Media Trust Scale
Media Trust and Credibility Scale (MTS) · Also known as: MTS, Press Credibility Scale, News Media Confidence
The Media Trust Scale measures audience confidence in news media credibility, including perceptions of accuracy, fairness, completeness, and journalists' motivations. Developed by West (1994) and extended by Kiousis (2001), the scale captures both medium-specific trust (trust in TV news vs. newspapers vs. online news) and outlet-specific trust (CNN vs. Fox News vs. BBC vs. local news). Media trust is central to understanding political polarization, misinformation vulnerability, and the functioning of the democratic public sphere, as low-trust populations reject news sources entirely, opening space for alternative information ecosystems.
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When to use it
Use Media Trust Scale in studies of misinformation susceptibility, political polarization, media effects and agenda-setting, news consumption patterns, political information acquisition, evaluations of media interventions (fact-checking, media literacy), and longitudinal tracking of trust in journalism. Appropriate for general adult populations and media-consuming youth (14+). Useful in comparative studies examining differences in media trust across democracies. Can be administered with specific outlets specified (trust in BBC, CNN, NPR, etc.) to measure outlet-specific trust. Valuable outcome measure for media literacy interventions.
Strengths & limitations
- Captures critical variable in understanding political polarization; declining media trust is central mechanism driving ideological segregation and misinformation spread.
- Validated across cultures with established psychometric properties; usable in comparative research.
- Responsive to specific events: trust in outlets shifts measurably following major news coverage (election coverage, scandal); enables event-study designs.
- Predictive of information behavior: media trust correlates (r=0.60-0.75) with outlet selection, news consumption patterns, and misinformation belief.
- Potential partisan confounding: trust ratings reflect political ideology as much as actual media credibility; Republican distrust of mainstream media and Democratic distrust of conservative outlets may reflect ideological distance rather than accuracy assessment.
- Multiple dimensions conflated: single scale may combine accuracy perceptions, fairness perceptions, and motivations; separate subscales may be more informative.
- Outlet-specific vs. general trust: respondents may distrust 'the media' generally but trust specific outlets (or vice versa); wording specificity affects responses.
- Temporal instability: media trust fluctuates with coverage of controversies; single-point measurement captures a moment, not stable disposition.
Frequently asked
Is declining media trust caused by media decline or political polarization?
Bidirectional. Media trust declined before 2000s (post-Watergate) as institutional skepticism rose. However, 2000s-2010s sharp decline correlates more with partisan polarization than media quality changes. As partisanship increased, outlets serving partisan audiences (Fox News for Republicans, MSNBC for Democrats) increased, fragmenting trust. Paradox: people distrust 'media in general' but trust their preferred outlet. This pattern suggests partisan politics drives distrust as much as media failures.
Why do Republicans and Democrats have different media trust?
Multiple causes: (1) Outlets target partisan audiences (Fox, OAN lean right; MSNBC, CNN lean left), (2) Partisans trust co-partisan outlets and distrust opposing outlets, (3) Identity affective polarization—if opposing party trusts outlet, co-partisan distrusts it automatically, (4) Real difference in outlet fairness (some outlets show greater partisan bias than others). Measures show trust is increasingly partisan-driven; which outlet one trusts predicts party affiliation as strongly as party predicts outlet choice.
Is fact-checking effective when people distrust the fact-checker?
Low effectiveness. Studies show fact-checks backfire when source is distrusted; audience views fact-check as biased rather than correcting. Most effective fact-checks come from trusted source (preferred outlet or non-partisan organization). This creates trap: low-trust populations need fact-checking most but are least receptive. Solutions include: (1) community-based fact-checking from trusted local sources, (2) providing corrected information from trusted co-partisan sources, (3) focusing on media literacy rather than fact-checking.
Can media trust be rebuilt?
Slowly. Trust building requires consistent accuracy, perceived fairness across audiences, and transparency about methods and corrections. Examples: BBC maintained high trust through perceived independence; transparency about corrections increases trust. However, institutional trust erosion is faster than rebuilding: major scandal can drop trust 5-10 points; recovery takes years. Partisan trust gaps are particularly difficult to bridge as they reflect political identity more than media credibility assessment.
Sources
- West, M. D. (1994). Validating a scale for the measurement of credibility: A covariance structure modeling approach. Journalism Quarterly, 71(1), 159-168. DOI: 10.1177/107769909407100115 ↗
- Kiousis, S. (2001). Public trust or mistrust? Perceptions of media credibility in the information age. Mass Communication & Society, 4(4), 381-403. DOI: 10.1207/S15327825MCS0404_4 ↗
- Pew Research Center. (2021). News consumption and media trust in an era of political polarization. Washington, DC: Pew Research Center. link ↗
How to cite this page
ScholarGate. (2026, June 3). Media Trust and Credibility Scale (MTS). ScholarGate. https://scholargate.app/en/political-psychology/media-trust-scale
Which method?
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