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Perceptions of Media Trust andCredibility Among Mormon CollegeStudentsGuy J. Golan a & Sherry Baker ba Syracuse Universityb Brigham Young UniversityPublished online: 29 Mar 2012.

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Journal of Media and Religion, 11:31–43, 2012

Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

ISSN: 1534-8423 print/1534-8415 online

DOI: 10.1080/15348423.2012.655112

Perceptions of Media Trust and CredibilityAmong Mormon College Students

Guy J. GolanSyracuse University

Sherry BakerBrigham Young University

Evaluation of media credibility and trust among Mormons is examined in this study. The re-

sults suggest low assessments of the credibility of the mainstream news media across several

dimensions. Participating Mormons viewed the news media as liberal and politically biased; they

did not agree that the news media were credible, trustworthy, got their facts straight or were

moral.

The ever-changing news media landscape offers individuals more information and news source

alternatives than ever before. Yet research identifies a steady decline in news media credi-

bility across platforms (Pew, 2010). Scholars of media credibility point to a highly complex

and multilayered construct that cannot be fully explained by any single variable (Kohring

& Matthes, 2007). This area of scholarship points to a variety of individual-level factors

that may be useful in explaining assessments of media credibility (Stempel, Hargrove, &

Bernt, 2000; Kiousis, 2001). Most recently, scholars explored the relationship between re-

ligion and assessments of media credibility. The growing importance of religious faith in

American politics (Jelen, 2000; Wald, 2003; Wilcox & Larson, 2006) makes this under-

investigated area of media scholarship (Buddenbaum & Stout, 1996) more significant than

ever.

The current study aims to advance scholarship of media credibility and religion by providing

one of the first empirical examinations of media credibility evaluations among highly religious

Mormons. Representing less than 2% of the American population (Pew, 2009), members of the

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), or Mormons, have emerged as an important

political constituency in American politics.

Correspondence should be sent to Guy J. Golan, S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse

University. E-mail: gjgolan@syr.edu

31

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32 GOLAN AND BAKER

LITERATURE REVIEW

Media Credibility

As noted by Kiousis (2001), media credibility research traditionally follows either the medium

or the source approach. Medium credibility research focuses on the medium through which

a message is delivered as a key predictor of audience evaluation. Research provides ample

evidence of differentiated media credibility evaluations across media, including television

(Major & Atwood, 1997; Ibelema & Powell, 2001; Bucy, 2003), newspapers (Gaziano &

McGrath, 1986; Cassidy, 2005), and new and online media (Johnson & Kaye, 2004; Rainie,

Fox, & Fallows, 2003; Choi, Watt, & Lynch, 2006).

The source credibility approach focuses on the actual source of the message. Hovland and

Weiss (1951–52) found that source credibility assessment was a key predictor of audience

acceptance of a message. Wheeless (1974) argued that people preferred to be exposed to

information from public figures they trusted while rejecting information from those they

mistrusted. Research indicates that source credibility evaluations range from such substantive

dimensions such as source expertise (Austin & Dong, 1994; Eastin, 2001; Sundar & Nass,

2001) to such superficial dimensions as the physical features and attractiveness of the source

(Joseph, 1982; Patzer, 1983; Lafferty & Goldsmith, 2004).

While each of these approaches is useful in the analysis of media credibility, neither can

fully account for the phenomenon. Researchers of media credibility consistently argue that

the media credibility construct is a complex and multidimensional concept (Berlo, Lemert, &

Mertz, 1969).

Gunther (1992) identified an alternative approach to the study of media credibility, shifting

away from the properties of the source and focusing on the properties of the audience. Eveland

and Shah (2003) argued that research on individual-level predictors of media credibility is

now emerging as a prominent subfield within media credibility scholarship. In addition to

such individual level variables as interpersonal communication (Chaffee, 1982; Kiousis, 2001),

media reliance (Wanta & Hu, 1994; Flanagin & Metzger, 2000), and consumption (Shaw, 1973;

Kiousis, 2001; Greer, 2003), scholars also point to a variety of demographic and psychographic

variables that may account for media credibility evaluations, including income (Stempel et al.,

2000), race (Beaudoin & Thorson, 2005), age (Burgoon, Burgoon, & Buller, 1986), political

ideology (Gunther, 1992; Hinich & Munger, 1994), religion (Golan & Day, 2010), and gender

(Ibelema & Powell, 2001).

