Social work, trust, and the media – a study on news media influence on public trust towards the Swedish social services.

Background News media reports have been accredited by practitioners and academics as being, at least partly, responsible for distrust towards social workers and social services – undermining legitimacy. Through negative representations news media contribute to a skepticism within the public. However, even if it is a possibility that news media representations create distrust, it is yet to be empirically substantiated. The aim of the paper was to explore associations between patterns in news media use- and trust, and individuals trust in the Swedish social services. This paper draws on survey data (n= 1697). Latent profile analysis (LPA) was used to create empirically derived subgroups concerning use. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and linear regression were used to assess associations between news use- and trust and trust in the social services. Findings Via LPA classes with basis in level of use and preferred type of news medium was identified. No significant associations between classes and trust in the social services was found. However, trust in news media content was positively associated with trust in the social services. The association was statistically significant also when covariates previously shown to be of importance for trust was included in analysis. Applications The findings presented in the paper provide empirical insights concerning the role of news for public trust in the social services. On contrary to what has been assumed – news affects trust negatively­ – the findings suggest the opposite. For academics and practitioners alike, this enhances the understanding of news media’s role in public trust and legitimacy.