No clear connections: a study of the association between news media use, public trust, and Swedish social services

Figures & data

Table 1. Trust in the social services 2019.

	Total	Percent	Low/neutral/high (n/%)	m (SD)
Low	173	11.4	479 (31.6)	2.77 (.93)
Quite low	306	20.2
Neutral	783	51.6	783 (51.5)
Quite high	208	13.7	254 (16,7)
High	46	3.0
Total	1516	100

Table 2. Frequency in reported news media use in absolute and relative numbers.

	Low		Neutral		High		P (x^2)
	n	%	n	%	n	%
Media are trustworthy (n = 1419)							<.001
Agree	338	28	653	54.1	217	18
Disagree	100	47.4	86	40.8	25	11.8
Media often report falsely (n = 1271)							<.001
Agree	160	41.2	175	45.1	53	13.7
Disagree	231	27.9	451	54.4	147	17.7
Media are NOT impartial							<.001
Agree	269	37.2	350	48.3	105	14.5
Disagree	151	26.3	309	53.7	115	20
Journalists often twist news							<.001
Agree	311	36.8	414	49.1	119	14.1
Disagree	104	23.3	241	54	101	22.6
Media do NOT tell the whole truth							<.001
Agree	282	38.5	348	47.5	102	13.9
Disagree	133	24.4	299	55	112	20.6

Table 3. Final regression model on trust in the social services including news media use and trust and control variables.

	Crude			Multivariate
	B (S.E)	Beta	Adj.R^2	B (S.E)	Beta	Adj. R^2	Tolerance	VIF
Media trust index	.07 (.01)***	.27	.071	.03 (.01)***	.14		.623	1.605
News use by media outlet (range 1–6)
-Aktuellt and Rapport (SVT)	.01 (.01)	.02	.000	−.01 (.03)	−.02		.462	2.166
-Ekot (SR)	.01 (.01)	.02	−.001	.00 (.02)	.00		.581	1.722
-Dagens Nyheter	.02 (.02)	.03	.000	−.03 (.02)	−.04		.641	1.560
-Svenska Dagbladet	−.01 (.02)	−.01	−.001	.03 (.03)	.05		.683	1.465
-Aftonbladet	−01 (.01)	.01	−.001	−.02 (.02)	−.03	.170	.694	1.441
-Expressen	−.02 (.01)	−.03	.000	.03 (.02)	.05		.683	1.463
-Local news (index)	.03 (.02)	.04	.001	.03 (.04)	.04		.401	2.492
-News on social media	.00 (.01)	.01	−.001	.02 (.02)	.05		.807	1.240
General trust in others	−	−	−	.07 (.02)***	.17		.756	1.324
Satisfaction with democracy	−	−	−	.18 (.05)***	.16		.628	1.592
Perceived corruption index (alpha .84)	−	−	−	−.02 (.01)***	−.17		.877	1.140
Age	−	−	−	−.03 (.02)	−.06		.556	1.800
Income	−	−	−	−.05 (.02)*	−.09		.885	1.131
Contact on behalf of oneself (yes)	−	−	−	.11 (.18)	.02		.946	1.057
Contact on behalf of a relative (yes)	−	−	−	−.13 (.15)	−.03		.967	1.034

*p < .05. ***p <.001.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available upon reasonable request at https://doi.org/10.5878/4jkm-zr65

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