Building trust: media executives’ perceptions of readers’ trust

ABSTRACT Building trust and credibility among users might be a way to secure news media’s important role as main providers of news. Nevertheless, there is limited research on whether news media companies work strategically to build trust among users, as well as how trust in media is perceived in high-trust societies such as the Nordic. In this study, our aim is to understand how Norwegian media executives perceive trust in the media they manage, and the role of user interaction. Through a survey of Norwegian editors (N = 147), we conduct a quantitative study of media executives’ perceptions of readers’ trust as well as whether they have executed strategically initiatives in the news media to increase readers’ trust. We find that media executives experience a high degree of perceived trust, and interaction with users as a positive predictor for perceived trust. On the other hand, focus on metrics and usage numbers was a negative predictor for perceived trust.