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Public opinion data from the last two decades document a crisis of confidence in America. Citizens are expressing lower levels of trust in government and in others. To what extent are variations in political and social trust a function of media use? Using data from the 1996 American National Election Study, we find that media use affects only social trust. Reading newspapers and watching television entertainment content enhanced social trust, while watching television news undermined trust in others. We discuss the implications of these findings for the healthy functioning of democratic systems.

The article explores the influence of the electoral polls on media coverage of political actors during election campaigns. Based on the presumptions of the structural media bias theory we investigate whether the polls can affect the way media report on particular political actors in the course of an electoral campaign. According to Zaller's media politics theory journalists are supposed to pay most attention to the candidate or political party leading in the polls. Also, the tone of media coverage of the leading candidate should be linked with his/her success in the race. This article adjusts the hypotheses of media politics to the condition of proportional party representation. The aim is to explore how media coverage of the non-parliamentary party Veci verejne related to its position in the polls and its anticipated importance for future development after the election. Adapted from the source document.

In Media Bias in Presidential Election Coverage 1948-2008, Dave D'Alessio employs meta-analytic techniques to examine whether there are partisan biases in coverage of Presidential election campaigns in newspapers, on TV, and in the news magazines. This study further analyses the four essential natures of news media: as journalistic entities, property, businesses, and political actors. Aggregating the results of 99 previous studies, D'Alessio scrutinizes bias claims in news media, and why political candidates consistently

Here, we explore how individuals develop trust in institutions as sources of information for the issue of nanotechnology. The United States and the European Union have invested $14 billion and $6 billion, respectively, within the past 10 years in nanotechnology-related research and development (Cordis Europa, 2010; National Nanotechnology Initiative, 2010). More than 1,000 products in cosmetics, sport equipment, and computer technologies (among other applications) containing some nano-related components have already been commercialized. Nanotechnology is also representative of increasingly complex emerging technologies with potentially controversial applications since their levels of toxicity have yet to be clearly established. At the same time, lay publics are not familiar with nanotechnology (Cobb, & Macoubrie, 2004; Scheufele, Corley, Shih, Dalrymple, & Ho, 2009; Scheufele & Lewenstein, 2005). Therefore, the social dynamics surrounding trust in institutions, such as governmental agencies and scientists, who are the most likely to provide formal information on nanotechnology will be of critical importance as global markets emerge for nanotechnology. Adapted from the source document.

Introduction : an urgent situation -- On the relevance and necessity of socialist feminism -- Fascism and right-wing populism : similarities, differences, and new organizational forms -- Who is the real working class? : moving beyond the construction of the white male industrial worker as a marker of authenticity -- Bernie breakdown : challenges facing the left in the wake of the Sanders' campaign -- Well, actually : cyber sexism and racism within online settings and the enabling discourse of E-libertarianism -- Abortion through the lens of fetal personhood : social meanings and functions -- In defense of science, the press and expertise for the public good -- Conclusion : enough is enough.

Despite the importance of mass media to deliberative democratic processes, few scholars have focused on how market forces, occupational norms, and competition among outlets affect the quality of media discourse in mainstream and political outlets. Here, I argue that field theory, as outlined by new institutionalism and Pierre Bourdieu, provides a useful theoretical framework for assessing the quality of media discourse in different kinds of media outlets. The value of field theory is that it simultaneously highlights the importance of homogeneity and heterogeneity within a field of action, which provides a framework for discussing the roles different kinds of outlets play in deliberate democratic processes and evaluating the quality of discourse in mainstream and political venues. I illustrate the utility of this conceptualization through an analysis of 1,424 stories on abortion in nine U.S. media outlets and interviews with journalists, editors, and producers in these venues. I find that political media outlets provide higher-quality discourse than that of mainstream venues. Additionally, I find that while market pressures may heighten a focus on conflict in the abortion debate, this emphasis is exacerbated by mainstream journalists themselves, who assume that the general public is familiar with, and has taken a firm position on, abortion. I conclude by discussing the implications of these findings for deliberative democratic processes.