Religion and Media Credibility

Researchers on media and religion often present the secularization hypothesis (Buddenbaum,

1986; Stout, 2004; Armfield & Holbert, 2003) as a construct useful in explaining the often-

guarded attitudes of people of faith towards the mainstream media. Generally speaking, the

secularization hypothesis predicts that religious people often view the mainstream media as

agents of secularization that may undermine religious commitment and values over time

(Maguire & Weatherby, 1998). As such, secularization was presented by some scholars as a

potential explanation for the problematic perceptions of mainstream media institutions among

people of faith (Thompson, 1995; Thompson & Sharma, 1998).

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MEDIA TRUST AND CREDIBILITY 33

Research indicates that highly religious people follow different strategies in protecting their

worldviews from those of the mainstream media, including selective exposure (McFarland &

Warren, 1992; Hamilton & Rubin, 1992), interpretive communities (Stout, 2004), and avoidance

(Brock & Balloun, 1967). Scholars have identified a significant relationship between one’s

level of religiosity and overall levels of media consumption across media, including television

(Hamilton & Rubin, 1992; Tankard & Harris, 1980), newspapers (Sobal & Jackson-Beeck,

1981; Stamm & Weis, 1986), and the Internet (Armfield & Holbert, 2003; Day, 2005), with

highly religious audiences favoring print over broadcast and new media.

Little is known about the relationship between religion and media credibility, a topic largely

underinvestigated by media scholars (Buddenbaum & Stout, 1996). A handful of empirical

studies examined this relationship across several religious denominations. These studies have

identified cross-directional relationships regarding religiosity and media credibility depending

on denomination and on the different dimensions of media credibility.

Ariyanto, Hornsey, and Gallois (2007) tested media credibility based on the source approach.

Their study of Christian and Muslim Indonesians identified perceived pro-Christian bias in

Christian identified newspapers and pro-Muslim bias in Muslim identified newspapers. The

authors argued that the perception of the out-group (Muslim/Christian) as biased towards the

in-group (Muslim/Christian) is key to understanding the nature of audience interpretation of

media bias. These research findings may be of particular significance to any study of highly

religious audiences and the media based on their social distance corollary.

Golan and Day (2010) examined the relationship between media credibility and religios-

ity based on the medium approach, comparing perceptions of television, newspaper, radio,

magazine, and Internet credibility. Their survey of a mostly Christian mixed denominational

sample identified multidirectional associations between individual levels of religiosity and five

dimensions of media credibility. For example, they found that religious guidance was negatively

associated with media credibility dimension of privacy invasion (regarding Internet news). On

the other hand, their results indicated that the role of religion in one’s life was negatively

associated with Internet news factuality.

Golan and Kiousis (2010) examined the relationship between personal religiosity and media

credibility among Arab male youth in Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Based on a combined source

and medium approach, the authors identified a significant relationship between religiosity and

media credibility for both domestic and international media. The direction of this relationship

was inconsistent with the authors’ prediction, as the results of the study indicated that the more

religious one was, the more likely one was to perceive the media as credible. The authors argued

that these findings may be explained by the traditional trust in institutions that is common in

Muslim religious societies.

Shim, Day, Golan, and Yang (2011) examined the relationship between religiosity and media

credibility in Pakistan. Their results indicated that religiosity was positively associated with

positive assessments of both traditional and new media.

As evident by studies of media credibility in the Muslim world, higher levels of religiosity

may result in positive rather than in negative assessments of media credibility. While the

secularization hypothesis may help explain concerns of highly religious people in the West, it

may not be as applicable in other regions of the world (see Elshtain, 2009).

As evidenced by the highlighted studies, previous research on media credibility and religion

is both limited and inconsistent in its findings. The current study aims to advance the under-

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34 GOLAN AND BAKER

standing of this relationship by providing the first empirical investigation of media credibility

among highly religious Mormon college students.

