Analysis of variables influencing trust on traditional and alternative news media in an Argentinean sample

BERAMENDI, M. R.; DELFINO, G. I.; ZUBIETA, E. M.

Edimburgo

Congreso; 40th Annual Scientific Meeting of the International Society of Political Psychology (ISPP); 2017

Sociedad Internacional de Psicología Política

News Media consumption has been changing. People have been informed by new sources of information like social media, online news websites, and digital newspapers, among others. This new non-traditional media consumption appeared jointly with the development of the information technology. What is more, the last generations, Generation Y, is the first generation to spend their entire lives in the digital environment. This Generation shares, searches for and consumes content on social media platforms. From another angle, some researchers state that this new non-traditional media has changed the monopoly of mass communication, allowing alternative voices and new ways of discussion public affairs. Previous studies have found that people rely more on Alternative News Media than Traditional ones. Considering these premises, the aim of this study is to describe the Trust on News Media and analyze the influence of the generation, ideology, gender and system justification variables on News Media trust, traditional and non-traditional. 1145 participants were recruited by the Nielsen media group in Argentina, on the basis of potential participants over the age of 18 from all over the country previously registered. The survey participants were selected based on quotas derived from the Argentinean adult population (age, sex, education and income). Results show that participants consume alternative sources of News Media. However, they still rely more on traditional sources. Regressions results show that Trust on Traditional and Alternative News Media are very little influence by independent variables named above. In the presentation, It will be discussed these findings.