ABSTRACT
Demystifying trust remains a constant obsession across academic disciplines, and acutely within journalism studies. Trust is considered a foundational element of social order and societal cohesion; it is vital for a collective society to function. Trust is thus vital for the economic survival of journalism, in addition to being part of the infrastructure of newsmaking at every stage. Trust enables news outlets to run profitably, allows journalists to cultivate sources and access to news events, and even plays a role in furthering the dissemination of news through social networks both online and offline. The digitization of journalism has destabilized assessments of trust even more. Research highlights how the Internet has led to a blurring of news media and other forms of information accessed via social media and digital platforms. Empirical explorations of trust in news media have focused, in the main, on assessments of credibility.
