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Recently has been much discussion and research on the credibility of the media and on trust or mistrust towards them, at the latest since the crises of 2015, in connection with a general disenchantment with politics and the state. In particular, right-wing populist and radical populations have insulted the established media as the “lying press” in order to articulate their rejection and contempt, indeed their hatred of society, the state and its institutions. In the Federal Republic, too, considerable research efforts were launched to work out, together with international research, the forms and motives, connections and causes of this hostility towards the media. Even special long-term studies were initiated alongside the existing ones to work out continuities, but also changes in these social movements and phenomena. However, critical replication shows that not even the central paradigms are clear and unambiguous and that the data collected for this purpose is quite broad and unspecific. Focusing on socio-demographic data, the agreements and discrepancies also turn out differently, since the diverse publics differ considerably, especially at the border between established and new or digital media and their use. Thus, in the end, the supposedly concrete paradigms turn out to be abstract currencies for the blanket legitimacy and performance capacities of the media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]