Mormon Attitudes Toward the Media

Mormons’ perceptions of media credibility must be considered within the context of related

sociological, historical, and contemporary factors. Dating back to the foundation of the LDS

Church in the 1830s, the relationship between U.S. society and the Mormons can be described

as historically contentious. This tension was reflected in the negative coverage of Mormonism

in mainstream and religious presses throughout the 19th and well into the 20th centuries

(Arrington & Haupt, 1968; Arrington & Bitton, 1992; Givens, 2001; Nelson, 1992; Shipps,

1998, 2000, 2001; Buddenbaum & Mason, 2000; Flake, 2004; Heath, 2008; Paulos, 2008;

Baker & Campbell, 2010).

By the mid-20th century, Mormon press coverage had become more positive, relating to

lifestyle issues such as their emphasis on education, hard work, family orientation, and health

habits (Baker & Campbell, 2010). However, this positive coverage began to be more conflicted

and negative toward the end of the 20th century due in part to the rise of the conserva-

tive Protestant, Christian fundamentalist-evangelical-Pentecostal coalition and its opposition

to Mormonism (Shipps, 2001). This opposition reached a pinnacle during the Mitt Romney

campaign in the presidential primary in 2007, in which anti-Mormon hostility was rampant in

print and broadcast (Medhurst, 2009; Baker & Campbell, 2010). More negative national press

came again in 2009–2010 relating to the Mormon Church’s opposition to California’s same-sex

marriage Proposition 8 issue (Campbell, 2010).

Beyond the historically negative coverage of their faith in the mainstream media, Mormons

may hold a negative view of the mainstream media based on secularization concerns. Like

other conservative religious groups, Mormons may view the mainstream media as an agent of

secularization whose values conflict with those of the Mormon tradition (Scott, 2003).

The current study provides one of the first quantitative investigations of Mormon assessment

of the mainstream news media, its credibility, and its depiction of Mormons. Based on the sec-

ularization hypothesis highlighting the strained relationship between Mormons and mainstream

American institutions and the press (Shipps, 2000), our study will predict the following:

H1: Survey participants will assess the mainstream news media as not credible.

H2: Mormons will view traditional print news media outlets as more trustworthy than

broadcast news outlets.

H3: Mormons will assess mainstream news media coverage of Mormons as negative.

In addition to religion, gender has been identified by previous scholars as a key predictor

of media credibility. Research on source credibility has found that news sources identified as

female are often rated less credible than male sources (White & Andsager, 1991; Flanagin &

Metzger, 2003; Armstrong & McAdams, 2009).

The current study investigates assessments of media credibility from an audience-based

perspective. According to findings from previous research, the gender of an audience member

can influence his or her assessment of media credibility. Johnson and Kaye (1998) examined

the relationship between gender and assessments of online media. The results of their study

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MEDIA TRUST AND CREDIBILITY 35

show that females rated online newspapers, online magazines, online candidate literature, and

online issue sources as more credible than males did.

Ibelema and Powell (2001) compared news media credibility of both local and national

media. The results of their analysis indicate that women rated local, national, and cable

television news as more credible than their male counterparts.

Eveland and Shah (2003) analyzed data from a large-scale mail survey. They measured

the impact of individual-based variables on assessments of media bias and found that gender

was the only demographic variable that was significantly associated with media bias. Their

results indicated that males were more likely to report media bias than females. Based on these

previous studies that identified significant associations between gender and media credibility,

the current study predicts that:

H4: Gender will be significantly associated with assessments of media credibility.

METHODS

This study was conducted during the summer 2010 semester at Brigham Young University

(BYU) in Provo, Utah. BYU is one of the largest religious and private universities in the

United States, with approximately 35,000 students. It is owned and operated by The Church

of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Princeton Review’s Annual College Ranking named

BYU “the most religious” among students from the nation’s top schools (Goldberg, 2011).

Using Brigham Young University’s Qualtrics (Qualtrics.com, 2011) online survey system,

an e-mail was sent to 1,200 actively enrolled BYU students requesting that they complete a

survey. The survey measured LDS Mormon student perceptions of the news media. The e-mail

addresses were generated randomly using a database program. The resulting random sample

of 266 participants was composed of 144 males and 122 females generating a response rate

of 22.1%. More than 80% of the survey participants were under the age of 25; all were 18

or older. More than 98% of the sample identified themselves as LDS Mormons. Based on

standard measures of religiosity that include church attendance, the importance of religion in

one’s life, and the amount of guidance that one receives from his or her religious faith (Guth

& Green, 1993), the current sample can be described as highly religious. In fact, 95% of the

survey participants reported attending church at least once a week, 93% indicated that their

religious faith is important or very important to them, and 94% indicated that they received

much guidance from their religious faith in their daily lives. While we did not measure our

sample’s political ideology, based on previous studies on BYU students (Baker, Randle, Carter,

& Lunt, 2007) we predict that the sample is conservative.

