Identifying trust cues: How trust between science and publics is mediated in content about science

Most public audiences in Germany receive scientific information via a variety of media, with journalistic media being the most important source but non-journalistic online media gaining increasing importance. In these contexts, media act as intermediaries of trust in science by providing linguistic components that present reasons for public audiences to place trust in science. Focusing on these components, this study introduces the term “trust cues” to analyze content about science. To identify trust cues, an explorative qualitative content analysis was applied to a sample (n = 158) of German media content from journalistic as well as populist, social, and other (non-journalistic) online media. In total, n = 1,329 trust cues were coded. The findings emphasize the diversity of mediated trust, with trust cues being connected to established dimensions of trust in science: expertise, integrity, benevolence, transparency, and dialogue. This study identifies trust cues in content about science that address various aspects of these dimensions. With this, the study aims for a better understanding of the trust relationship between science and its publics. Examining this is crucial since trust in science is important for individual and collective informed decision-making, and to combat the many crises societies face