A Virtuous Circle for All? Media Exposure and Political Trust in Europe

Abstract

The low levels of electoral turnout during the last European elections have raised a debate around the increasing disengagement that citizens have been showing towards the political process in general. Explanations from political communication suggest some contrasting arguments around this issue that has been configured as a constant in the academic debate: the relationship between the mass media and the political commitment. On one hand, we find authors that accuse the media and especially the negative presentation of politics of causing citizens’ disaffection. On the other hand, some recent analyses state that political information in the media —regardless of their tone— leads to an informed and engaged public. Taking the cited framework as the main reference, this article compares the connection between trust in parliamentary national institutions, as one of the dimensions of political disaffection, and the media in 21 European countries categorized in three groups: the Western and Northern countries, known as stable democracies with high levels of trust, the Southern countries, known as rather disaffected and the young democracies in Eastern Europe.