Investigating the relationship between knowledge of the media industry and media trust in a government-owned and government-controlled media system

Abstract

We examined the influence of news media literacy, focusing on knowledge of the media industry, on media trust in Vietnam—a distinctive media environment subject to governmental control and ownership. Results from 307 survey responses ( N = 307) indicated that knowledge of media categorizations negatively predicted multiple dimensions of media trust. In addition, online newspapers, the only media category that can legally produce “hard” news in Vietnam, acquired the highest public trust among media categories. Theoretically, we contributed to the literature on news media literacy in the era of globally declining media trust, specifically yielding insights into news media literacy and media trust in a non-Western setting with a unique media system controlled and owned by its government. Practically, our results suggested that Vietnam needs widespread media literacy education and enhancement programs to foster citizens’ media literacy, particularly knowledge of the media industry. News media organizations and journalists, on the contrary, may employ various strategies to build trust among their audience, including being transparent about their categorization and governing body, harnessing social media platforms, and devising sections to promote media literacy in the media. We argue that our approach and findings can be applied to study the media in authoritarian contexts or countries where the media are strictly governed. Implications, limitations, and suggestions for future research were further discussed.