Trust in Public Relations in the Age of Mistrusted Media: A European Perspective

Ángeles Moreno, Ralph Tench and Piet Verhoeven
Additional contact information
Ángeles Moreno: Group of Advanced Studies in Communication, Department of Communication and Sociology, Faculty of Communication, University Rey Juan Carlos, 28943 Fuenlabrada, Spain
Ralph Tench: Department of Communication, Leeds Business School, Leeds Beckett University, Leeds LS1 3HB, UK
Piet Verhoeven: Department of Corporate Communication, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, University of Amsterdam, 1012 WX Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Publications, 2021, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-20

Abstract: One of the core problems of misinformation and post-trust societies is, indeed, trust in communications. The undermining of the credibility of media as the backbone of democratic societies is becoming a serious problem that affects democracy, business and all kinds of public institutions and organizations in society(ies). This paper explores perceptions of trust in key stakeholders involved in communication on behalf of organizations. Findings are considered at the professional (macro), departmental (meso) and individual (micro) level as well as considering the trusted role of non-specialist communicators for organizations including internal and external spokespeople. Data were collected from an online survey of 2883 respondents from 46 countries across Europe. Key findings were at the macro level that: antagonism between management communication professionals and journalists remains. The lowest trust in the profession is felt to be by the general public. At the meso level, top executives are perceived to trust the department the most followed by journalists in second place. External experts such as professors and consultants are perceived to be the most trusted by the general public. Finally, at the micro level individuals are more trusted than organizations or departments and the communication profession more widely.

Keywords: post-trust; disinformation; trust; media credibility; gatekeepers; management communication; strategic communication; public relations; journalism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A2 D83 L82 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2304-6775/9/1/7/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2304-6775/9/1/7/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jpubli:v:9:y:2021:i:1:p:7-:d:500217

Access Statistics for this article

Publications is currently edited by Ms. Jennifer Zhang

More articles in Publications from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().