News Media and Citizens’ Trust Toward Authorities in Times of Crisis

Abstract

Trust in public authorities can be crucial for a country to navigate through times of crisis. Such crises put news media into the spotlight as crucial information brokers between authorities and the public. It is argued that media coverage should affect trust in public institutions and that such effects are likely to be conditioned by individuals’ crisis risk perceptions. This article investigates the dynamics of public trust in the government during the COVID-19 pandemic over more than a two-year period. To do so, it draws on panel survey data from thirty-two waves combined with data on news media coverage of salient topics of crisis coverage. The analytical strategy relies on multilevel modeling and assesses the effect of media coverage on citizens’ trust, as well as the effect of risk perceptions and the interaction between them. Among others, the results revealed that risk perceptions related to the economy and exposure to media coverage of economic “costs” negatively impacted trust. Furthermore, it found evidence that when associated with media exposure to “costs,” societal risk perceptions (both health and economy related) had a significant impact on trust in government. The impact varied depending on the level of media exposure, with high exposure leading to higher trust in government. The study concludes by highlighting the practical and theoretical implications of these findings.