互联网的政治性使用与我国公众的政治信任——一项经验性研究

Political Internet Use and Chinese Public's Political Trust:An Empirical Investigation

现代社会的媒体已成为公共领域信任关系的中介。公众对互联网的政治性使用可能对政治信任产生复杂、多元的影响。本文总结出媒体使用对政治信任的两种影响路径:直接的认知效果和社会资本的中介效果,并分析互联网作为公众政治认知、互动、表达和参与的媒介,对其政治信任水平的可能影响。对一项2010—2011年全国性公众调查数据的分析表明,作为传统媒体的报纸和电视与作为新媒体的互联网,具有不同的政治涵义。当控制住各种可能的影响因素后,在网上接触海外"另类媒介"越多、网上公共事务参与越频繁的公众,其政治信任水平越低;但网上政治信息获取、政治互动和表达与政治信任水平之间没有显著的联系。研究还发现,传统媒体在"涵化"公众政治信任方面的功效极其微弱,体现出新媒体互联网对传统媒体政治传播效果的"挤迫效应"。本研究的结果提请相关管理部门以互联网为平台展开有效的政府-公众沟通,以提升公众的政治信任水平。未来研究有必要采用随机样本,同时需要对政治信任概念的测量更加精细化。

As the new media Internet have gradually used by more and more individuals for political purpose in China,including political recognition,discussion,expression,and participation,the objective of this paper is to empirically explore the potential association between the public's political Internet usage and their political trust. All the data uesd in this paper were collected through a survey administrated to a conveniently selected sample,through 26th December 2010 to 16th January 2011. The sample consists of 826 Internet users. Internet users have a relatively low governmental trust level generally. Individuals who visit overseas alternative websites and participate in political activities online more frequently have lower political trust. However,we have not found significant association between respondents' online political information acquisition,discussion, expression and their political trust level. Data revealed that in the age of the Internet communication,Chinesetraditional media(e.g.,newspaper,television,broadcast,and magazine)have almost no effects on cultivation of public's positive political attitude. This study have two main limitations. The first is sampling method. A convenient sample isn't sufficient to discover the present situation of Chinese public's political attitude. The second involves the measurement of political trust. Future research requests elaboration of operationalization of this concept. The findings of this research caution the government paying more attention upon public's political trust,especially in the new media era. Since traditional media have almost null effects on fostering public's political trust,it is necessary for administrative department to develop effective ways online in government-public communication. In modern society,media have become an important variable influencing trust level in the public arena. Integrating two different explanation models of political trust- recognition effect of media usage and mediated effect of social capital,this study,for the first time,discovers complex and dynamic mechanism of the role of internet use in Chinese public's political trust perception.