Trust Pathways in Digital Journalism: Comparing Western and National News Media Influence on Civic Engagement in Egypt

Trust remains fundamental to an audience’s engagement with digital journalism, yet research has predominantly focused on Western contexts, overlooking trust dynamics in diverse digital environments. This study examines news media trust and civic engagement in Egypt’s evolving digital landscape, comparing Western and national digital news consumption patterns. Using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling with data from 426 Egyptian digital news consumers, we apply a four-factor trust model to analyze (1) the relationship between trust propensity and trust in digital news content and (2) how journalist assessment relates to both content trust and civic engagement across platforms. Our results reveal significant differences in trust formation, whereby trust propensity strongly predicts content trust for Western digital media (β = 0.440) but weakly for national digital media (β = 0.191), while journalist assessment consistently influences both content trust and civic outcomes across platforms. Our findings contribute to digital journalism theory by illuminating how journalist credibility functions as a trust anchor across platforms. For digital journalism practice, we identify platform-specific trust-building strategies for Western and national digital news organizations operating in complex media environments. This study extends digital journalism research beyond Western-centric models, demonstrating how cultural context, educational factors, and platform characteristics shape digital trust pathways.