The previous decade saw a remarkable increase of empirical studies on growing distrust in news media. These studies typically discuss declining media trust as a problem affecting many societies with potentially detrimental effects on information acquisition and political engagement. However, numerous conceptual and measurement issues in the study of media (dis)trust make the interpretation of findings and the accumulation of knowledge in this area difficult. The mainstream conceptualization of media (dis)trust is closely related to normative theories of journalism developed in advanced democracies during the mass media era. The extant literature rarely questions the theoretical assumptions on which the concept of media (dis)trust is based, even when this concept is applied in considerably different circumstances. Therefore, it is important to examine how relevant the mainstream conceptual framework of media distrust is for studying the contemporary crisis in the audience-media relationship, and how theories of media perceptions can better address the context in which citizens are increasingly hostile toward democratic institutions including the news media. The author will present the findings of a mixed-methods study whose aim was to reconceptualize the public’s animosity toward news media (i.e., professional journalism). The main argument in the study is that media cynicism (rather than distrust) provides a much more relevant framework for understanding the contemporary trend of increasing public dissatisfaction with news media. In this study, media cynicism is defined as a generalized antagonism toward news media characterized by the belief that media actors are motivated exclusively by self-interests and pessimistic views that journalism could not be improved. The aim of the first (quantitative) study was to explore the dimensionality of media distrust and cynicism, as well as to analyze how distrust and cynicism relate with relevant external variables (e.g., news exposure in different types of outlets – mainstream, alternative, and social media). Data for the analyses were collected through an online survey of adult citizens in Serbia (n = 502) in August 2020. The aim of the second (qualitative) study was to contextualize the patterns identified in the previous study using the data obtained through in-depth interviews with diverse audiences in Serbia (n = 20) conducted in August and September 2020.

Čedomir Markov holds a PhD in Journalism and Mass Communication from Korea University. His research interests include the role of public attitudes toward news media in political behavior, media portrayals of vulnerable social groups, and digital strategies in contemporary political communication. His articles were published in Communication & Society and Ageing & Society.