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Media Trust and Polarisation: What Audiences Expect and What News Brands Deliver

What do audiences expect from the news brands they trust—and how does this compare with what those outlets actually publish?

In this seminar, we present findings from a collaboration between two research projects at the Digital Media Research Centre (QUT) and the News Media Research Centre (University of Canberra). Combining audience survey data (2022–2025) with a standardised content analysis of a systematic sample of 404 news articles from 22 Australian outlets (2023–2024), we investigate the relationship between media trust, political polarisation, and news coverage of climate change, energy policy, and related issues.

Taking a closer look at major Australian news brands, we examine the actors, positions, claims, and justifications presented in their reporting and develop comparative profiles that reveal how audience perceptions and expectations align—or diverge—from the content these outlets actually provide. We also look at how audiences through their trust and brand access can be seen to be drawn towards or away from certain news brands based on their perceptions of how they report on climate. Our findings suggest, various outlets appeal to different audiences through their representation of climate claims and justifications. Audiences in turn have complex and dynamic relationships of trust and brand access that diverge along political lines but not in simple left- right- terms.

By bringing these two perspectives together, we move beyond studying audiences and media content in isolation to offer new empirical insights into how trust and polarisation intersect in Australia's news media landscape.

Presenters

Katharina Esau is a Senior Lecturer in QUT’s School of Communication and a member of the Digital Media Research Centre. She is also an ARC DECRA Fellow, leading the project Democratic Resilience Online: Strengthening Public Opinion Formation Amid Digital Threats, which examines constructive public debate and opinion formation across digital platforms and contentious issues, including climate change and immigration. Her research expertise spans political communication, digital media and journalism, and democratic innovations.

Kieran McGuinness (they/them) is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with a generalist focus on mixed-method approaches to critical journalism studies, media industry policy research, and news audience research. Their recent research focuses on audience perceptions of political misinformation, gender and ethno-racial representation in news and news organisations, and public health communication of gambling risk and harm. They are co-author and lead data analyst for the N&MRC’s long running Digital News Report: Australia project, which reports on longitudinal news and media consumption across 47 countries.

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