To trust or not to trust: characteristic-based and process-based trust.

Zhang, Hongzhong ; Zhang, Xueying ; Zhou, Shuhua 等

Introduction

Today's news media landscape is experiencing radical changes driven by continuing communication innovations. The fierce competition of traditional and new media is fragmenting markets for audiences as social media are playing an increasingly important role in newsgathering and news media consumption (Franklin, 2012). Even in China, where media organizations were traditionally regulated by the government, there is rapid growth in recent years in private and quasi-private media operations (Tang & Iyengar, 2011). As a result, today's media audience face a considerable increase in the sheer amount of news from multiple sources: radio networks, television, national newspapers, news journals, magazines and emerging social media news feeds. In addition, people chime in with their own voices, mostly in social media as empowered citizen journalists (Muthukumaraswamy, 2010).

While audiences are enjoying an abundance of media content, it is also anticipated that they have to exercise an increasing degree of selective trust in news media when news messages abound, and sometimes conflict. In this regard, researchers have recognized whether people trust a media source or not is a result of complex interactions of the source and receivers' characteristics, such as demographics and media use (Naylor, Droms & Haws, 2009; Berger, 1987; Jensen, Hurley, 2010). In other words, trust in media information has two sides: the attributes of the information invoking trust on the one hand and the deliberative judgment from the message receiver on the other. The attention paid to the message receiver's individual characteristics is an acknowledgement of the subjective nature of trust. From this perspective, trust in media implies a trait like stability on the part of the audience rather than the objective qualities of the source (Berlo, Lemert, & Mertz, 1969), it is possible to approach people's preference for media channels and sources from the media audience' traits, including demographics and media use frequency.

While perceived news credibility is the lifeblood of news organizations, most research, however, looks only at the credibility of news content, news sources, and medium, without looking at the perceiver (e.g. Abdulla, Garrison, Salwen, Driscoll, & Casey, 2002; Bracken, 2006). This represents a gap in media credibility research, even though researchers have long recognized that audience actively integrate information to make credibility decisions independent of the objective qualities of the source (Berlo, Lemert, & Mertz, 1969). If we conceptualize media credibility as an inclusive concept examining both information attributes as well as audience perception of credibility, this paper is about the later. Hence, the current paper turns to the other side of this trust equation by looking at users of news and how they place their trust by taking perspectives of the psychology of trust. To avoid any confusion with the general concept of credibility, we will refer this line of research as media trust, or trust in the media.

Literature Review

Trust

Trust and risk are two sides of a coin. In the trust literature, the concept is often referred as a "stake" or "bet" (Sztompka, 1998, 1999). For example, Sztompka defined trust as a bet on future contingent actions of others (1996), rooted in the uncertainty of modern social structure and division of labor (Sztompka, 1998). Trust would not be necessary if we are able to monitor others' activities (Giddens, 1991). However, not only it is impossible to have complete knowledge of others' activity, but by no means can one wield others' mind, will and imagination. So trust occurs when certainty ends (Lewis & Weiger, 1985). It occurs because one has to make a theoretical speculation of how the other would perform under certain circumstances in the future. In actuality, trust is a bet, when one chooses to approach the future proactively and is willing to bear its consequence. As conceived by Luhmann (2000), trust is different from confidence because with confidence, people do not consider alternatives of taking action. But with trust, one chooses an action in preference to other actions in spite of the possibility of being disappointed by the actions of others (p. 95).

According to Sztompka (1998), trust includes at least three dimensions, namely, reflected trustworthiness, basic trustfulness and trust culture. Reflected trustworthiness refers to target credibility. Scholars (Coleman, 1990; Elster, 1989; Hardin, 1992) consider this dimension as people's rational estimate whether the investment of trust is worthwhile and it is based on the target's credibility. Sztompka (1999) argues that such estimate is based on three major elements. Reputation is the record of past activity. Generally speaking, people, social organizations or government entities that we trust have existed for a period therefore they have a record of reputation (Good, 1988). The longer people are with a person or organization, the more they know about it. And if a consistent record is accessible, people are more willing to trust. The second element is performance, which includes the actual practice, current activity and achievement of such people and entities (Sztompka, 1999). The third element refers to the appearance of the trusting target, which includes charisma, position and social status (Giddens, 1991). Most media credibility studies focusing on source credibility concentrated on these elements.

