| Contemporary political discourse is rife with accusations of shadowy forces operating in secret to accomplish nefarious goals. Such discourse has been a mainstay in U.S. politics, but little quantitative research has been done on the impact of government-related conspiracy theories in media and how people differ in their use of such fare. This dissertation situates conspiracy theories in a media effects framework, applying uses and gratifications theory to examine whether specific background characteristics (i.e., media skepticism, need for cognition, locus of control, and conservatism or liberalism) work in concert with individuals' motives for and exposure to government-conspiracy-theory-oriented media fare to impact individuals' trust in government as an attitudinal outcome and political participation as a behavioral outcome. Exploratory factor analysis was used to identify four motives for choosing media fare related to government conspiracy theories: (1) social utility/relaxing recreation, (2) political evaluation, (3) pass time, and (4) general information seeking. Significant correlations were found between several background characteristics and use of government-conspiracy-theory-oriented media fare. Use of such fare also correlated with trust in federal government entities and with political participation. Additionally, hierarchical regression analysis revealed the relative contribution of individual differences, motives for conspiracy-theory-oriented media use, and exposure to such fare in predicting levels of trust in four entities of the federal government. Regression analysis also showed the relative contribution of individual differences, motives for conspiracy-theory-oriented media use, exposure to conspiracy-theory-oriented media fare, and trust in government in predicting four forms of political participation. This study affirmed the value of a comprehensive uses and gratifications model for studying the political impact of government conspiracy theories in media. |
