La confianza en los actores institucionales en 22 países. Análisis de la confianza en la política, la ciencia y los medios de comunicación en el mundo

Homero Gil de Zúñiga; Alberto Ardèvol-Abreu; Trevor Diehl; María Gómez Patiño; James H.  Liu

doi:10.4185/RLCS-2019-1329

Authors

Homero Gil de Zúñiga University of Viena https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4187-3604
Alberto Ardèvol-Abreu University of La Laguna https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8722-5226
Trevor Diehl Central Michigan Univesity https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5424-3241
María Gómez Patiño University of Zaragoza https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5104-8918
James H. Liu Massey University https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9520-5727

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4185/RLCS-2019-1329

Keywords:

cross-cultural, political trust, trust in the media, trust in science, social trust, trust in institutional actors

Abstract

Social trust has long attracted the interest of researchers across different disciplines. Most of previous studies rely on single-country data and consider only one dimension of social trust at a time (e.g., trust in science, the media or political institutions). This research extends a framework developed by the Global Trust Inventory (GTI) by discussing several dimensions of social trust, while simultaneously analyzing how trust in institutions varies across societies. Drawing on an online panel survey collected in 22 countries (N = 22,033), we examine cross-country differences in social trust—including government trust, trust in governing bodies, security, and knowledge producers. Additionally, this paper fills a gap in current literature by including a measure of trust in the media. Findings are discussed in the context of comparing emerging and developed countries based on the Human Development Index

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Author Biographies

Homero Gil de Zúñiga, University of Viena

Homero Gil de Zúñiga (Madrid, 1975), Doctor in Politics from the European University of Madrid and Doctor in Mass Communication from the University of Wisconsin - Madison, is the current Medienwandel Professor at the University of Vienna, where he directs the Media Innovation Lab (MiLab) within the Faculty of Social Sciences.

He also acts as a Research Fellow at the Faculty of Communication and Letters of the Diego Portales University of Chile. He also recently served as a Research Fellow at the Center for Information Technology Policy at Princeton University, and was a Senior Lecturer at the University of Texas - Austin. Previously, he participated in the summer doctoral program of the National Communication Association and the University of Oxford programs, and was named a Research Fellow in the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard University.

His research revolves around the influence of new technologies and digital media on people's daily lives, as well as the effect of their uses on the democratic process in general. He has published a dozen books or volumes and more than 200 articles in double-blind peer-reviewed scientific journals, book chapters and professional conferences such as Communication Research, Journal of Communication, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, New Media & Society, etc. He has won scholarships and research awards worth more than $ 4 million.

Alberto Ardèvol-Abreu, University of La Laguna

Alberto Ardèvol Abreu is a 'Research Associate' at the Media Innovation Lab (MiLab) of the University of Vienna. He also has a degree in Journalism and a doctorate in Information Sciences from the University of La Laguna, where he obtained both the Extraordinary End of Degree Award (2006) and the Extraordinary Doctorate Award (2014). During his doctoral studies, he carried out research stays at the 'School of Journalism' at the University of Texas at Austin (United States) under the supervision of Professor Emeritus Maxwell McCombs, thanks to which he obtained the International Mention in his PhD degree. After completing his doctoral studies, and after doing research stays at the Autonomous University of Nuevo León (Mexico), he did a post-doctorate at the Department of Communication of the University of Vienna with Professor Homero Gil de Zúñiga. Professor Ardèvol is accredited by ANECA for the figures of Head of University and Professor of Private University.

During the last seven academic years, Alberto Ardèvol has worked as a professor and researcher at the universities of La Laguna (ULL) and Vienna. At the ULL, Professor Ardèvol has taught in the Degree in Journalism, in the subjects of "Cyberjournalism" (journalism for the Internet), "Analysis of messages in audiovisual journalism", and "Technology in audiovisual communication". As a doctoral assistant (Universitätsassistent - Postdoc) of the Department of Communication at the University of Vienna, he has taught classes on "Communication Theories", "Communication Research Methods and Techniques" and "Health Communication Research". He has also directed two doctoral theses, which were defended at the universities of La Laguna and Miguel Hernández de Elche.

Trevor Diehl, Central Michigan Univesity

Trevor Diehl is an Assistant Professor at BCA specializing in emerging technologies and political behavior. His research interests include the role of social media in politics, multi-platform news consumption, and comparative media studies. His current work employs automated content analysis to examine engagement with the news on social media. A second topic in this area looks at the success of the populist radical right in Europe and the US. Trevor teaches courses in online content production and communication research methods.

Before coming to BCA, Trevor was a researcher at the Media Innovation Lab at the University of Vienna in Austria, where he completed his PhD. He studied civic participation in the state of Texas at the Annette Strauss Institute for Civic Life while earning an M.A. from UT Austin's School of Journalism. Before life in academia, Trevor worked as a copywriter, a production assistant, and a German automotive technician.

María Gómez Patiño, University of Zaragoza

María Gómez y Patiño studied Journalism at the University of the Basque Country, where she did her first journalistic work in the press, to later move to Madrid, where she continued to carry out Information and Communication tasks. She received a doctorate in Information Sciences from the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM). For more than 10 years she taught in Madrid in the Faculties of Information Sciences, in the degrees of Journalism, Advertising and Audiovisual. She is currently a professor of the Degree in Journalism at the University of Zaragoza, where she is also a member of the Research Group on Information and Digital Communication (GICID).

She has published several books, book chapters, and various magazine articles. She has won several awards, including the National Prize for Essay on Women and Peace (2002). Her last recognition was in 2010 for the best essay in Social Sciences: "Fermín Caballero". She translated the last book by Irving Crespi (Past - WAPOR President) (2000): The Public Opinion Process (from English to Spanish) and has given conferences on all continents. Her latest published book: “The escapists of reality. The intangibles of tourism ”(2012). She is currently working on two new titles that will soon be released. She collaborates in Aragonese media such as Aragón Radio, El Periódico de Aragón and the gastronomic magazine Gastro. She is a member of the Association of Journalists of Aragon, of the Federation of Associations of Journalists of Spain and of other professional associations such as DIRCOM, ACOP and AAS.

James H. Liu, Massey University

Prof James H Liu describes himself as a "Chinese-American-New Zealander", who was born in Taiwan, grew up in the United States, and lives as a naturalised citizen in New Zealand. His research interests centre around culture and intergroup relations. He received a PhD in social psychology from UCLA in 1992 and has been teaching at Victoria University since 1994.

James is author of more than 100 journal articles, chapters, and books and is Professor of Psychology. His research specialization is on social representations of history, and how they provide resources and constraints for identity and intergroup relations.

James has examined the relationship between identity and history in NZ bicultural, Chinese and international contexts.

His research productivity (averaging 10+ refereed publications per year, including 7 journal articles) thrives on a dense network of collaboration that spans 5 continents. These collaborations are anchored by a central position in the Asian Association of Social Psychology, where he has been an executive committee member since inception, serving as treasurer, secretary-general, editor in chief of its journal and now President. In his research specialty of inter-group relations and social identity, he has mobilized collaborators in 40 societies to contribute survey data on representations of world history, putting him among the rare group of cross-cultural psychologists with the ability to develop truly global measures of world culture.

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