Perceived Sources Matter: Implications of Misinformation on Media Trust and News Avoidance Under Different Levels of Press Freedom

Extant research on the impact of misinformation on media trust and news avoidance behavior has produced competing arguments and findings. The present study argues that the relationships among misinformation, media trust, and news avoidance can be better specified by considering whether people perceive misinformation as coming primarily from established institutions or non-institutional sources. Given the close linkage between the mainstream news media and established social and political institutions, people are likely to exhibit lower levels of news trust and higher levels of news avoidance if they perceive misinformation as coming from institutional sources. In contrast, when people perceive misinformation as coming from non-institutional sources, they may rely on the news media as authoritative fact-checkers and hence trust the news more and avoid it less. Societal-level press freedom is likely to moderate such relationships. The arguments and hypotheses are tested by an analysis of Digital News Report 2025 data.