Mechanisms of Trust

This study examines the relationship between the media and the government in authoritarian regimes and Western democracies, focusing on how political structures affect the level of trust between the public and the news media. Surprisingly, Jan Muller finds that there is a higher level of trust among citizens of authoritarian regimes. To help reassert trust in the media, Muller argues that in democratic societies, a differentiated media system with interventions of the state to ensure plurality-in the form of public service media, for example - leads to trust in the news media.