How media shape political trust: News coverage of immigration and its effects on trust in the European Union

Abstract

Attitudes towards immigration are among the core predictors of attitudes toward the European Union. However, even though most citizens learn about immigration through the media, we lack a comprehensive account of how media coverage of immigration influences support for the European Union. In this study, we use a combination of European Social Survey and Media Claims data to investigate the effects of the visibility and valence of immigration and refugee media coverage on political trust in the European Union in 18 countries between 2012 and 2016. Our results show that media coverage of immigration and refugees influences trust in the European Union; however, the effects depend on citizens' ideological leaning and content characteristics. Furthermore, we find that the impact of immigration attitudes on trust in the European Union becomes more important over the course of the refugee crisis.

News, Threats, and Trust: How COVID-19 News Shaped Political Trust, and How Threat Perceptions Conditioned This Relationship

“…The news media, as a channel through which citizens are exposed to information, can shape perspectives on the government, and consequently affect political trust. This effect has been found to operate through a variety of mechanisms: media consumption can elevate the salience of specific issues in the public's mind, making them, for example consider more strongly a declining economy when articulating a trust evaluation ( Hetherington and Rudolph 2008 ); tone and framing of news coverage can enhanced trust placed in politics ( Brosius et al 2019 ); and general exposure to news can increase familiarity with the political system and increase trust ( Norris et al 2000 ). This body of literature has produced mixed results, suggesting that the effect of media consumption on political trust is conditioned on media type.…”

Immigration within the European Union Increases Support for Eurosceptic Parties

“…Relatedly, Brosius et al (2019) conclude that trust in the EU is affected by the media coverage of immigration and refugees and that the link between immigration attitudes and trust in the EU becomes stronger as the salience of immigration increases in the course of the refugee crisis. The importance of media is also underscored by the study of Blinder and Jeannet (2018) who show that different depictions of migrants in the media can shift public perceptions of immigration in terms of its size and composition.…”

Exploring the effects of traditional media, social media, and foreign media on hierarchical levels of political trust in China

“…Some scholars even propose a third thesis, stating that the effect of media usage on political trust should depend on specific contexts including media types, media content, motivation of media usage, degree of media usage and levels of trust in media, and the like (Jiang & Zhang, 2021; Kang & Zhu, 2021; Meng & Li, 2021; Niu, 2010). When the specific contexts change, the relationship between media usage and political trust could also change (Brosius, van Elsas & de Vreese, 2019; Echeverria & Mani, 2020; Guggenheim, Kwak & Campbell, 2011; Kim, Chen & De Zúñiga, 2013; Otto & Maier, 2016; Von Sikorski & Herbst, 2020; Tsfati, Tukachinsky, & Peri, 2009). Based on this more versatile theory, we argue that how media use affects political trust should really depend on the specific context, and most importantly, whether the dominant political content on a specific governmental level in a specific type of media is mostly positive or negative.…”