Perceptions of trustworthiness and risk: How transparency can influence trust in journalism

Abstract

Trust in the news media and the role of journalism in society is currently highly discussed. Media outlets are concerned about their trustworthiness and consider how to strengthen their audience's trust. In order to build trust, journalism outlets have two main starting points. We argue that, one, journalism can work on the perceived risk of its performance, two, journalism can try to actively work on its trustworthiness and put out signals that prove it. One influential way to do so is often seen in journalistic transparency. This article examines how transparency influences journalistic trustworthiness, risk, and the formation of trust. In order to shed light on the concepts of trust, risk, and transparency as well as their connection, we conducted a representative survey of 1029 media users in Germany. Our study shows that transparency can be a way for news outlets to increase their trustworthiness and improve risk perceptions, which in turn presents a way to restore and strengthen trust in their work. The results enable us to develop a more defined view of the concepts of risks and trust in journalism, along with indications for journalistic practice on how to work more transparently and to win (back) trust.