Developing and Validating a Multidimensional Scale for Digital News Trust: A Cognitive, Emotional, and Future-Oriented Approach

الملخص

As audiences move through an information environment that is governed by algorithms, can be accessed via multiple news sources, and is a space in which users constantly interact with information, this is an area of trust in digital news that has grown in significance. In an algorithmically-driven information environment, accessed through multiple news sources, and a space in which users constantly interact with information, this is an area of trust in digital news that has grown in significance. Although there are emerging studies on digital news trust, the current empirical tools for measuring trust have tended to emphasize cognitive assessments of credibility, and have given less consideration to emotional and future trust. Consequently, existing indicators offer only a partial picture of the formation of audiences' trust in digital news. To fill this void, this study designs and tests the Multidimensional Digital News Trust Scale (MDNTS), a single scale that combines the three types of trust, namely, the Cognitive Trust, Emotional Trust, and Future-Oriented Trust. The survey used a quantitative cross-sectional methodology, with 384 digital news users. The instrument was systematically developed, involving the identification of the instrument, the generation of items, the content validation by experts, and the empirical validation. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was used for data analysis, which was employed to check the psychometric properties of the adopted scale. The results show that the psychometrics of the MDNTS are excellent, with good reliability of indicators, internal consistency of the instrument, convergent validity, discriminant validity, and quality of the model. After investigation of the measurement model, an indicator with a low outer loading was deleted and a 15-item measurement model was obtained. The findings also confirm that Cognitive Trust, Emotional Trust and the newly operationalized Future-oriented Trust are three different but complementary facets of digital news trust. This study contributes to the previous research by developing and testing a multi-dimensional scale of digital news trust. The proposed MDNTS will serve as a valid tool for future research and will give media organizations a tangible way of assessing and enhancing audience trust in digital media environments.