Secondly, trust involves basic trustfulness, an explanation pertaining to the personality of the trusting agent. It is viewed as an impulse, a psychological trait credited to a caring family climate and successful socialization (Wilson, 1993; Giddens, 1991). In other words, when people are taught to trust, versus to distrust, they are more likely to do so. As such, this closely resembles a personality trait.

The third dimension is culturally oriented. Fukugama (1995) viewed that culture provides a general expectation to trust, or not to trust. In a trusting society, people are encouraged to express a trustful orientation toward social institutions and fellow citizens. This line of research categorized modern countries in the world as high trust and low trust countries. The former include some East Asian countries while the latter mainly refers to western countries. Putnam (2000) and Stivers (1994) also have relevant discussions in social capital research on how Americans are becoming less trusting in the last three decades.

Conceptualized in another manner, Zucker (1986) categorized three kinds of trust: characteristic-based trust, process-based trust, and institution-based trust. Characteristic-based trust relates to a heuristically simplified cognition. For example, the popular trust people hold for female nurses or male architectures are instances of this kind. Social similarity between individuals plays an important role in influencing characteristic-based trust development because the individual characteristics usually are symbols of social system (Zuker, 1986). Second, process-based trust is developed through repeated interaction and exchange of interests. The initial interaction may start with pure chance (e.g. purchasing a product of certain unknown brand), however, as the contacts continue, the initial random behavior may convert to trusted exchange with reduced uncertainty. The third type, institution-based trust draws on impersonal arrangements (Zuker, 1986): as both characteristic-based and process-based trust are built on experiences made with a potential trustee in repeated encounters, this third kind accounts for trust we have for unknown people and institutions. In this case, institution-based trust draws on a third-party guarantor to provide alternative guarantee for exchanges (Coleman 1990; Shapiro 1987). Because it is an institution, we assume legitimacy and believe there are mechanism to ensure its legitimate operations. Zuker (1986) further identifies two types of institution-based trust. The first is specific to persons or organizations that adopt standard practices of a subculture. For example, professionals or firms joining professional associations are trusted to be able to carry out their duties with ethical and professional standards because the knowledge base of the profession is derived through the integrity of social processes, such as rigorous education, peer reviews, and codes of ethics (Thomas, 1998). As such, we go to the medical professionals for health issues, trusting that they have gone through all trainings and that they abide by their code of ethics. These social processes signal to the public that professionals are expected to fulfill their duty not out of self-interests but to conform to the social expectations of institutions. A second type of institution-based trust is derived from intermediary mechanisms, such as laws, regulation and insurance. These institutions serve to reduce the risk that a trustee behaves untrustworthily, just like a personal third party guarantor (Bachmann & Inkpen, 2011).

Media Trust and Demographics

This study draws on Zuker's conceptualization to specifically look at two kinds of trust: characteristic-based trust and process-based trust. Institution-based trust is a worthwhile area of research. But without cross-national data, it is almost infeasible to compare different standards among institutions of different cultures and regimes. At any rate, in terms of characteristic-based trust, we focus on news medium characteristics and in terms of process-based trust, we focus on news media use as a process of trust building.

Characteristic-based trust in media is closely related to medium affordances and how much trust people have a particular medium (Gaziano & McGrath, 1986; Kiousis, 2001). Television offers sound and sight, does not require literacy, and have many people believe that seeing is believing. According to Miller & Kurpius (2010), the way that television uses pictures and sound allows audience to see and hear and relate to sources personally. Newspaper, on the other hand, requires a great deal of literary and is known as a medium of intellect (Hovland & Weiss, 1951). Mulder (1980) suggested that the media users who actively sought out news were more likely to trust newspaper because newspaper content required more effort to process compared to television program.

Extant research has produced mixed results regarding which type of media is the most trusted vehicle of news and information. While users in several studies viewed television more trustworhty than newspapers (e.g., Gaziano & McGrath, 1986; Wesley & Severin, 1964), the latest report on Americans' confidence in institutions, released by Gallup in late 2011, showed that almost the same percentage of American people expressed "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence toward newspapers and television.

