Trust in Media Technology

Modern media technologies are increasingly discussed in light of their risks: a potential benefit comes with potential damage. The concept of trust in technology explains why users tolerate these risks in the process of technology adoption. However, this emerging field of research is mainly dedicated to the study of trust in the organizational context—it lacks a comprehensive elaboration of the concept in the context of private media use. This chapter addresses this gap by critically evaluating existing approaches to trust in technology and the associated state of research in order to develop a model of trust in media technology. This model takes particular account of the boundary conditions of private media use from a communication studies perspective. Finally, this chapter outlines considerations for the empirical testing of the model, and implications for future research on trust in the context of private media use.