Participants’ perceptions of news media credibility were measured through a series of Likert

scale questions ranging from one to five, with the former indicating strong disagreement and

the latter indicating strong agreement. Agreement levels were measured regarding the overall

assessments of the mainstream news media as politically biased, standing up for America,

professional, moral, liberal, protecting democracy, get the facts straight, use reliable sources,

and credible. A median score of a three indicated a neutral position.

In addition to evaluations of the mainstream news media in general, our study examined

evaluations of specific news media outlets. A five-point Likert scale ranging from one, indicating

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36 GOLAN AND BAKER

strong distrust, to five, indicating strong trust, measured participants’ trust levels. The median

score of three indicated a neutral position. Participants were asked for their level of trust

regarding The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, Fox

News, MSNBC, Network television news, local television, local newspapers, and National

Public Radio.

In addition to level of trust, we asked participants for their evaluations of media valence in

regards to coverage of Mormons by the mainstream media. Participants were asked to evaluate

these measures using a five-point Likert scale ranging from a score of one, indicating very

negative coverage of Mormons, to a score of five, indicating very positive coverage. A score of

three indicated a neutral position. The survey asked for coverage evaluations regarding former

Mormon presidential candidate Mitt Romney, Mormon Fox News host Glenn Beck, the founder

of the Mormon faith Joseph Smith, early church leader Brigham Young, the Mormon faith in

general, and the state of Utah, the location of Mormon Church headquarters and of Brigham

Young University.

Finally, in order to assess differences in media credibility based on gender (as predicted

by H4), the current study ran one-way ANOVAs for each of the nine dimensions of media

credibility and for each news media source.

RESULTS

The results that are displayed in Table 1 indicate survey participants’ agreement levels with each

of the media credibility dimensions. Scores falling below a three indicate disagreement while

scores above a three indicate agreement. Our findings indicate that survey participants agree

that the mainstream news media are politically biased (4.21) and liberal (3.76). The results

also indicate that the survey participants disagree with the assessment of the mainstream news

media as moral (2.46), get the facts straight (2.52), trustworthy (2.61), credible (2.86), use

reliable sources (2.89), and protects democracy (2.89).

TABLE 1

Assessments of the Mainstream News Media

Statement Mean SD

Politically biased 4.21 .739

Are liberal 3.76 .795

Are professional 3.17 1.08

Stand up for America 2.98 1.11

Protect democracy 2.89 .932

Use reliable sources 2.89 .883

Are credible 2.86 .957

Are trustworthy 2.61 .967

Get the facts straight 2.52 .972

Are moral 2.46 .952

Note. Five-point scale (1 D Strongly Disagree to 5 D Strongly Agree).

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MEDIA TRUST AND CREDIBILITY 37

Hypothesis 1 predicted that survey participants will assess media credibility to be low across

the various dimensions. The results of our study offer support for this hypothesis.

The results of our survey indicate that survey participants trusted The Wall Street Journal

(3.59) the most, followed by local newspapers (3.44), local television (3.41), The New York

Times (3.36), National Public Radio (3.32), and The Washington Post (3.18). Participants

reported what appear to be neutral trust scores regarding network television news (3.02) and

cable television news such as CNN (3.02) and Fox News (2.98), while MSNBC (2.72) was

somewhat mistrusted.

In order to better understand the differences in means between the different media or-

ganizations, we ran paired sample t tests. The results as displayed in Table 2 indicate that

The Wall Street Journal was perceived to be the most trusted news organization by survey

participants. Significant differences in means between The Wall Street Journal and other

high mean organizations (i.e., local television and newspapers, The New York Times) set the

newspaper apart as the most trusted media organization.

The t tests also indicate that participants viewed local newspapers, local television, The New

York Times, National Public Radio and The Washington Post as somewhat trustworthy, with

mean scores ranging from 3.18 to 3.44. There were no significant mean differences between

these news organizations with the exception of NPR and The Washington Post that posted

nearly significant significance scores (.054).

