WP7. ​Information Environment, Media Use, and Trust

This WP aims to implement a comprehensive analysis of the information environment in the societies across the EU to assess the openness of information flows (monitored by proxy measures of freedom of expression) which serves an important mediator of trustworthiness assessment and hence trust-building. The public’s judgments of trustworthiness are likely to be more accurate in open democratic societies, characterized by legislative oversight of the executive and courts, investigative journalistic watchdogs, and independent oversight agencies monitoring maladministration and malpractices by state and local authorities.

WP Leader: Prof. Pippa Norris, ICSR, Austria and Harvard University, USA.

Task 7.1. Setting up the methodological frame.

Societies with one-sided information flows (in closed information societies like China) display greater trust in political authorities than those living in contexts with two-sided information flows (like Sweden). The free press is commonly regarded as an essential condition for an enlightened public. Thus, more informed decisions about trustworthy political leaders, political parties, civil service officials, and state authorities are likely to be maximized in open societies with freedom of expression, media pluralism, and accountability mechanisms, all closely associated with the type of democratic or autocratic regime governing each state, combined with levels of human development, expanding literacy, schooling, and media access in each society. Some of the most troubling indications of democratic backsliding in recent decades concern increasing restrictions on freedom of expression and civil liberties, including through state censorship of the independent media, unofficial government harassment of critical journalists, and expanded libel or defamation laws, illustrated in cases such as Hungary, Turkey, and Poland. The first WP deliverable, the framework paper, will use secondary population (EVS/ WVS, ESS, ISSP etc.) and expert (Freedom House, V-Dem etc.) survey data to provide a comparative cross-country overview of media use patterns and information environments in European and selected world countries to examine the causal links between the media and information environment, on our side, and the types of trust widespread in the society, including rational skeptical vs credulous trust and cynical mistrust. 

Task 7.2. Design of the online survey module with split samples.

TRUEDEM project will use split sample survey experiments varying the direction of information available to respondents about specific agencies, like parliaments, parties, and the executive, then monitoring subsequent levels of trust judgments. The process of arriving at accurate trust judgments is heavily dependent upon the accuracy of information and two-sided information flows from media pluralism in open and closed societies. The recent focus on ‘misinformation’ and ‘disinformation’ has revived attention on the critical role of propaganda and information ‘bubbles’ in the social media age. Therefore, any comprehensive research design needs to use methods such as survey experiments, as proposed in TRUEDEM, using split samples to monitor the response of survey respondents to alternative ‘one-sided’ and ‘two-sided’ information frames. Online survey experiment (WP8) will be conducted in 6 European countries. Data collection and processing are planned under WP 8, with the tool -self-administered online questionnaire with the elements of split-sample experiment- to be designed under WP7. 

Task 7.3 Analysis and policy recommendations.

The information environment is also the subject of medium and shortterm policy interventions, exemplified by the protection of independent news media and in public service requirements governing broadcast communications requiring ‘political balance’ in different countries during the period of official election campaigns. Based on the findings of the previous research within this WP, in task 7.3 the project team will develop policy-recommendations aimed at enabling two-sided information flows within the country's information and media environment. The set of policy recommendations will concern countries participating in the project, with the general provisions applicable to different types of societies across the EU identified based on such criteria as democraticness and freedoms. 

Task 7.4. Multi-level model of trust predictors.

Work under WP7 will be based on comparative studies of political trust, considering broad groups of predictors: psychological (individual characteristics of individuals, in particular, emotional and motivational variables) and social (indicators of social consolidation, group identity, social capital). These types will be compared with the study of institutional indicators in particular countries that form the framework for building specific types of political trust. Multi-level model will thus identify the role of all these factors and foremost the significance of information environment and choice of media and information sources among the other factors. Analytical report summarizing the findings will examine the contribution of various factors to the development of political trust, including skeptical, credulous and other types of trust.