Conceptualizations and Operationalizations of News Media Trust across Time and Borders: A Systematic Literature Review (1951–2025)

IF 3.2 1区文学 Q1 COMMUNICATION

Communication Research Pub Date : 2026-01-19 DOI:10.1177/00936502251393580

Yongliang Liu, Mark Boukes, Michael Hameleers, Hanqin Li, Huitao Li, Qing’an Zhou

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Research on news media trust and the many related concepts has grown steadily in recent years. Yet, the field currently still lacks a comprehensive understanding of the extent to which the conceptualizations and operationalizations of these constructs are (mis)aligned. To address this gap, we systematically reviewed and content-analyzed 623 empirical publications on news media trust and related concepts from 1951 to 2025. We found a great diversity in operationalizations and conceptualizations of trust-related concepts, which could be partly explained by various contextual and methodological factors, such as the timing, region, and method of the research. By synthesizing previous definitions, we identified three distinct approaches to define these concepts, aiming to integrate the various perspectives on this topic. Our findings suggest that future research should aim for a more coherent operationalization of news media trust variables to ensure consistency and comparability across studies.

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跨越时间和边界的新闻媒体信任的概念化和操作化：系统文献综述（1951-2025）

近年来，对新闻媒体信任及其相关概念的研究稳步增长。然而，该领域目前仍然缺乏对这些构造的概念化和操作化（错误）对齐的程度的全面理解。为了解决这一差距，我们系统地回顾和内容分析了1951年至2025年623篇关于新闻媒体信任和相关概念的实证出版物。我们发现，在信任相关概念的操作化和概念化方面存在很大的差异，这可以部分地由各种背景和方法因素来解释，例如研究的时间、区域和方法。通过综合前面的定义，我们确定了三种不同的方法来定义这些概念，旨在集成关于该主题的各种观点。我们的研究结果表明，未来的研究应致力于新闻媒体信任变量的更连贯的操作化，以确保研究之间的一致性和可比性。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Communication Research COMMUNICATION-

CiteScore

17.10

自引率

0.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： Empirical research in communication began in the 20th century, and there are more researchers pursuing answers to communication questions today than at any other time. The editorial goal of Communication Research is to offer a special opportunity for reflection and change in the new millennium. To qualify for publication, research should, first, be explicitly tied to some form of communication; second, be theoretically driven with results that inform theory; third, use the most rigorous empirical methods; and fourth, be directly linked to the most important problems and issues facing humankind. Critieria do not privilege any particular context; indeed, we believe that the key problems facing humankind occur in close relationships, groups, organiations, and cultures.