The emergence and popularity of Internet and social media has complicated this area of research. Recently, Johnson and Kaye (2000) found that online source was perceived more believable, accurate, in-depth, and fair than traditional media. Chung, Nam, and Stefanone (2012) argued that the hypertextuality of index-type online news sources was of particular importance in influencing web users' perceptions toward online news sources. However, Schmierbach and Oeldorf-Hirsch (2012) revealed that newspaper stories were considered more trustworhty than those conveyed on Twitter. Given the mixed findings about the different degrees of trust on different media, and the fact that little is known about people's trust in different media in China, the following research question is proposed:

RQ1: What kind of people trust what news medium the most in China?

On the other hand, media use is a process that is repeated over time. If process-based trust is any indication, the more a person uses a medium or a source, the more the person may trust that medium or source. In communication research, media use has been reported to be positively related with perceived credibility (Wanta & Hu, 1994; Freeman & Spyridakis, 2004; Kim, Weaver, Wilnat, 2000; Flanagin & Metzger, 2007).

Different group of people vary in news media use, having different value systems and degree of familiarity with media content and platform, so it makes intuitive and intellectual sense to integrate media use as a process-based trust. In this regard, Flanagin and Metzger (2007) identified a positive relationship between online reliance and perceived credibility of online news. Guo and Li (2011) proposed a model which conceptualizes individuals' news information processing strategies as directly dependent on one's media use and perceived media functions.

However, what exactly constitutes "media use?" Over the years, there is very little consensus as to its definition. Some people measure media use as frequency of use (Cobbey, 1980; Greenberg, 1966; Westley & Severin, 1964), others disagreed and believed that so called media use should be media dependence (Wanta & Hu, 1994). Bear in mind, however, that past research was done with traditional news media such as newspaper, TV, and radio, and that use was typically passive and was therefore measured as "exposure" only. Today's news media offer many attributes, such as interactivity as well as options such as like, retweet, linking, commenting, etc. The attributes of "use" offers an opportunity to redefine and enrich its many meanings. In this study, we focus our attention on a new social medium, Weibo, a microblogging service and measure its use by the following categories: blog reading frequency, blog use length, blog commenting, and blog repost.

Weibo is provided by one of the biggest Chinese Internet portals, Sina.com since August 2009, after Twitter was blocked in China (Zhang & Pentina, 2012). Throughout the years, it has experienced explosive popularity in China. According to Incite China (Sept. 11, 2014), Weibo claimed over 156 million monthly active users in June 2014, representing around 25% of Internet users in China.

The service provided by Weibo is very similar to Twitter. It allows users to post messages of 140 characters to update their status or voice opinions frequently (Zhang & Pentina, 2012); Weibo also provides some distinguished features that encourage the quick production and dissemination of the messages. For example, Sina Weibo users could broadcast their comments under a message to their followers without having to repost the message as on Twitter. And as an effort to improve the perceived credibility, Sina Weibo encourages identity verification (Huang & Sun, 2014). With all these features, Weibo is expected to generate tremendous power in information dissemination (Huang & Sun, 2014). According to Zhang & Pentina (2012), learning about news is a major motivation for Chinese Weibo users.

Based on the rational of process-based trust and based on Weibo's established mechanism to verify identity of information, we propose the following hypotheses:

H1: The more frequent a person reads Weibo, the more the person trusts Weibo as a news source;

H2: The more time a person has used Weibo, the more the person trusts Weibo as a news source;

H3: The more a person comments on a Weibo blog, the more the person trusts Weibo as a news source;

H4: The more a person reposts a Weibo blog, the more the person trust Weibo as a news source.

The Case of China and Weibo

For this study, we chose the case of China and a new social media service, Weibo. China is a choice of convenience. But traditionally, Chinese media users are viewed as getting news from propaganda organs and hence developed a "blind faith" on the few authoritative sources (Guo & Li, 2011; Zhang, Zhou, & Shen, 2014). This situation has changed in recent years. Chinese society is becoming diversified as the uniform messages in the Mao era no longer dominates. The official information sources such as the People's Daily and China Central Television (CCTV) is no longer the only trusted news sources (Chang, 1989). These days, digital and mobile media technologies have brought more options for news consumption, allowing for higher mobility and handing control of news selection to users (Yuan, 2011).

