TRUST AND ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORKS. DEFINITION OF THE TERM TRUST IN TRADITIONAL AND NEW MEDIA

Namen naloge je ugotoviti, ali zaupanje v novih medijih lahko obravnavamo na enak način, kot ga obravnavajo dosedanji viri, in ali so se zaradi sprememb na področju komunikacije spremenili temelji proučevanja zaupanja. V teoretičnem delu naloge smo tako predstavili teorijo in nekatere empirične raziskave na področju zaupanja in zaupanja v medije, vključno s spletnimi družbenimi omrežji (SDO), ki so v središču našega zanimanja. V empiričnem delu naloge smo z anketo preverjali, kakšen odnos imajo uporabniki do medijskih vsebin in kako uporabljajo SDO ter iz tega sklepali o zaupanju v medije, vključno s SDO. V zaključku ugotavljamo, da zaupanje v medije, pričakovano, raste z njihovo uporabo ter da, nepričakovano, nismo zasledili teoretičnih nastavkov, ki bi koncept zaupanja prilagodili spremembam na področju medijev.The aim of the present thesis was to establish whether trust and confidence in new media can be examined in the same manner as in existing literature. In the theoretical part of the thesis, important empirical findings related to trust in general and trust in the mass media are briefly discussed, including online social networking services representing the primary focus of this thesis. The empirical part summarizes survey results on the users’ attitude towards media content and their use of social networking services. On the basis of these findings, it could be established how much trust and confidence people have in the mass media, including social networks. As expected, it was concluded that trust increases with use. However, contrary to expectations, none of the theoretical approaches focused on adapting the concept of trust to advancements in the field of mass media