Significant means differences were identified between the second group of news organiza-

tions and television cable news organizations. Highly significant differences were identified

among National Public Radio, network television news, CNN, and Fox News. Mean scores

hovering around a score close to three (indicating neutrality) and resulting in nonsignificant

mean difference scores indicate relatively neutral levels of trust in CNN, Fox News, and network

TABLE 2

Trust in Media Organizations (Paired Sample t test)

Organization T-value Df Sig

WSJ-local newspaper 2.19 261 .014*

WSJ-local TV 2.46 261 .029*

Local TV-local news .644 260 .520

WSJ-NYT 3.55 263 .000**

Local news-NYT .967 261 .335

NYT-WP 3.98 262 .000**

NYT-NPR .580 263 .563

WP-NPR �1.91 262 .054

NPR-CNN 3.61 262 .000**

NPR-network TV 3.77 264 .000**

NPR-Fox 3.19 263 .002*

CNN-Fox �.266 261 .790

CNN-network TV �.317 261 .751

Fox-network TV .367 262 .714

Fox-MSNBC 3.01 262 .003*

CNN-MSNBC 4.89 260 .000**

Note. *p < .05. **p < .001.

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38 GOLAN AND BAKER

television news. Participants ranked MSNBC as the least trustworthy news organization, and

its mean score significantly differed from those of CNN and Fox News.

Hypothesis 2 predicted that Mormons will view traditional print media as more trustworthy

than broadcast media. The results of our study indicate that survey participants ranked news-

papers to be more trustworthy than all broadcast cable news outlets. National Public Radio

and local television were generally ranked as trustworthy as the newspapers, thus presenting

partial support for our hypothesis.

One possible explanation for our findings regarding the relatively low trust in the news

media may have to do with participant perceptions of media coverage of Mormons and of the

Mormon faith. The results in Table 3 show that survey participants tend to evaluate coverage

of Mormons in the media as generally negative. The participants ranked coverage of church

founder Joseph Smith (2.12), Fox host Glenn Beck (2.20), and Brigham Young (2.34) as mostly

negative. Only slightly less negative were assessments of media coverage of the Mormon faith

(2.5), Mitt Romney (2.55), and the State of Utah (2.75).

In order to better interpret mean differences we ran a paired sample t-test. The results of the

t test indicate nonsignificant mean difference scores between Joseph Smith and Glenn Beck

(t D �1.164, p D .246) and highly significant mean differences between Glenn Beck and all

other categories with significance scores of less than .001. In other words, the mean scores for

the coverage of Glenn Beck and that of Joseph Smith significantly differed from that of all

others.

The t test results further indicate nonsignificant mean differences between coverage of Mitt

Romney and the Mormon religion (t D �.903, p D .367) but highly significant mean differences

among the Mormon religion, Mitt Romney, and the State of Utah indicating that the survey

participants perceived the coverage of the state as the least negative of all in the Mormon-related

group of questions.

Hypothesis 3 predicted that Mormons will assess the mainstream news media coverage

of Mormons as negative. The results of our study provide support for this hypothesis, as

participants ranked coverage of Mormons across dimensions to be mostly negative.

In order to assess the impact of gender on assessments of media credibility, a one-way

ANOVA test included the nine different media credibility statements (e.g., fair, moral, pro-

fessional). The results of the ANOVA test indicated that there were no significant gender

differences regarding those media credibility dimensions.

TABLE 3

Assessments of Media Coverage of Mormons

Topic Mean SD

Joseph Smith 2.12 .818

Glenn Beck 2.20 1.030

Brigham Young 2.34 .895

The Mormon Religion 2.50 .890

Mitt Romney 2.55 .903

The State of Utah 2.75 .773

Note. Five-point scale 1 D Very Negative to 5 D Very Positive.

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MEDIA TRUST AND CREDIBILITY 39

An additional one-way ANOVA tested the mean differences based on gender regarding the

specific news media outlets. The ANOVA results indicated that women rated The New York

Times (F(1, 259) D 7.97, p < .01), The Washington Post (F(1, 258) D 7.72, p < .01), CNN

(F(1, 258) D 6.93, p < .01), and MSNBC (F(1, 259) D 15.6, p < .001) more credible than did

the male survey participants. The ANOVA results indicated no significant differences based on

gender regarding the other news media outlets. The outlined results provide partial support for

hypothesis #4.

