Building legitimacy: Audience trust as a pillar of public service media

The study of public service media (PSM) has traditionally been examined within the context of mass communication. This article aims to advance the discussion by examining the legitimacy of PSM through the lens of citizens’ subjective representations. Using data from the Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2023 for Portugal, we explore how socio-demographic factors, news usage and trust influence societal importance attributed to PSM. Results indicate that while higher education and both centre and left political orientations contribute to a greater valuation of PSM, trust plays an even more substantial role. In particular, trust in the PSM provider emerges as a crucial factor in enhancing its perceived importance. Based on our findings we propose four strategies for PSM managers to reinforce sociopolitical legitimacy: (1) ensuring consistency through cross-platform content strategies; (2) improving responsiveness with platform-specific format adaptation; (3) increasing reach through the active promotion of a mobile news app and (4) fostering representativeness with increased decentralization and editorial diversity.