The influence of individual communication media on public confidence in democratic institutions

Abstract

This investigation examines the influence of seven communication modalities on public perceptions of confidence in four democratic institutions. The study reasoned that the media serve as a source of secondary socialization: that depictions of democratic institutions such as the office of the Presidency, Congress, news media, and public schools by individual communication modalities cultivate perceptions of those institutions in people who rely more on these modalities. To test this position, the study employed an extensive content analysis of the quantity and tone of all references by the seven communication modalities to the democratic institutions noted above in conjunction with a survey of the public's use of modalities and their confidence in specific institutions. The pattern of results revealed a persistent pattern of negativity on the part of network television news (toward the President and Congress), other television news (toward Congress and the news media), television entertainment talk shows (toward the President, Congress, and the public schools), and political talk radio (toward the President, news media, and public schools). The results also indicated that users of these communication modalities tend to perceive democratic institutions much as these sources depict them, but that sociodemographic variables, such as party identification and institutional expertise, exert far more influence than communication sources on people's perceptions of confidence in most democratic institutions. The implications of these findings for America's so‐called “crisis of confidence” in political institutions are explored.