Blind Faith: A Study on the Interrelations among Credibility, Trust, and Non-Exposure to the Media.

Media research has dedicated important efforts to the concepts of trust, credibility or trustworthiness in traditional media. These efforts have focused on the idea of their conceptualization and their relations to different factors (e.g., exposure), all concentrating on the connection between citizens (trustors) and the media (trustees). This study aims to examine how trust in the media is shaped by the perceived credibility of the newsmaking process and by media exposure, distinguishing between traditional channels (print, radio, TV) and online platforms, using a sample comprising 27,424 observations on individuals from the 28 European countries included in Eurobarometer 90.3. Through this analysis, we estimate the determinants of trust in print media, radio, TV, and the internet, obtaining a strong correlation between credibility and trust. Exposure to traditional media (print media, radio, and TV) reinforces trust in them, with no negative effects on trust between each other. The correlation between trust and non-exposure to the media is also notable, opening an interesting discussion on how consumption or non-consumption can affect how the public perceives news through different media types. DOI: https://doi.org/10.54663/2182-9306.2025.v.13.n.24.189-216