Credibility and Trust
Policymakers, scientists, and journalists have worried for years about declining public trust in their institutions. Are new technologies like social media contributing to this decline, or are they convenient scapegoats for broader forces in society? We discuss research on how populist politics and other anti-elite, anti-institutional movements are intersecting with declining public trust and the rise of alternative epistemologies.
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Explore course modules, handouts, teaching tools and syllabi about dis- and misinformation.
Latest News on Credibility and Trust
This study examined secondary survey data (N = 3,015) that asked respondents about real and pro-Trump fake news headlines in late 2016 as well as their reliance on online news sources. Reliance on Facebook for news was a vector for exposure to pro-Trump fake news but not for believing it. Reliance on Fox News online […]
By Patrick C. Meirick, Amanda E. Franklyn
Overview This year’s report reveals new insights about digital news consumption based on a YouGov survey of over 93,000 online news consumers in 46 markets covering half of the world’s population. The report documents ways in which the connection between journalism and the public may be fraying, including a fall in trust following last year’s […]
By Nic Newman, Richard Fletcher, Craig T. Robertson, Kirsten Eddy and Rasmus Nielsen
On May 24, several news outlets reported on the internal workings of a Chinese run Uyghur internment camp in Xinjiang. The reports included detailed blueprints of the camp’s interiors, classified speeches from officials, and the personal information of police officers. An anonymous source hacked the information and got it out of China and into the […]
By Author on Source
“Do you know [who] the greatest propagator of disinformation in the history of the world is? The U.S. government.” This was Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul’s response to the recent formation of a Department of Homeland Security Disinformation Governance Board, which was intended to oversee and safeguard the U.S. from disinformation threats abroad. The board’s announcement was swiftly […]
By Stavroula Pabst
Three weeks: That’s how long it took for the Department of Homeland Security to go from announcing a board intended to combat disinformation to suspending it. In those three weeks, both the Disinformation Governance Board and its leader, Nina Jankowicz, came under relentless and sometimes vicious attack from right-wing media and Republican lawmakers. DHS initially […]
By Shannon Bond
This study examined secondary survey data (N = 3,015) that asked respondents about real and pro-Trump fake news headlines in late 2016 as well as their reliance on online news sources. Reliance on Facebook for news was a vector for exposure to pro-Trump fake news but not for believing it. Reliance on Fox News online […]
By Patrick C. Meirick, Amanda E. FranklynOverview This year’s report reveals new insights about digital news consumption based on a YouGov survey of over 93,000 online news consumers in 46 markets covering half of the world’s population. The report documents ways in which the connection between journalism and the public may be fraying, including a fall in trust following last year’s […]
By Nic Newman, Richard Fletcher, Craig T. Robertson, Kirsten Eddy and Rasmus NielsenOn May 24, several news outlets reported on the internal workings of a Chinese run Uyghur internment camp in Xinjiang. The reports included detailed blueprints of the camp’s interiors, classified speeches from officials, and the personal information of police officers. An anonymous source hacked the information and got it out of China and into the […]
By Author on Source“Do you know [who] the greatest propagator of disinformation in the history of the world is? The U.S. government.” This was Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul’s response to the recent formation of a Department of Homeland Security Disinformation Governance Board, which was intended to oversee and safeguard the U.S. from disinformation threats abroad. The board’s announcement was swiftly […]
By Stavroula PabstThree weeks: That’s how long it took for the Department of Homeland Security to go from announcing a board intended to combat disinformation to suspending it. In those three weeks, both the Disinformation Governance Board and its leader, Nina Jankowicz, came under relentless and sometimes vicious attack from right-wing media and Republican lawmakers. DHS initially […]
By Shannon Bond