‘Money is the root of all evil.’ How the business of journalism shapes trust in news

Abstract

In journalism studies, the “audience turn” in recent years has shifted attention in important ways to the lived experiences of news consumers. This study adds to the growing body of literature by exploring the question: How do people’s assumptions about how news is paid for affect their trust in and approach to news? Our data draw from interviews conducted in 2022 with 34 news consumers who were constructively sampled to represent a diverse cross-section of U.S. adults. Guided by the folk theories concept, a generative approach to discovering the stories that people tell themselves about news, we find that news consumers see journalism as increasingly compromised by journalists’ perceived pursuit of profit and financial success in a competitive media environment. They feel that journalists are primarily motivated to profit off their attention, leading them to view most news with a great deal of skepticism. By situating audience perceptions of capitalism and its relationship to journalism at the center, this study brings a new dimension to ongoing discussions about trust, objectivity, and bias in reporting.