Chinese audiences are spending more time browsing information online, such as Weibo, and playing with smart phones (Nguyen & Western, 2006). As for credibility of these information, a comparison study of perceived Chinese media credibility showed that over a three-year period (2009-2012), perceived credibility has significantly decreased for the authoritative newspaper People's Daily, while it was significantly increased for local televisions. The diminishing credibility for governmental owned news sources is also seen in new media realm: the governmental owned news portals saw significantly decreased credibility while increased credibility is assigned to two commercial portals.

It is fair to say that in the case of China there is no stable trends to indicate what news media people trust and the landscape of Chinese new media, like the rest of the world, is ever changing. For example, today's Weibo is very much integrated in Chinese people's lives. For example, Guan, Gao, Yang, et al. (2014) examined the Weibo postings after 21 hot social events in 2011 and found that the reposting rate of event-related message on Weibo was much higher than Twitter. As we mentioned before, the new attributes of a new medium, such as Weibo, afford us an opportunity to rethink the definition of media use beyond the traditional approach of exposure.

Method

The survey data used for analysis were gathered through a series of telephone interviews conducted between May 29th and June 9th, 2012 in Shenzhen. A professional survey firm in Beijing was hired to conduct the survey. All telephone interviews were administered in survey labs via a computer-assisted telephone interview system (CATI).

Participants of this survey were recruited through a random digit dialing technique. Shenzhen was chosen for its vibrancy and potential active media use. Previous research indicates that because of longer history of economic reform and exposure to market economy, cities in the east and south China tend to have a population living a busier and more competitive life. People in these cities, especially the young generations would have stronger information need to identify opportunities and monitor the outside world (Dou, Wang, & Zhou, 2006).

A total of 611 respondents were telephone interviewed for 25-30 minutes individually, with a response rate of 32.8%. Among them, 52.6% (N = 316) were male and 47.4% (N = 285) were female. The average age of the participants was 32.7 years old (SD = 16.48). Close to half (48.6%) of them had a college degree. These demographic features are in line with the general data of a young and competitive population in the city and it is indeed strongly reflected their corresponding demographics in the population as reported in the sixth national population census. In addition, the sample was normal in distribution.

Measures

Preferred Source: Participants were asked to indicate which medium (TV, newspapers, radio, Internet, magazines, mobile devices) they tended to trust if there was conflicting political news. Participants were allowed to pick only one medium as a measure of absolute trust.

Weibo use: Four measures were taken regarding 1) frequency by asking participants how many days they log on Weibo in the past week and the data were collapsed into three categories (1 = none, 2 = 1-5 days, 3 = 6-7 days) after examining response frequencies; 2) How long they have used Weibo (1=None; 2=less than 6 months; 3=6 months to one year; 4=more than one year); 3) how often would they comment on Weibo posts (1=none; 2=seldom; and 3=sometimes and often); and finally how often they repost (1=none; 2=seldom; and 3=sometimes and often).

Trust of Weibo: To measure participants' trust of weibo content, we asked the following question: "How much do you trust information from Weibo: please assign a value assuming complete trust is 100, barely trust is 60, and not trusting at all is 0.

Results

The first research question asked who kinds of people trust what news media the most. Descriptive statistics showed TV is the most trusted medium (50.5%), followed by newspaper (27.9%) and Internet (17.4%) other media are negligible (see Figure 1).

Few people trusted magazine (.7%), radio (3.4%) or mobile devices (1.1%). Therefore magazine, radio and mobile device were not included in subsequent analyses regarding age, gender and education respectively.

For trust on newspaper, a series of chi-square tests identified gender and age to be significant influential factors. Men (32.8%) were more likely than women (22%) to choose newspaper as the most trusted medium ([chi square] (1, 1) = 8.598, p = .004) (Figure 2).