DISCUSSION

The results of our study point to low assessments of the credibility of the mainstream news

media across several dimensions. Our survey participants viewed the news media as liberal and

politically biased and did not agree with the idea that the news media were credible, trustworthy,

got their facts straight, or moral. Such distrust in the media is better understood when examined

through the source approach. Generally, our participants perceived all news sources to be less

than credible (none had a mean equal to or above a four, indicating media credibility). Our

findings show that Mormon BYU students in this sample ranked such traditional news sources

as The Wall Street Journal, local television and newspapers, The New York Times, National

Public Radio, and The Washington Post as more credible than all the cable television news

networks, that is, Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC. Our findings indicate that cable news sources

are perceived as the least credible of all news sources regardless of their political orientation.

Although our sample was composed of highly religious conservative participants, Fox News

ranked as less credible than such mainstream news media outlets as The New York Times,

National Public Radio, and The Washington Post that are often viewed by conservatives as

liberally oriented (Watts, Domke, Shah, & Fan, 1999). While counter-intuitive, this finding can

be understood in the context of Fox News’ close relationship with the evangelical movement

that has often been at times adversarial to Mormonism (Penning, 2009), for example, with such

figures as Fox News host and former Republican candidate Mike Huckabee who once asked

“If Mormons Believe Jesus, Devil Are Brothers” (Chafets, 2007).

Another key finding of our study relates to perceptions of media coverage of Mormons. Our

participants perceived the mainstream media’s coverage of Mormons to be negative whether

dealing with individuals such as Joseph Smith, Glenn Beck, Mitt Romney, and Brigham Young

or the Mormon faith and the State of Utah. These findings may have been prompted by recent

negative media coverage of Mormons during the Romney campaign in 2007 and the Proposition

8 controversy in 2009–2010. They also are in alignment with research that suggests that partisan

groups will perceive media bias regardless of content (Gunther, 1992; Perloff, 1989; Baum &

Gussin, 2008).

The results of the current study are most meaningful when integrated into the greater body of

research on the relationship between media credibility and religion. As noted, only a few studies

directly examined the relationship between religiosity and religious affiliation and individual

assessments of media credibility. Those few studies that did focus on this issue identified

significant relationships between the variables but found mixed evidence as to the direction

of the relationship (Ariyanto et al., 2007; Golan & Day, 2010; Golan & Kiousis, 2010). Our

survey of highly religious Mormons identified a lack of trust in the mainstream media and

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40 GOLAN AND BAKER

pointed to audience concerns over the media’s potential to mislead people from within and

outside the Mormon community. Future research should further investigate the relationship

between media credibility and religion across denomination and levels of religiosity.

Finally, the results of the study indicate that gender was significantly associated with

assessments of news media credibility (regarding particular news outlets). Consistent with

previous scholarship on gender and media credibility (Johnson & Kaye, 1998), the results

of our study indicate that women reported higher media credibility scores than male survey

participants. While our research cannot account for these gender differences, they add one more

empirical account of a wider phenomenon regarding gender and media credibility. Future studies

may further explore the relationship between gender and media credibility using qualitative

research methodologies.

Limitations and Future Research

Our study provides one of the first audience-based empirical measures of Mormon perceptions

of the mainstream news media. Our sample was limited to college-aged students from BYU.

Such a cross-sectional survey does not represent or reflect media perceptions among the general

Mormon community. Future studies might build upon our research findings by surveying a

nationwide sample of Mormons across all adult age groups.

Another key limitation of our study was the lack of information regarding our sample’s news

consumption habits. As argued, media consumption is a key predictor of media credibility. Pew

(2011) report shifting news consumption trends among the adult population of the United States

from traditional to online sources. Future studies should include online news sources and online

news consumption variables in research on media credibility.

Finally, we argue that while quantitative measures are useful in identifying general patterns,

they often fail to provide an explanation of why the results were as such. In order to better

understand why Mormons may mistrust the mainstream media, we recommend a triangulated

approach that integrates survey research with qualitative techniques such as focus groups and

in-depth interviews.

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