Mainstream Media Recirculation of Trust-Reducing Social Media Messages. Issue 2 (March 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Christensen, Devin J.; Lovett, John; Curiel, John A.
• Is Part Of: American politics research. Volume 50:Issue 2(2022)
• Page Start: 213
• Page End: 226
• Publication Date: 2022-03
• Subjects: social media -- democracy -- trust -- authoritarianism -- outrage -- political communication; Public opinion -- United States -- Periodicals; United States -- Politics and government -- Periodicals; 320.973
• DOI: 10.1177/1532673X211023931
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1532-673X

Abstract

Citizens need to trust in the integrity of news reporting for the free press to fulfill its role as a democratic institution that enables citizens to hold representatives accountable. Growing research has shown that increased use of social media erodes trust in legacy news. However, trust-reducing social media messages are not contained to social media platforms; they are widely recirculated by the mainstream media. We argue that mainstream media corporations select social media messages to recirculate precisely because of their trust-reducing features in order to respond to short-term competitive market incentives. We turn to Donald Trump's Twitter posts as examples of trust-reducing messages and show that the media cites more trust-reducing messages more quickly and more frequently than less trust-reducing messages. These findings implicate mainstream media corporations alongside social media platforms in the systematic and ongoing degradation of trust in legacy news reporting.