Abstract
Content analyses have documented media negativity toward democratic institutions, and survey data have confirmed increasingly negative perceptions of these institutions. This study examines the impact of various media on confidence in democratic institutions — the Office of the Presidency, Congress, the criminal court system, the news media, the police, and the public school system. After accounting for the impact of respondent demographics, knowledge (expertise), and political partisanship, the results revealed limited influence of media use on perceptions of these institutions. Contrary to expectations, television news viewing predicted positively to perceptions of the news media and public schools, and newspaper reading was associated with favorable evaluations of the criminal court system and schools. Significant interaction effects were found for the news media and public schools, with listening to political talk radio eliciting lower levels of confidence among stronger Republican partisans. The only negative main effect found was that of non‐traditional news sources (television tabloids, television entertainment talk shows and television political talk shows) on perceptions of the police.
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