Media Culture and Media Trust: an Empirical Research in Bulgaria

D. P. Petkova

doi:10.24224/2227-1295-2026-15-4-260-275

Media Culture and Media Trust: an Empirical Research in Bulgaria

D. P. Petkova

https://doi.org/10.24224/2227-1295-2026-15-4-260-275

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Abstract

Media culture is a complex phenomenon that includes values, ideologies and worldviews, specificities of the audiences and trust as a basic principle of public and mass communication. The paper presents the results of an empirical study conducted in Bulgaria where 1000 informants have been interviewed by means of an online questionnaire with closed and semi-closed questions using the Likert scale in the designed answers. From the received data there are evidences about significant transformations of the attitudes to the media, especially among the younger generations. One such shift is related to the preference of online news media and social media for the sake of the traditional media. However, the discrepancies in the provided answers to the questionnaire show that there is a huge crisis of media trust among the informants. Moreover, the results prove that some of the respondents can easily be susceptible to disinformation. This means that there is a high necessity of raising the awareness in the digital environment.

Keywords

media culture, attitudes, media trust, media literacy, Bulgarian media

About the Author

D. P. Petkova

Sofia University“St. Kliment Ohridski”
Bulgaria

Diana P. Petkova – PhD, Professor, Faculty of Journalism and Mass Communication

Sofia

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Review

For citations:

Petkova D.P. Media Culture and Media Trust: an Empirical Research in Bulgaria. Nauchnyi dialog. 2026;15(4):260-275. https://doi.org/10.24224/2227-1295-2026-15-4-260-275

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