Moy, PatriciaPowers, MatthewDoll, Meagan Ellishia2024-09-092024-09-092024-09-092024Doll_washington_0250E_27036.pdfhttps://hdl.handle.net/1773/51857Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2024Trust in news is of persistent concern to newsrooms and research programs alike. However, seemingly less consensus exists around basic issues like how to define relevant terms and operationalize them across contexts. In response to these tensions, this mixed-method study explores situated understandings of media trust and their antecedents in a non-Western context, using Uganda as a case study. Uganda, like many countries around the world, has experienced democratic backsliding in recent years. Access to trustworthy information in such environments is vital, and journalism and journalists are often thought to fulfill this normative function. However, little is known about how individuals perceive journalists or evaluate the news beyond Euro-American contexts, with implications for how we measure and understand levels of media trust globally. Put simply, what are we measuring when we measure media trust in Uganda and how does this shape our understanding of media trust in this context and beyond? The first phase of the project draws on 28 in-depth interviews and explores respondents’ expectations of journalists and news organizations in Uganda. I find that although individuals aspire for media professionals to expose political corruption, serve the public, and even provide social support to communities, their expectations in practice are much different, including expectations that journalists except bribes and produce government-leaning content. Despite this seeming gap between desired and anticipated practices, respondents express generally positive perceptions of journalists, often contrasting their good will for journalists with frustration toward political elites and government agencies. I then surveyed a nationally representative sample of Ugandan adults to further examine how expectations relate to reported media trust, as well as to identify relevant covariates. The questionnaire asked participants about their media habits and perceptions related to journalists and politics in Uganda. Results from OLS regressions indicate that operationalized expectations from the first phase of the project predicted levels of media trust, though individuals’ trust in news media was also notably driven by their political perceptions, particularly trust in government and political interest. From the combination of qualitative and quantitative findings, I therefore advance an understanding of media trust that is relative in two ways: Individuals trust news professionals to achieve some practices over others and they generally trust journalists and news organizations relative to other social institutions, like politics. I conclude with a discussion of key findings, directions for future research, and recommendations for media practitioners.application/pdfen-USnoneexpectationsmedia trustmixed methodsnews consumptionpublic opinionMass communicationJournalismAfrican studiesCommunicationsThesis