It is widely claimed that new technology offers great potential for expanding the horizons of political communication and overcoming some of the problems associated with traditional media in furthering the democratic process. New forms of communication, it is argued, will foster greater interest and participation in the political process which will in turn enhance and enrich democracy. However, although the inadequacies of traditional media pose serious problems for political discourse and democracy, the empirical and conceptual difficulties surrounding new media make their contribution to the political process equally problematic. While new media may offer some opportunities for elite groups at the margins, traditional mass media will continue to dominate the discourse and conduct of politics.

Paper provides the analysis of state-owned and private media companies during parliamentary pre-election race in Georgia in 2020. An attempt to measure the influence of variously interpreted information by different media and how this process, precisely, affects elections was made in this work. It should be noted, the closer the elections are, the more aggressive and radical Georgian media-companies become in their relation to each other and to their audience on a whole.Political polarisation, as consequence of the fierce clash over political power, results in politization of all the social processes, and strongly affects information environment in Georgia. Despite following the democratic blueprint of state formation and announced course for the democratization of political processes, Georgian reality remains far distant from the set goals. Significant role in destabilization of the situation belongs to mass media, whose political activity prevents us from speaking about healthy political environment, nevertheless about flexible state-model in Georgia. ; В статье анализируется роль государственных и частных телекомпаний в ходе предвыборной гонки в парламент Грузии в 2020 году. В данной работе определена степень влияния информации, интерпретируемой различными СМИ, на формирование политической ситуации в стране и на предвыборный процесс. Отмечается, что чем ближе избирательный процесс, тем агрессивнее и радикальнее становится грузинская медийная среда, а отдельные средства массовой информации становятся более агрессивными как по отношению друг к другу, так и по отношению к обществу в целом. Политическая поляризация, как следствие ожесточённой борьбы за власть, выражается в политизации всех общественных процессов в республике, в том числе, оказывает сильное влияние на информационное пространство в Грузии. Несмотря на следование демократической модели развития государства и заявленного курса на демократизацию политических процессов, грузинская реальность далека от поставленных целей. Значительную роль в ...

Primarily, mass media, together with online dailies, which became popular due to its activity changes, makes an increasing impact on thinking, beliefs and conduct of the society. By emphasizing aspects of various actual social issues of the society in news agendas, such as emigration, and framing them in a discourse, mass media influences an attitude of the society toward the issue of emigration; it forms an assessment of the country of origin and induces to make decisions whether to stay or leave a country. The article presents the results of a pilot research of emigration discourse framing in Lithuanian online dailies delfi.lt and 15min.lt. Precisely, the research aims at examining an emigration discourse constructed in Lithuanian online dailies and identifying the role of mass media in representing an issue of emigration. The research is carried out by combining the methods of a quantitative content analysis and a critical discourse analysis under the discourse research methodology of N. Fairclough.Furthermore, the research has revealed that the role of mass media in representing emigration can be assessed as a formation of tendencies and regularities that motivate to depart from Lithuania. The pursuit of mass media to form tendencies is revealed by a demand to enlighten an issue of emigration in a field of political realities and international events, which are particularly significant to Lithuania, to provide a topic of emigration in the most readable news sections of online dailies, not describing it in detail, but relating it to the most favorable public realities, namely, the welfare of the people and the financial situation of the country. The issue of emigration presented in mass media is constructed by a negative one-sided discourse, which forms positive frames of emigration. Moreover, it has been ascertained that a negative valuation of Lithuania as the country of origin is predominant in online dailies. There are very distinct tendencies to propagate an economic migration, whereas a positive evaluation of the country is very abstract and it does not reveal any specific peculiarities of Lithuania, which would be a reason to stay in this country. Finally, the emigration discourse in online dailies can by characterized by an emotional, biased rhetoric, which further intensifies an expression of tendencies formed by mass media.