Do alternative media users distrust all mainstream news or only some? Assessing Danish left-wing and right-wing alternative media users’ trust in news at the outlet-specific level

Abstract In this article, I investigate Danish alternative media users’ trust in mainstream news at the outlet-specific level. Drawing on an online survey representative of the adult Danish population ( N = 1,518), the study distinguishes between users of left-wing and right-wing alternative media and reveals a remarkable difference: The former only have lower trust in (purportedly) right-leaning mainstream media whereas the latter have lower trust in mainstream media regardless of their ideological leanings, indicating more all-encompassing lower trust. While the users have relatively lower news trust than the rest of the population, their trust is still fairly high in absolute terms. I conclude with a discussion of potential explanations for the left/right difference and of the democratic implications of the findings in and beyond the Danish media context.