Media trust among university students during the COVID-19 pandemic in Ukraine

The worldwide pandemic exacerbated the new role of the media. If previously the discussion was on whether new or traditional media had primacy in popularity and exposure, nowadays the question is whether communicating health issues through social and traditional media leads to understanding their content better and to more trust in both types of media. We surveyed university students to examine the attitude towards information on coronavirus presented in the media. Results showed that although students generally prefer to use Internet news, trust in traditional media increased during the pandemic. We examined a general psychological portrait of young people derived from trust in the media. In the group of students who trust media information, we found indifference (39% of respondents) and helplessness (24.4%). In the group convinced that the media are hiding the actual state of affairs, anger prevailed (32.4%). The third group, confident that the media exaggerate everything, experienced indifference and anger (38.5% and 32.7%, respectively). We may conclude that desire to learn more accurate and unbiased information first hand indicates students' attitude towards traditional media as more reliable sources of information in Ukraine.