Original scientific paper

Adolescents and the Media: Trust with Reservations?

Krunoslav Novak orcid.org/0000-0002-0290-1561 ; atholic University of Croatia, Zagreb, Croatia

Abstract

With constant technological development an increasing number of pieces of information is available to the contemporary human being. The contents of these pieces of information represent different attitudes, which arise from different value frameworks and frequently challenge each other. In the interpretation of media messages, the receiver is not necessarily left to himself. This was also confirmed in the studies in the 1940ies, which noticed Two Step Flow of Communication, where opinion leaders were identified as mediators between the message contents and receivers and who were considered trustworthy in the interpretation of the message. We are interested in what way adolescents, who are in the period of life when they re-examine their attitudes and beliefs, receive media messages that can be mutually contradictory. We present the results of the research conducted in 2010 in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Varaždin. The research was conducted on the influence of means of communication on religious identity of adolescents, and focuses, among other topics, on the trust of high school students in media contents. Research results show that most respondents claim they will not adopt media contents that disagree with their existing attitudes and beliefs without verifying them first. According to the respondents’ answers they will speak to persons from their physical environment in order to verify received information. Moreover, they will use the media to verify these pieces of information. Therein, the internet is of the utmost importance as the source of contents and issues which they do not dare to ask in interpersonal communication.

Keywords

adolescents and the media; Two Step Flow of Communication; trust in the media; interpersonal communication and new media

Hrčak ID:

181570

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/181570

Publication date:

15.5.2017.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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