Online News Exposure and Trust in the Mainstream Media: Exploring Possible Associations
Abstract
Based on the premise that online journalism offers readers with some features that may serve as an alternative to traditional journalism, this article explores possible associations between mistrust in mainstream news media and consumption of online news. Results from a telephone survey and an online survey demonstrate that the association between mistrust of mainstream news and exposure to online news in general is negative. But whereas mainstream exposure is related to trust in media, exposure to nonmainstream sites is related to media skepticism. The findings also shed some light on the factors contributing to audience trust in online news.
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People in autocracies are less likely to trust journalists because they know journalists must self-censor to secure and maintain their positions, but they are also more likely to trust online news because they perceive it to be less censored.
“People in autocracies are less likely to trust journalists because they know journalists must self-censor to secure and maintain their positions, but they are also more likely to trust online news because they perceive it to be less censored (Gainous et al., 2018;Tsfati, 2010).”
From Can Pandora's Box Be Closed? How People in Myanmar Access and Identify Trustworthy Information After the Coup (2026) · cites this paper as Tsfati, 2010
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References 32 · Cited by 258
- Authors
- Tsfati, Y.
- Affiliations
- University of Haifa (IL)
- Corresponding author
- Tsfati, Yariv
- ORCID
- Tsfati, Yariv
- Venue
- American Behavioral Scientist
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2010-09
- Volume
- 54
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 22-42
- ISSN
- 0002-7642 (ISSN-L)
- 1552-3381
- OpenAlex
- W1983055920
- Cited by
- 258
- References
- 32
- Citations by year
- 2026: 15 · 2025: 14 · 2024: 22 · 2023: 21 · 2022: 23 · 2021: 43 · 2020: 32 · 2019: 18 · 2018: 22 · 2017: 12 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 12 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 7 · 2012: 4
- FWCI
- 14.22
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- American Behavioral Scientist (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Tel Aviv University
- Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Communication › Media Studies and Communication
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Misinformation and Its Impacts
- Social Sciences › Communication › Journalism and Media Studies
- Keywords
- online news consumption, media skepticism, digital journalism, audience trust, news exposure
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