Connecting expectations, evaluations and experiences: taking audiences seriously to bridge the gap between the public and the news media

Surveys consistently point to low levels of public trust in UK journalism that undermine its credibility (Gibson et al, 2022, OECD, 2024). Our research responds to calls to complement these valuable yet sometimes generic, quantitative measurements of trust with qualitative approaches that can reveal how audience experiences of journalism contribute to perceptions of trust.
Addressing the conference theme of connecting approaches and methods, we explore the disconnect between audience expectations of how ethical frameworks and journalistic roles should shape journalistic practices, and their evaluations of how these roles and frameworks shape journalism in reality. We used qualitative focus groups to dig deeper into the disparity that we found between audience expectations and evaluations in our representative survey of 3000 respondents (Gibson et al, 2022), connecting the methods with each other (Firmstone et al., 2024). Based on a thematic analysis of eight focus groups with forty-four participants recruited from our survey respondents, we identified three explanatory themes which highlight specific aspects of UK journalism that contribute to this gap. First, there is significant scepticism about the motives behind news production, particularly when stories are perceived as biased or sensationalist. Second, historical transgressions by the tabloid press have led to on-going distrust among some audiences. Third, trust issues stem from both intuition and past experiences, with stronger notions of distrust linked to known instances of wrongdoing.
We argue that if we want to consider ways in which journalists and news organisations can act to improve the fundamental relationship between them and their audiences, there is a need to take audiences and their experiences seriously. We propose that to bridge the gap between the news media and the public, further audience research is needed to understand the differences between the roles that the news media perceives itself to fulfil and the perceptions of the public. The paper concludes by exploring audience suggestions for ways that news organisations and press regulators can play an important role in enhancing trust in journalism through greater visibility, transparency, efficacy, and public engagement; all of which could contribute to higher levels of news literacy among audiences and have the potential to foster positive connections.