Media Use And Trust In Government:Empirical Evidence Based On 2379 Samples

Trust in government is closely related to social stability and the modernization process of China's governance system and capacity for governance.Media,as a key variable affecting trust in government,has not been paid enough attention from academia.In this context,this study analyzed the relationship between media use and trust in government,based on the database of "2017 Chinese netizens' social awareness survey" hosted by professor Ma of Renmin University of China.Starting from the perspective of information sources and content preferences,this article tried to use the method of quantitative research to test whether different information sources and content preferences will affect trust in different levels of government and explore in depth the direction and extent of these effects.The study found that different information sources and content preferences have different effects on trust in different levels of government.First,official information channels and unofficial information channels have different effects on trust in government.Specifically,the increase in the usages of official information channels has a positive correlation with the trust in government at different levels;while the usages of unofficial information channels will dispel the level of trust in government at all levels.Secondly,political preference and entertainment preference have different effects on trust in government.Unlike expectations,the relationship between political preference and trust in government at all levels has not been statistically verified,while entertainment preference is positively related to trust in government at all levels.In the end,it is the peculiar political phenomenon that public trust in government show a pattern of hierarchical government trust.It was found that the influence of different information sources on different levels of government show a similar pattern.Comparing to provincial government and township government,official information channels and unofficial information channels have the greatest impact on trust in central governmentBased on these findings above,this article propose following recommendations First,the official media should promote the openness and transparency of information,use mainstream values to guide the public,enhance the right of the official media to speak,and exert positive effects in the process of political information dissemination by its practical actions.The second is to give full play to the government's regulatory role and reduce the possibility of declining in government trust due to rumors.