Young Voters' Trust of Information and Media Sources: The 2008 U.S. Presidential Election

Abstract

The primary objective of this research study was to explore young voters’ (i.e., those 18 to 34 years of age) trust of information media sources within the context of the 2008 U.S. presidential election. In particular, we wished to examine the following trust-specific relationships: (1) young voters’ preexisting or inherent trust of political officeholders and candidates; (2) young voters’ trust of online social media networks as a source of information that may influence a young voters’ decision as to whom to vote for; (3) a comparison of young voters’ inherent trust of political officeholders and candidates, and their trust of social media participation as a source of information with respect to whom to vote for (i.e., a comparison of points 1 and 2, above); and (4) a comparison of young voters’ specific trust of different information media options, when it comes to deciding who to vote for in the 2008 U.S. presidential election. Finally, our research introduces a new measure (the Influence of Social Networking Scale), which possesses good psychometric properties. The measure was designed to indicate whether respondents feel that other participants communicating on social networks would provide them with useful and trustworthy information about political candidates. This is a trust scale with respect to voters’ political-related social networking.