Age was divided into groups every 10 years above 19 and below 60, with the categorization based on Qin (1999)'s argument that generation cohorts can be identified in a 10-year interval. A 2 x 6 chi-square test showed that the under 19 group had the highest percentage (43.8%) of people believing in newspaper compared with 22.9%, the lowest percentage appeared in 30-39 group (Figure 3).

All three demographic variables were significantly related to TV trust, however, the trend of gender was reversed compared with what was observed with trust on newspaper: more women (61.3%) than men (40.6%) chose TV ([chi square] (1, 1) = 25.389, p < .001) (Figure 4). An approximate trend emerged in the correlation of age regarding TV trust: the percentage of trustors increased from 39.1% in the below-19 group to 68.3% in above-60 group ([chi square] (1, 5) = 23.137, p < .001) (Figure 4).

Chi-square analyses also showed that if compared with other media platforms, TV received more trust among people aged 30-39 (Figure 5).

Education made a difference in TV trust, too. 54% of the participants without college degree considered TV as most credible compared with 46.2% of those with college and above degree ([chi square] (1, 1) = 4.02, p = .045) (Figure 6).

This trend was reversed with those who chose to believe Internet. More people with college degree or above (23.5%) than those without (10%) chose Internet ([chi square] (1, 1) = 18.048, p < .001) (Figure 7).

Figure 7. Trust on Internet by education.

Gender was not a significant factor in Internet trust, but age appeared to be ([chi square] (1, 5) = 24.895, p < .001). The highest percentage of Internet believer was in 20-29 group (25.5%), compared with 3.5% in 50-59 group and none in above-60 group (Figure 8).

H1 stated that the more frequent a person reads Weibo, the more the person trusts Weibo. ANOVA results showed that frequency was significant, F(2, 320) = 7.03, p = .001. To determine where the significance was located among the three groups, Bonferroni post hoc tests were conducted and revealed significant differences between the those who did not read Weibo and those who read them at a .05 level (p = .001); the non-users (M = 54.74, SD = 20.82) had a lower mean trust score than the regular user (M = 64.24, SD = 19.27) and frequent users (M = 61.13, SD = 18.79).

H2 stated that the more time a person has used Weibo, the more the person trusts Weibo; ANOVA results showed that time of use was significant, F(3, 341) = 3.60, p = .01. To determine where the significance was located among the groups, Bonferroni post hoc tests were conducted and revealed significant differences between the those who did not used Weibo and those who used them for more than one year; the non-users (M = 55.74, SD = 21.29) had a lower mean trust score than the long time user (M = 63.58, SD = 20.32).

H3 stated that the more a person comments on a Weibo blog, the more the person trusts Weibo; ANOVA results showed that commenting was not significant, F(2, 342) = 1.55, p = .22. Commenting was not a significant predictor.

H4 stated the more a person repost a Weibo blog, the more the person trust Weibo. ANOVA results showed that repost was significant, F(2, 342) = 5.26, p = .006. To determine where the significance was located among the three groups, Bonferroni post hoc tests were conducted and revealed significant differences between the those who did not repost and those who repost often at a .05 level (p = .012); the non-repost users (M = 56.51, SD = 21.11) had a lower mean trust score than the those reposting often (M = 63.71, SD = 17.28).

Discussion

Correlating demographics and use variables with media trust enables us to build profiles of those who trust or not trust certain news media. Results of this study showed that typical newspaper believers in Shenzhen, China, could be profiled as young males under 19, while the most skeptical newspaper readers are females in their thirties. The typical TV believers are senior females without college degree, while the typical Internet believers are young adults with college degree, especially those who use Weibo frequently.

Demographics, or socio-economic characteristics of media consumers, have long been recognized as an important dimensions of lifestyle, which influence media usage as they influence all other consumer behaviors (Wei, R., 2006). Donohew et al. (1987) also reported that female, middle-aged, low-income and educated "disengaged homemakers" watched a great deal of cable TV for entertainment while well-educated females with good income watched TV less but relied more on newspapers and news magazines. Similarly, Wei (2006) observed that in China, younger, less educated and low income "climbers" spent the most time reading newspapers, watching TV and listening to the radio, whereas the young, better educated and higher income "status quo" spent the least time reading newspaper, watching TV and listening to the radio.

