GOOD NEWS AND BAD NEWS:
The Differential Effects of Media Consumption
on National and State-level Political Trust
Stacy G. Ulbig and Johanna Dunaway
Department of Political Science
Sam Houston State University
SHSU Box 2149
Huntsville, TX 77340
936-294-1468; 936-294-4721
## email not listed ##; ## email not listed ##
Abstract
Research has long established that the public tends to view national political officials in lower regard than
sub-national political officials, such as state legislatures and local governments. Even more research
focuses on the myriad ways that media consumption affects political attitudes, with mixed findings on
whether media consumption tends to enhance or diminish trust in government. While much work has
been done with regard to media effects on general political attitudes, less is known about how media
consumption might affect attitudes toward national and sub-national political actors differently.
We will investigate the role that media consumption plays in shaping feelings of political trust about both
state and national political actors. Using an original public opinion survey data of citizens in three states,
we will explore the ways that individual-level media consumption habits drive assessments of trust in
government.
We find that
news coverage has differential effects on trust in national and state
government
. N
ews consumption appears to have no appreciable effect on tru
st in the national
government, but
does affect trust in state government; with highly knowledgeable heavy news
consumers being substantially more trusting of their state g
overnments.
Prepared for presentation at the annual meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, April 3-6,
2008, Chicago, IL.
Page 1 of 28 
Convention