Media Trust and the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Analysis of Short-Term Trust Changes, Their Ideological Drivers and Consequences in Switzerland.

We analyze short-term media trust changes during the COVID-19 pandemic, their ideological drivers and consequences based on panel data in German-speaking Switzerland. We thereby differentiate trust in political information from different types of traditional and non-traditional media. COVID-19 serves as a natural experiment, in which citizens' media trust at the outbreak of the crisis is compared with the same variables after the severe lockdown measures were lifted. Our data reveal that (1) media trust is consequential as it is associated with people's willingness to follow Covid-19 regulations; (2) media trust changes during the pandemic, with trust levels for most media decreasing, with the exception of public service broadcasting; (3) trust losses are hardly connected to ideological divides in Switzerland. Our findings highlight that public service broadcasting plays an exceptional role in the fight against a pandemic and that contrary to the US, no partisan trust divide occurs.

Stakeholders' rationales for representing uncertainties of biotechnological research.

Although various stakeholders are involved in public communication about science and technology, research so far has focused on scientists, journalists, and the public. Based on representative telephone surveys of the spokespersons of 55 German companies, 31 government agencies, 43 public interest groups, as well as 105 scientists, we investigated actors' intentions to point out the scientific uncertainty of biotechnological research in their public communications. The different groups of actors' intentions to mention uncertain aspects of biotechnological research in public are guided by different rationales. Scientists and company representatives' intentions to point out uncertainty are strengthened by their hope to promote biotechnological research and weakened by their fear to increase public criticism. Public interest groups' intentions are strengthened by their hope to increase public criticism and are weakened by their fear to promote biotechnological research. Representatives of government agencies are predominantly influenced by their will to do justice to their organizations' interests.

Measuring the perceived uncertainty of scientific evidence and its relationship to engagement with science.

Many scholars have argued for the need to communicate openly not only scientific successes to the public but also limitations, such as the tentativeness of research findings, in order to enhance public trust and engagement. Yet, it has not been quantitatively assessed how the perception of scientific uncertainties relates to engagement with science on an individual level. In this article, we report the development and testing of a new questionnaire in English and German measuring the perceived uncertainty of scientific evidence. Results indicate that the scale is reliable and valid in both language versions and that its two subscales are differentially related to measures of engagement: Science-friendly attitudes were positively related only to 'subjectively' perceived uncertainty, whereas interest in science as well as behavioural engagement actions and intentions were largely uncorrelated. We conclude that perceiving scientific knowledge to be uncertain is only weakly, but positively related to engagement with science.

The Perceived Leadership Communication Questionnaire (PLCQ): Development and Validation.

The Perceived Leadership Communication Questionnaire (PLCQ) is a short, reliable, and valid instrument for measuring leadership communication from both perspectives of the leader and the follower. Drawing on a communication-based approach to leadership and following a theoretical framework of interpersonal communication processes in organizations, this article describes the development and validation of a one-dimensional 6-item scale in four studies (total N = 604). Results from Study 1 and 2 provide evidence for the internal consistency and factorial validity of the PLCQ's self-rating version (PLCQ-SR)-a version for measuring how leaders perceive their own communication with their followers. Results from Study 3 and 4 show internal consistency, construct validity, and criterion validity of the PLCQ's other-rating version (PLCQ-OR)-a version for measuring how followers perceive the communication of their leaders. Cronbach's α had an average of.80 over the four studies. All confirmatory factor analyses yielded good to excellent model fit indices. Convergent validity was established by average positive correlations of.69 with subdimensions of transformational leadership and leader-member exchange scales. Furthermore, nonsignificant correlations with socially desirable responding indicated discriminant validity. Last, criterion validity was supported by a moderately positive correlation with job satisfaction (r =.31).