Although the current study did not examine the potential mediating role of media use for every link between demographics and trust placed on certain media, most profiling information observed is consistent with the data acquired from secondary reports about life style of different demographics and media use, indicating a potential explanation of trust on news media indeed lies in media use. For example, if we consider the special immigration status of Shenzhen city, where young people flow in everyday seeking for opportunities, the higher proportion of trust placed on newspaper among young people should not come as a surprise. According to Song & Dong (2008), the newcomers of a city usually have low-income and are deprived of the previous interpersonal relationships for information and entertainment, so they're more likely to depend on mass media, especially inexpensive newspapers as primary news media sources. This logic applies to the case of Shenzhen and indicates a media use correlation between demographics and perceived newspaper credibility.

The news media use impact on the variance of news media trust among demographic groups may also be detected in the matrix of demographic correlations. For example, the result showed that the young (20-29) and well educated (with college degree or more) people tend to be typical Internet believers, regardless of gender. The data also indicated the 20-29 group had the most percentage of college or above degrees (64.2 %). Hence they implied a possible compounding effect of age and education on perceived Internet credibility. This is an identical pattern with previous study which suggested age is significantly associated with perceived Internet trust because young adults are more likely to use the Internet (Stempel & Hargrove, 1996). Specifically when it comes to the Chinese population, the 2013 statistical report on Internet development in China pinpointed the 20-29 group as the category that had the most Internet users (29.5%). Chyi & Lee (2013) also found younger adults are more likely to use and prefer online format of news. In light of these secondary data, media use is a potential sources of explanation to the specific demographic correlation with trust.

In terms of measurement, the current study takes one further step in measuring kinds of news media use in the new social media environment, in this case, Weibo use. Three Weibo use variables were significant predictors of Weibo trust, namely, frequency, time of use and repost behavior. Only one "use" measure was not significant, namely, whether the person comments or not.

Frequency of use is akin to traditional measure of use. Time of use, on the other hand, measuring the repetitiveness of use and repost, a new attribute in social interactive media, is a very interesting variable. Repost behavior is more than use, for sure. Significant to trust research, it may signify that when a repost behavior is performed, the person may be affirming the post's trustworthiness, even though exceptions can occurs, such as in the case of novelty and deviance.

In a way, the non-significance of Weibo commenting, though an active ingredient of new media use, is a blessing in disguise. Commenting can occur when the person either strongly agree or disagree with the post. If it is the former, trust is strengthened. But if it is latter, it indicates just the opposite: the comment is a response of non-trustworthiness, and a refutation of a post's claim. This finding invites us to reflect on the simplicity of past media use measurements and the complexity of future conceptualization. Use of news media in today's media environment is multi-faceted and deserves further explication.

In summary, the current research presents an initial effort to examine trust on news media by examining the traditional "who trusts what" question and by focusing on newer areas of news media use measurement in predicting media trust. Findings present an intriguing picture for further research, beginning with the explication of media use in the new media era.

We are of course keenly aware of the study's limitations. Results of this study are only generalizable, if the sample is truly representative, to the people of Shenzhen in southern China. Also, we zoom in on one particular medium, which may or may not share affinity with other media. Nevertheless, we hope that this study will spur more research on news media trust along the dimensions identified by trust researchers.

Correspondence to:

Shuhua Zhou, Ph.D.

Dept. of Journalism & Creative Media

University of Alabama

Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, USA.

Email: szhou@ua.edu

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Hongzhong Zhang *, Xueying Zhang & Shuhua Zhou **,

* Beijing Normal University, China, ** University of Alabama, USA

Caption: Figure 1. Comparative trusted on medium when news conflicts.

Caption: Figure 2. Trust on newspaper by gender.

Caption: Figure 3: Trust on newspaper by age.

Caption: Figure 4. Trust on TV by gender.

Caption: Figure 5. Trust on TV by age.

Caption: Figure 6. Trust on TV by education.

Caption: Figure 8. Trust on Internet by age.

Caption: Figure 9. Weibo trust by use frequency.

Caption: Figure 10. Weibo trust by time of using'

Caption: Figure 11: Weibo trust by repost frequency