IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jpubli/v9y2021i1p7-d500217.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Trust in Public Relations in the Age of Mistrusted Media: A European Perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Ángeles Moreno

    (Group of Advanced Studies in Communication, Department of Communication and Sociology, Faculty of Communication, University Rey Juan Carlos, 28943 Fuenlabrada, Spain)

  • Ralph Tench

    (Department of Communication, Leeds Business School, Leeds Beckett University, Leeds LS1 3HB, UK)

  • Piet Verhoeven

    (Department of Corporate Communication, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, University of Amsterdam, 1012 WX Amsterdam, The Netherlands)

Abstract

One of the core problems of misinformation and post-trust societies is, indeed, trust in communications. The undermining of the credibility of media as the backbone of democratic societies is becoming a serious problem that affects democracy, business and all kinds of public institutions and organizations in society(ies). This paper explores perceptions of trust in key stakeholders involved in communication on behalf of organizations. Findings are considered at the professional (macro), departmental (meso) and individual (micro) level as well as considering the trusted role of non-specialist communicators for organizations including internal and external spokespeople. Data were collected from an online survey of 2883 respondents from 46 countries across Europe. Key findings were at the macro level that: antagonism between management communication professionals and journalists remains. The lowest trust in the profession is felt to be by the general public. At the meso level, top executives are perceived to trust the department the most followed by journalists in second place. External experts such as professors and consultants are perceived to be the most trusted by the general public. Finally, at the micro level individuals are more trusted than organizations or departments and the communication profession more widely.

Suggested Citation

  • Ángeles Moreno & Ralph Tench & Piet Verhoeven, 2021. "Trust in Public Relations in the Age of Mistrusted Media: A European Perspective," Publications, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-20, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jpubli:v:9:y:2021:i:1:p:7-:d:500217
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2304-6775/9/1/7/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2304-6775/9/1/7/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Christiana Weber & Kathrin Weidner & Arne Kroeger & James Wallace, 2017. "Social Value Creation in Inter-Organizational Collaborations in the Not-for-Profit Sector – Give and Take from a Dyadic Perspective," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(6), pages 929-956, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mikhail Kosmynin & Elisabet Carine Ljunggren, 2023. "Tales of the Unexpected: The Repair Work of an Entrepreneurial Resourcing Practice and the Role of Emotions," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 47(6), pages 2347-2383, November.
    2. Yuan, Yang & Feng, Bo & Lai, Fujun & Collins, Brian J., 2018. "The role of trust, commitment, and learning orientation on logistic service effectiveness," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 37-50.
    3. Christiana Weber & Helen Haugh & Markus Göbel & Hannes Leonardy, 2022. "Pathways to Lasting Cross-Sector Social Collaboration: A Configurational Study," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 177(3), pages 613-639, May.
    4. Tom Latten & Daan Westra & Federica Angeli & Aggie Paulus & Marleen Struss & Dirk Ruwaard, 2018. "Pharmaceutical companies and healthcare providers: Going beyond the gift – An explorative review," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(2), pages 1-15, February.
    5. Danielak Wiesław, 2021. "The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the activities of small enterprises on the example of business customers of a manufacturing company," Management, Sciendo, vol. 25(1), pages 155-171, January.
    6. Juelin Yin & Dima Jamali, 2021. "Collide or Collaborate: The Interplay of Competing Logics and Institutional Work in Cross-Sector Social Partnerships," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 169(4), pages 673-694, April.
    7. Antolín-López, Raquel & Jerez-Gómez, Pilar & Rengel-Rojas, Susana B., 2022. "Uncovering local communities’ motivational factors to partner with a nonprofit for social impact: A mixed-methods approach," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 564-583.
    8. Ishrat Ali & Griffin W. Cottle, 2021. "Reconceptualizing Entrepreneurial Performance: The Creation and Destruction of Value from a Stakeholder Capabilities Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 170(4), pages 781-796, May.
    9. Best, Bernadette & Miller, Kristel & McAdam, Rodney & Maalaoui, Adnane, 2022. "Business model innovation within SPOs: Exploring the antecedents and mechanisms facilitating multi-level value co-creation within a value-network," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 475-494.
    10. Noemi Sinkovics & Jihye Kim & Rudolf R. Sinkovics, 2022. "Business-Civil Society Collaborations in South Korea: A Multi-Stage Pattern Matching Study," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 62(4), pages 471-516, August.
    11. Ostertag, Felix & Hahn, Rüdiger & Ince, Inan, 2021. "Blended value co-creation: A qualitative investigation of relationship designs of social enterprises," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 428-445.
    12. María Jesús Barroso-Méndez & Clementina Galera-Casquet & Víctor Valero-Amaro & María Teresa Nevado-Gil, 2019. "Antecedents of Relationship Learning in Business-Non-Profit Organization Collaboration Agreements," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-19, December.
    13. Ethiopia L. Segaro & Kajsa Haag, 2022. "Good Intentions Gone Awry: Government Intervention and Multistakeholder Engagement in a Frontier Market," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 180(4), pages 1019-1040, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jpubli:v:9:y:2021:i:1:p:7-:d:500217. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.