The image of trust. Readers’ view of the trustworthiness of news photographs

Puustinen, L., Seppänen, S. (2011). The image of trust. Readers’ view of the trustworthiness of news photographs . Zagreb conference: "New challenges and methodological innovations in European media audience research". 7-9 April 2011.

Abstract: Digital technology enables smooth and effortless processing of photographs. This has evoked a question on whether the audiences’ trust in news images is eroding. The Image of Trust study was conducted in the Finnish context to explore the readers’ trust in news images. In qualitative interviews thirty newspaper readers were shown images of both print and online newspapers. Ten images were selected representing all news sections (domestic, foreign, entertainment/culture and economics) from the largest Finnish and a couple of foreign newspapers. Drawing on Niklas Luhmann’s (1988) ideas, the study problematizes and expands the notion of trust which is usually treated as a binary yes/no question. With the aid of frame analysis the study elicits four dimensions of trust: 1) In general, in everyday life, people act based on a silent confidence. Therefore also the veracity of news and news images are often taken for granted. 2) In the frame of trust, the viewer, in a way, takes a conscious risk in that the news image is not representative of reality, but the viewer decides to trust it anyway. 3) Contextual trust is negotiation, the viewer compares different images, contexts or genres. The media context of the image has a great significance on the trustworthiness of the image. 4) Finally, doubt comes to the fore when the viewer openly questions the veracity of the image. The study shows that readers’ trust is a multidimensional process, yet the frame of confidence is the most common among the Finnish interviewees. The trust in the case of news images can be expanded to reflect audiences’ trust in media at large..