Media Use and Public Confidence in Democratic Institutions
Author(s)
Kahlor, Leeann; Moy, Patricia; Pfau, Michael
Abstract
The erosion of confidence in democratic institutions is a serious issue in public opinion. One factor identified as driving confidence levels down is the “antipolitics bias” of the media, a tone that has manifested itself, to varying degrees, across a number of media ranging from newspapers and television news to the “non-traditional” television and radio talk shows. The inference that media negativity undermines public confidence is based on content analyses, on surveys of media use alone, or on combinations of content analyses and surveys of media use which examine the influence of particular media on public confidence. In line with previous research, this study explores the relative influence of various communication media on public confidence levels, but it goes further by expanding the breadth of cross-medium comparisons.
