Tracking Trust: A Comparison of Trustworthiness Across News Media

News medium trustworthiness is paramount in an audience's decision to consume that medium, whether it be new or traditional. Perceived trustworthiness as a deciding factor of an audience's preferred news medium is a concept that has not been sufficiently studied. Prior research has not given answers to questions of audience trust and the competitive relationship between new and traditional news media. This study's purpose is to better understand how self-assigned trustworthiness affects how one gathers news information and from which mediums (e.g. traditional media like newspapers and television or new media like the internet) it is gathered. The uses-and-gratifications and source credibility theories are used to further explain how news mediums are chosen. Drawing from a survey of news media consumers, this study aims to assess if news consumers found new media to be more trustworthy than traditional media and if this trustworthiness plays a role in consumption rates.