character seems to obscure gaps and inconsistencies in its conceptualisation and operationalisation in different studies. This presentation will be an exploration of different ways of thinking about media trust and how it mediates the ways audiences relate to news media. On the basis of a broader UK study on disinformation and journalistic legitimacy, the discussion will draw upon three different sets of empirical material, namely a diary study during the first couple of months of COVID 19, a focus group study conducted in the spring of 2021 and a survey completed at the same time. The presentation will discuss the ways trust is expressed in these studies, as well as the role it plays in news consumption. It will ultimately question the usefulness of the concept of trust as a lens for understanding the relationship between news and their audiences in contemporary complex and multichoice media environments.

Maria Kyriakidou (PhD) is a senior lecturer at the School of Journalism, Media and Culture at Cardiff University, Wales. Her research engages with the relationship between media and globalisation, with a particular focus on the mediation of distant suffering and global crises. She has published work on audience engagement with distant disasters, the media coverage of the Euro crisis, and global media events. She is currently visiting fellow at the Department of Media and Communication Studies at Södertörn University.

It will be possible to participate in the seminar both live on campus or digitally via Zoom. For more information including Zoom link, please e-mail saga.hansen@sh.se.