Exploratory Research On The Relationship Between New Media Use And Political Trust Of College Students

With the rapid development of society and economy,various social contradictions keep emerging as well,among which the issue of political trust has received the greatest concern.As a means to link the government and the public,the importance and influence of new media should not be ignored.Therefore,this thesis will discuss whether different new media-using habits of college students(the sub-population of adolescent population)can influence their political trust and what the influence can be through an empirical study,with the aim to provide the government with effective communication strategies and enhance people's political trust.The study reveals that traditional media nowadays exerts less influence on the political trust of college students while new media have negative effect on their political trust,which indicates that a higher rate of new media use will result in a lower political trust level.To be specific,the more frequently one reads political news on the website,the stronger his sense of political trust will be.However,if one often takes part in political activities online,his political trust will decrease.There is obvious relevance between one's behavior to acquire knowledge and their political trust when they use the new media for non-political purpose,that is to say,the more frequently college students discuss political issues online,the higher level of political trust they will get.Undoubtedly,new media has great importance on students political trust.Therefore,the government should firstly,pay high attention to the public's habits of new media use and the active guide force of online political communication.In addition,the government should innovate the way of content expression and establish a more equal and effective communication mechanism.Secondly,the current political media still regards college students as an indifferent group towards politics and fails to guide and guarantee their political participation.Therefore,the enhancement of the grass-root political participation of college students is of great significance.