Media Trust and the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Analysis of Short-Term Trust Changes, Their Ideological Drivers and Consequences in Switzerland

Adam, Silke; Urman, Aleksandra; Arlt, Dorothee; Gil-Lopez, Teresa; Makhortykh, Mykola; Maier, Michaela (2023). Media Trust and the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Analysis of Short-Term Trust Changes, Their Ideological Drivers and Consequences in Switzerland. Communication research, 50(2), pp. 205-229. Sage 10.1177/00936502221127484

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We analyze short-term media trust changes during the COVID-19 pandemic, their ideological drivers and consequences based on panel data in German-speaking Switzerland. We thereby differentiate trust in political information from different types of traditional and non-traditional media. COVID-19 serves as a natural experiment, in which citizens’ media trust at the outbreak of the crisis is compared with the same variables after the severe lockdown measures were lifted. Our data reveal that (1) media trust is consequential as it is associated with people’s willingness to follow Covid-19 regulations; (2) media trust changes during the pandemic, with trust levels for most media decreasing, with the exception of public service broadcasting; (3) trust losses are hardly connected to ideological divides in Switzerland. Our findings highlight that public service broadcasting plays an exceptional role in the fight against a pandemic and that contrary to the US, no partisan trust divide occurs.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

03 Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Institute of Communication and Media Studies (ICMB)

UniBE Contributor:

Adam, Silke, Urman, Aleksandra, Makhortykh, Mykola

Subjects:

300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology
300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology > 330 Economics

ISSN:

0093-6502

Publisher:

Sage

Language:

English

Submitter:

Julia Katharina Magdalena Bünger

Date Deposited:

17 Mar 2023 14:08

Last Modified:

17 Mar 2023 23:27

Publisher DOI:

10.1177/00936502221127484

BORIS DOI:

10.48350/180280

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/180280

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